Pursuing And Rooting Out Bad Nigerians Will Never Destroy The Deep Bond Of Friendship

The friendship between the Republic of Ghana and the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a deep one. We are bound together by a historical intermingling of our two peoples that goes back centuries. Our two peoples have traded amongst themselves for centuries. And, love-struck Ghanaians and Nigerians have contracted marriages, from time to time, throughout that period.

The idea that rooting out criminal elements, in the over two-million strong Nigerian community in Ghana, will somehow destroy the very special relationship between the two English-speaking West African sister nations is laughable. Every government of the day, administering the Federal Republic of Nigeria, will always support the apprehension, prosecution and jailing of Nigerian criminals, wherever in the world that occurs. For sure.

The reason is simple: Such lawless characters give the overwhelming majority of honest and law-abiding Nigerians in the Diaspora, a bad reputation that is totally undeserved. The vast majority of Nigerians in the Diaspora are honest, law-abiding residents of the nations they reside in, and contribute positively to those host societies that have welcomed them to stay, and live in, permanently.

We must make life in Ghana, for every criminal in the Nigerian community here, akin to a hell-on-earth-existence - until the long arm of the Ghanaian law finally catches up with them. At that stage, as suspects, they must be investigated and prosecuted, if need be, and deported back to Nigeria after serving their sentences, for engaging in unlawful activities in Ghana. Full stop.

Every Nigerian adult who is legally resident here, must have official permission to live in Ghana. And he or she ought to be in the databases of the: National Identification Authority of Ghana; the Ghana Immigration Service; the Ghana Revenue Authority; and the Ghana Police Service. If they are found to be living here without official permission, they must be arrested, and swiftly deported back to Nigeria.

For the sake of Mother Ghana, and to promote the welfare of the ordinary people of our welcoming and relatively peaceful country, the more responsible sections of the Ghanaian media, must agree not to give the oxygen of publicity to the ill-intentioned Professor Austin Nwagbara, and his ilk, who, in PR terms, have declared a global war against Ghana - a war whose main objective is to trash our nation's worldwide reputation as a haven of peace and stability, in a volatile sub-region of Africa, plagued by marauding Jihadist terrorist groups.

Finally, it is said that the price of freedom, is eternal vigilance. We must all be more vigilant as we go about our daily activities. And, above all, let us all remember that our friendship with Nigeria is based on binding ties that go back centuries. Pursuing and rooting out Nigerians engaged in unlawful activities in Ghana is a must - and it will never destroy the deep bond of friendship between Ghana And Nigeria.