No less than 753 Nigerian traders have expressed strong interest to return back home from Ghana over xenophobic attacks by their host.
The traders, some of whom have spent more than 25 years in the West African nation, have faced the closure of theirs shops for no apparent reason, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chief Executive Officer of Nigerians In Diaspora Commission, said on Monday in a Channels TV interview monitored by Freelanews.
DabirI-Erewa said so far three ministries have been drafted to try and resolve the conflict — they are, Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, and Trade and Investment.
She said, “The delegation is in Nigeria to tell the government that they want to return, and 753 actually signed the document that says they want to return to Nigeria.
“So with this request from them, what is going on now is that the three ministers involved will have some engagement with them to see what actually should be the next thing.
“Now you’ve said you want to come to your country, so there should be no problem about that. They are Nigerians and we are proud of them and glad to return them home.
“But they must return to something meaningful. Like one of them said to me when they came to NIDCOM office, a lot of them have been there for over 25 years; so just uprooting yourself for not committing any crime – the only crime they’ve committed is that they are very good at their trade, at their jobs.”
She added that because of the upcoming elections in the country, the Ghanaian President would not want to side against his people, who are demanding the shutting down of Nigerian businesses.
“Let’s face it, the President of Ghana will not want to go against his own citizens. And the majority of the Ghanaian traders have said ‘we don’t want them’. So after the elections, maybe they will now open. But they will close again. So they can’t be pawns in a game of chess in Ghana,” she said.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
