Ghana replies Goodluck Jonathan over alleged anti-Nigeria comment by President Akufo-Addo

- Ambassador Rashid Bawa, Ghana’s high commissioner to Nigeria, has reacted to a statement allegedly made by the former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan

- Jonathan was said to have said Ghana’s president Akufo-Addo mocked Nigeria in a recent speech

- Bawa said president Akufo-Addo will never use the West African country to make negative examples

Ghana’s high commissioner to Nigeria, Ambassador Rashid Bawa, replied the former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan over his alleged claim that Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo mocked Nigeria in a recent speech.

According to a statement by ambassador Bawa, Akufo-Addo has always referred to Nigeria as “a country I describe as my second home in the world,” and will never use the West African country to make negative examples.

The statement read: "It is important to stress that the comments made by the former Nigerian President, at the inauguration of the first bridge built by governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state in Ado Ekiti, took the words of President Akufo-Addo completely out of context.

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"Indeed, in the speech delivered by President Akufo-Addo at the Oxford African Conference, one of the instances used by former president Goodluck Jonathan, these are the exact words of President Akufo-Addo:

"For most of you in the audience today, it is probably before your time, but in the late 1970s up to the mid-1980s, as a result of the discovery of considerable petroleum deposits, Nigeria was booming. It was the place to be.

"We Ghanaians, who were going through very difficult times then, would arrive at Heathrow airport, and be herded into a cage to be subjected to the full third degree by Immigration, and we would look on as our Nigerian cousins would be waved through, with a ‘welcome sir’ and a ‘welcome madam’.

"The newspaper headlines in this country were full of Nigerians leaving or forgetting bundles of money in taxis and telephone booths. Nigerians were the preferred tenants for those who had apartments to let.

"You could stop by any Thomas Cook shop on any High Street in this country and buy or sell Naira, the Nigerian currency, and you could do the same in New York, and I suspect in many other Western country cities.

"I do not need to spell out today’s reality to anyone in this audience. I cite this just to make the point that the “the outside world” is well able to tell that there are separate sovereign nations on the African continent. But, when the news is not good, then Africa is treated as one entity.'

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"How, then, can anyone describe these words by President Akufo-Addo as intending to mock Nigeria?

"Again, the other alleged remark that “Ghana is not Nigeria where cattle can roam about anyhow' has never been made by President Akufo-Addo. That is not his way of speaking.

"President Akufo-Addo, in many of the speeches he has made in Nigeria and elsewhere, since becoming President of Ghana, has described Nigeria as "a country I describe as my second home in the world", and will never use Nigeria to make negative examples, as the former President Goodluck Jonathan sought to portray.

"President Akufo-Addo enjoys a very good relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari, as he has with many other Nigerian leaders. Ghana and Nigeria are like siblings, and it would be most inappropriate, because of politics, for anyone, regardless of his or her status in society, to try to sow seeds of discord amongst the leadership and peoples of our two countries."

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that Jonathan in a post on his Facebook account warned Nigerians of an impending accusation against him by people he claimed are out to ruin his reputation.

The former president, who is set to jet out of the country to Sierra Leone, made this post after an allegation in the news that a billionaire supporter of his hired Cambridge Analytica to hack into President Buhari's health and financial records ahead of 2015 election.

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Source: Legit.ng