Former President of Ghana, John Mahama has appealed to Federal Government to re-open its borders to boost economic activities in West Africa.
“Back home in Ghana, I also look forward to our government’s intervention that brings an immediate cessation to the forceful and illegal closure of shops of foreigners, especially Nigerians, by members of the local trade associations,” he said.
Mahama made the plea while delivering the seventh anniversary lecture and investiture into The Realnews Hall of Fame and the unveiling of the book: “Pathways to Political and Economic Development of Africa” in Lagos, yesterday.
He said the total closure of the Nigerian borders was having a significant toll on many small and medium scale businesses, especially in Togo, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire that relied on 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 will like to take this opportunity to appeal to Nigeria to open up her border so that economic activities can resume.”
Mahama said as former chairman of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), and Authority of Heads of State and Government, he had an abiding interest in the progress of ECOWAS and its people. He noted that it was not by accident that Nigeria was home to the headquarters of the ECOWAS and the largest economy in the sub-region.
“ECOWAS was set up to foster the ideal of collective self-sufficiency for its member states. As a trading union, it is also meant to create a single, large trading bloc through economic cooperation. Integrated economic activities as envisaged in the area revolve around but are not limited to industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial issues, social as well as cultural matters,” he said.
The ex-president expressed optimism that as an economic and regional bloc, a lot of economic opportunities were available to ECOWAS and they must take advantage of them. He noted that the uptake of science and technology in all sectors of our economies would allow Africa to leapfrog its development. He added that Africa needed not go through all the stages of industrialisation that the developed countries went through.
In his own speech at the event, former governor of Anambra State and vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Peter Obi, condemned electoral violence.
“Killings in our polling stations are not the way forward for us. We’ll not make progress this way, rather it will degrade us. After giving a thug gun during election and you win, how can you retrieve the gun from him? You have only ended up training a terrorist,” he said.
Obi noted that education was vital to the development of any country.
