President John Dramani Mahama has moved to calm fears among Nigerian nationals residing in Ghana and their government, assuring a special envoy dispatched by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that there will be no mass deportations.
During a courtesy call from Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who is Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, President Mahama assured that Ghana has no intention of resorting to mass expulsions, emphasising the shared history and inter-dependence of the two countries.
He reaffirmed Ghana’s commitment to ECOWAS protocols, dismissing any anxieties in Nigeria over any potential mass deportation of its citizens from Ghana following the emergence of a viral video.
Minister Odumegwu-Ojukwu conveyed the “anxieties” of the Nigerian people and government, citing the viral video, widespread apprehension of mass deportations, and fears of shops belonging to Nigerian traders being burned.
The concerns, she noted, have led to emergency sessions in Nigeria’s National Assembly and traditional rulers instructing relatives in Ghana to return home.
President Mahama acknowledged the historical relations between Ghana and Nigeria, describing them as “siblings of the same parents, and so our destinies are joined together.”
He invoked past unfortunate incidents of mass deportations in both countries—Ghana in the 1960s and Nigeria in the 1980s—, stating, “I think that that is a part of our past, and it’s an unfortunate past that we want to put behind us, and I believe that none of our two countries should mass deport our citizens ever again.”
“We are members of the ECOWAS, and we have the ECOWAS protocol that allows our citizens to travel freely between our countries.”
He also clarified that, although there have been isolated incidents and some individuals involved in criminal activity, such cases are addressed through proper legal procedures, not through collective punishment or mass expulsion. He stated that foreign residents in Ghana who engage in criminal activities shall be held individually liable and sanctioned.
President Mahama traced the recent tensions to the resurfacing of a 2013 video featuring an “Igbo king” discussing land acquisition for a kingdom, which was widely misinterpreted as a recent development.
He dismissed this as “a bit of a storm in a teacup,” assuring the Nigerian delegation that Ghanaian law governs the establishment of traditional councils, making such external claims impossible.
Minister Odumegwu-Ojukwu commended President Mahama for de-escalating a potentially volatile situation, noting that the initial fears of widespread unrest upon their arrival in Accra proved unfounded.
