We are nation builders; we don’t come to destroy – Nigeria to Ghana

Spokesperson for the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation, Ogbonna Kacey has expressed disappointment over treatment been meted out to Nigerians resident in Ghana; treatment he terms as unfair and unjust.

According to him, Nigerians are nation builders and not destroyers. They are people who do not discriminate and make countries their home.

“If you have watched Nigerians wherever they go they take it as home. That is why you see Nigerians building houses here as if this place is their country. We don’t live in discrimination. We come and we put in all that we have. We put in our strength everything. We are nation builders, we don’t come to destroy.”

Mr Ogbonna indicated that the attack which occurred at Suame Magazine was an act of discrimination as most of the Nigerians who own shops at those areas have mostly been living in Ghana for about 20 to 30 years and are even married with children.

“If you go to that market the shops that have been locked up or the people who have been attacked, you will find out that some of them have been there for 20 years, most of them. You will also find out that majority of them are married to Ghanaian women and they have given birth to Ghanaian children. So of their children are over twenty years old… and because his father is a Nigeria you throw him out?”

“There is also ECOWAS law is also there that says members of ECOWAS are free to move here and out in member countries and live. If the law says come and live here, would the law say come and live here and starve?” he quizzed.

Kacey Ogbonna who was speaking at Citi TV’s ‘The Point of View’ with Benard Avle, however questioned the criminality and kidnapping tag on Nigerians saying “If those people are criminals as suggested, you think they will sit down and watch people close down their shops, attack them and they will not attack back?”

Reports indicate that some Nigerian-owned shops at Suame in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Region, were ransacked by raucous Ghanaian youths Wednesday, 19 June 2019.

The vandalisation of the shops was to register their displeasure against a decision to reopen the closed Nigerian retail shops, which led to a near-clash between the Nigerians and the Ghanaians.

The raging youth, who wore red bands and attires, also lit car tyres as part of their protest.

The Ghanaians also expressed anger about the kidnapping menace in the country which involves Nigerian suspects.