President Nana Akufo-Addo with Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari
Nigeria’s
President Muhammadu Buhari has showered plaudits on Ghana—a country he said “is the first, true African
democracy.”
The
Nigerian strongman’s social media tweet, coming against the backdrop of the recent
statement from the Information Minister about the arrest of persons suspected
to be planning a coup, could be a subtle show of solidarity with his Ghanaian
counterpart and the people of this country.
Ghanaians
can count on the unflinching support and friendship of Nigeria—the retired General and now President assured
his Ghanaian counterpart.
“We
in Nigeria hold out—as always—our hands in
support and friendship to our brothers and sisters in Ghana,” he said.
The
Nigerian President flaunted Ghana’s pedigree in the tweet when he stated how
the country is held in the highest esteem especially pointing at its record of
being the first post-colonial country in Africa to gain independence, and as he
posted “the first African country to hold multi-party elections by universal
suffrage. Ghana is the first, true African democracy.”
The
carefully crafted tweet touched on the roles of the two countries in the cause
of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), not forgetting the
partnership they have forged since the establishment of the bloc.
President
Buhari did not forget to refer to the progress the two countries have chalked
up in the fight against corruption, socio-economic canker afflicting both of
them. The progress, he said, is attested to by the recent Transparency
International and Afro Barometer’s Africa Index “which have recorded
exceptional advances in fighting corruption.”
Still
on corruption, President Buhari explained how fighting it is fraught with
challenges because, as he observed, such duels are against powerful and corrupt
vested interests. Such interests, he noted, would sometimes seek to “push back”
because of the success in the fight against them. He embellished his point with
the saying that “if you fight corruption, corruption will fight back.”
Ghana
and Nigeria, as President Buhari noted in his tweet, are leading pillars in
ECOWAS where their roles have been phenomenal as evidenced in the deployment of
troops to Liberia during that country’s civil war.
The
volume of trade between them—formal and informal— is also heavy.
Although
there have been occasional misunderstandings between the two countries, these
have mostly been outside diplomacy.
The long-standing bond of
friendship between them has resulted in one of the widely spoken languages in
Nigeria—Hausa—gaining a
foothold in Ghana, where today it is a recognized local tongue coming next
after English and Akan.
President Buhari was schooled with Hausa like the late Alhaji Ibrahim Coomasie—a former IGP of Nigeria whose ancestors migrated to the then Gold Coast and had already been finely assimilated through intermarriages.
By A.R. Gomda
