Sylvester Idowu in Warri
Managing Director of DAS Energy Services Limited, Effurun, Delta State, Chief Sunny Onuesoke has described as unfair, the recent clampdown on Nigerian businesses in Ghana by the country’s authorities.
He therefore appealed to the federal government to intervene to lessen the sufferings being encountered by Nigeria businessmen in that country.
Businesses belonging to Nigerian traders in Accra, Ghana were recently locked by the country’s authorities who demanded cash payment of $1 million before the businesses would be opened.
Onuesoke, who described the actions of the Ghanaian government as negating the spirit of African brotherhood, and in breach of ECOWAS protocols freely signed by member countries, stressed that the action is creating unfavourable business environment for Nigerian businesses in Ghana.
He argued that it was unfair and unjust to close up shops and offices of businesses that were legally registered and of which their owners were law-abiding residents.
Reacting to the $1 million business registration fees and taxes allegedly levied on such Nigerian businesses by the Ghana Investment Promotion Council, Onuesoke described the policy as shocking and outrageous noting that foreign businesses were being subjected to such terrible conditions without minding the huge losses incurred by the businesses due to the global pandemic.
Onuesoke disclosed that the ordeal of Nigeria traders in Ghana was a deliberate escalation by the Ghanaian government of the long-existing animus against Nigerian businesses that commenced after the senseless humiliation of Ghanaian citizens in Nigeria in 1983.
The PDP Chieftain who maintained that suppressing Nigerian businesses in Ghana at this critical time should not be seen as a right step, called on the Federal Government to urgently wade into the matter and save Nigerians in Ghana, whose means of livelihood were obviously being threatened by the recent actions of the Ghanaian authorities.
Onuesoke advised Nigeria government to educate its citizen to be law abiding when they travel to other countries adding “Ghana or any other foreign land is not Nigeria. so they should learn to obey laws and orders. You cannot behave in another man’s land just the way you behave in your land,” he advised.
