The former President of Ghana, Dr. John Dramani Mahama has
come hard on the Nigerian government, calling on the immediate reopening
of the the borders, which were closed a few months ago.
Mahama
made the call while speaking as the guest speaker at the 7th Anniversary
Lecture of Realnews magazine held at the Sheraton Hotel in Lagos,
Nigeria.
He said: “In Nigeria, the unilateral closure of the
borders since August is a worrying development for the growth of free
trade in the ECOWAS sub-region. Off course, one can understand the
harmful effects of unbridled smuggling goods on the growth of local
production. But it is problematic that sub-regional economic activity
and trade should suffer because of domestic institutional weaknesses.
“Nigeria
must invest in strengthening its institutions and systems that are
responsible for preventing the importation of illegal or prohibited
goods
“The total closure of, especially, the Benin border is
having a significant toll on many small and medium businesses especially
in Togo, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire that rely on this inter-country trade.
I am sure that businesses in Nigeria that rely on supplies from these
countries are also suffering.
“With the signing of the joint
border task force agreement between Nigeria and her neighbours, I would
like to take this opportunity to appeal to Nigeria to open up her border
so that economic activities can resume.
“As the largest economy
in West Africa, I believe it is not by accident that Nigeria is home to
the headquarters of the Economic Community of West Africa States. The
import of the following quote from the objective principles for
establishment of ECOWAS cannot be lost on us.”
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