Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah
The Member of Parliament for Takoradi, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, has stressed the need for Ghana and Nigeria to unite to create a stronger economy through shared trade and culture.
He said Ghana and Nigeria are not two elephants competing for the same forest. “We are two hands of the same body, called upon to carry Africa’s elephant of destiny together,” he said.
He noted that the borders that separate Accra from Lagos were not drawn by ancestors but were drawn in European capitals by men who had never set foot on African soil.
“They used a ruler and a pen to slice through kinship networks, trade routes, and shared kingdoms that had existed for centuries before their ships ever appeared on our shores,” he said.
He noted that the Yoruba trader in Badagry in Nigeria and the Ga fisherman in Jamestown in Ghana did not choose to become citizens of different countries.
“They was chosen for them in Berlin, in Germany in 1884 and in the decades of scramble that followed. This is why I insist, that the unity we speak of today is not a favour we are doing one another. It is a restoration,” he said.
The Takoradi MP was speaking on behalf of the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, at the 11th Ghana-Nigeria Leadership Summit and Achievers Award held in Lagos, Nigeria, on Saturday.
It was organised by the Rebrand Nigerians in Ghana Organization (RNIGO) on the theme, “Uniting for Africa’s Development: Celebrating the Impact of Outstanding Personalities Across the Borders of Ghana and Nigeria.”
He noted that the African continent is blessed with the youngest population and the richest mineral endowment on earth.
“But colonialism tried to make Africa forget: that before the maps, before the flags, before the passports and the visa queues, we were one family,” he said.
He noted that Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President and one of the founding fathers of the African Union, once declared: “Africa must unite or perish.”
“Those words were not poetry. They were prophecy. Every crisis that has visited our continent since independence, from conflict to economic marginalisation on the world stage, has confirmed the wisdom of that warning,” he said.
“Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, first President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and a tireless Pan-Africanist, reminded us that the political kingdom is not an end in itself, but a means to the end of the emancipation of the African,” he added.
The MP said independence was never the finish line but was the starting gun for a longer race towards a united, self-reliant, dignified Africa.
He called on entrepreneurs, innovators and culture-bearers of the two countries to trade more with one another, to travel more freely across their borders, and to invest in one another’s young people, adding “We are fully capable of building ourselves.”
He also urged the two governments and parliaments to treat the summit not as a ceremony to be attended and forgotten, but as a covenant to be kept to trade more.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi
