By Ishaya Ibrahim
Former Ghana President, John Dramani Mahama has knocked the Nigerian government for shutting down its land borders as a counter-measure against smuggling.
Mahama spoke in Lagos at the 7th Anniversary lecture of Realnews, an online magazine.
He was the guest speaker at the event which was chaired by the vice president of the Islamic Development Bank who also was Nigeria’s former finance minister, Mansur Muhtar.
He said Nigeria’s unilateral closure of its land borders since August is a worrisome development for the growth of free trade in the ECOWAS sub-region.
“Of course, one can understand the harmful effects of unbridled smuggling of goods on the growth of local production. But it is problematic that sub-regional economic activity and trade should suffer because of domestic institutional weaknesses. Nigeria must invest in strengthening its institutions and systems that are responsible for preventing the importation of illegal or prohibited goods,” he said.
He said the total closure, especially the Benin border is having a significant toll on many small and medium businesses in Togo, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire that rely on that route for inter-country trade.
He said: “I am sure that businesses in Nigeria that rely on supplies from these countries are also suffering.
“With the signing of the joint border task force agreement between Nigeria and her neighbours, I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to Nigeria to open up her border so that economic activities can resume.
“As the largest economy in West Africa, I believe it is not by accident that Nigeria is home to the headquarters of the Economic Community of West Africa States. The import of the following quote from the objective principles for the establishment of ECOWAS cannot be lost on us. ‘ECOWAS was set up to foster the ideal of collective self-sufficiency for its member states. As a trading union, it is also meant to create a single, large trading bloc through economic cooperation.’”
Mahama, who spoke on the theme Beyond Politics: An Economic Narrative for West Africa, noted that trade between African countries was poor compared to other regions of the world and that such actions taken by the Nigerian government could only make intra regional trade worse.
“Trade between African countries, reports say, stands at about 11 per cent. Comparable statistics with other regions are:- the Americas at 47 per cent, Asia 61 per cent, Europe 67 per cent and Oceania 7 per cent.
“Intra African trade will staunch the current outflows that leave the continent yearly and result in re-circulation of wealth within the Continent,” he said.
Mahama also said the attacks and expulsion of foreigners from South Africa was also a setback to intra African trade.
“Africa stood in solidarity with South Africa in the struggle against apartheid. It is a slap in the face to see the lynching of fellow Africans as a result of the recent waves of xenophobia in that country.
“Of course, one does not advocate that foreigners engaged in criminal activity must be entertained in any country. Such persons must be arrested, prosecuted and deported by the security enforcement agencies. But where the presence of such persons is legal and are based on positive investment in the economy, they must not be persecuted and killed on any basis.
“South Africa must take aggressive steps to improve the circumstances of its excluded black population to remove the negative emotions that prompt such unfortunate xenophobic attacks,” he said.
In his remark, chairman of the event, Dr Muhtar said Nigeria must look beyond oil because the resource has not helped the country even though it is a big player in the global oil industry.
He said the Nigerian people are the country’s greatest asset, especially its young population. He asked the government to work hard to exploit the demographic advantage.
Former governor of Anambra State who was the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) vice presidential candidate in the 2019 election, Peter Obi, said oil has never saved any country and will not save Nigeria.
“It hasn’t saved Venezuela that has 10 times more oil than Nigeria. The world is moving away from oil. We need to invest in the future.
“In 2010, we have the same literacy rate with Ghana. Ghana is now 76 per cent. We are at 61 per cent,” he lamented.
Obi said leadership is at the core of national development.
“You cannot compete in Formula One with untrained drivers. You are giving people guns to win the election. When will you retrieve those guns? ” he queried.
