The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Tuesday got President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval to embark on “legislative diplomacy” to Ghana to try to resolve the crisis between Nigeria and the West African neighbour.
The Speaker was at the presidential villa, Abuja on Tuesday to apprise the president of the trip, which he will undertake on Wednesday.
Gbajabiamila had last week said the closure of Nigerian shops in Ghana contravened Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) trade protocols and had called for a decisive solution between both countries.
Speaking to State House correspondents after meeting with the president, Gbajabiamila explained: “Like we always say when issues come up, I see Mr President and find out and run things by him and we discuss issues.
“One of the issues we discussed today, I’m leaving for Ghana tomorrow (Wednesday) to meet with the Speaker of the parliament in Ghana to look at the issues on the ground, as it affects our citizens, and to try and calm things down and see if there’s a way forward.
“I’ll meet with the Speaker tomorrow. I informed the President and he’s aware of every single step that we are taking, all the way and we hope that we’ll come to an amicable settlement one way or the other.
“It’s called Legislative Diplomacy. If you remember very well, during the days when I was Leader of the House, I led the delegation to South Africa during the crisis there with Nigerians and we were able to accomplish quite a bit, to simmer things down at that time.”
The Speaker disclosed that he would be making demands on his Ghanaian counterpart but would simply discuss, “No demands, we just going to discuss in the spirit of African Parliaments and we’ll be looking at issues from time to time as they affect African countries and this is one of them.”
He added: “I don’t want to make any statement at this time so that we don’t exacerbate matters. Like I said, we are looking for amicable solutions. The Ghanaians have their take on what’s going on, we have our own take. We’ll see how we can marry the two takes and come to a solution.
“We are two strong West African countries and there must be symbiosis, we must work together. You don’t get anything from working at cross purposes or knocking heads together. We must, at all times, as Africans, work as best as possible together and that’s what this my trip is about.”
The Speaker remarked that President Buhari was happy with the trip, saying: “I believe all avenues must be explored, he believes it, he’s a man of peace who believes every avenue for peace must be exploited, must be explored. Yeah, we are all on the same page.”
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