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Ghana denounces Jonathan over Nigeria
News & Trends •
the other alleged remark that ghana is not nigeria where cattle can roam about anyhow has never been made by president akufo-addo. that is not his way of speaking1 ghanas high commissioner in nigeria mr. rashid bawa has denounced ex-president jonathan for misquoting president nana akuffo-addo over security situation in nigeria1 the high commissioner said nigerias ex-president misquoted ghanas presidents speech delivered by at the oxford african conference1 he recalled the exact words of president akufo-addo for most of you in the audience today it is probably before your time. but in the late 1970s up to the mid-1980s as a result of the discovery of considerable petroleum deposits nigeria was booming. it was the place to be1 we ghanaians who were going through very difficult times then would arrive at heathrow airport and be herded into a cage to be subjected to the full third degree by immigration and we would look on as our nigerian cousins would be waved through with a welcome sir and a welcome madam1 the newspaper headlines in this country were full of nigerians leaving or forgetting bundles of money in taxis and telephone booths. nigerians were the preferred tenants for those who had apartments to let. you could stop by any thomas cook shop on any high street in this country and buy or sell naira the nigerian currency and you could do the same in new york and i suspect in many other western country cities1 i do not need to spell out todays reality to anyone in this audience. i cite this just to make the point that the the outside world is well able to tell that there are separate sovereign nations on the african continent. but when the news is not good then africa is treated as one entity1 bawa disagreed also with jonathans reference to akufo-addos purported disposition towards cattle-rearing1 he said on friday that jonathan took the words of president akufo-addo completely out of context when he quoted the ghanaian leader of mocking nigeria1 president akufo-addo in many of the speeches he has made in nigeria and elsewhere since becoming the president of ghana has described nigeria as a country i describe as my second home in the world and will never use nigeria to make negative examples as the former president goodluck jonathan sought to portray1 president akufo-addo enjoys a very good relationship with president muhammadu buhari as he has with many other nigerian leaders1 ghana and nigeria are like siblings and it would be most inappropriate because of politics for anyone regardless of his or her status in society to try to sow seeds of discord amongst the leadership and peoples of our two countries1 jonathan had at the commissioning of a flyover in ado ekiti said that nigeria had deteriorated so much that it had lost its respect in africa1 jonathan in his speech at the inauguration on may 25 said a president of a neighbouring country ghana recently made two negative remarks about nigeria. first the current ghanaian president was addressing ghanaians about the movement of cattle within their shores and he said openly that ghana is not like nigeria where cattle roam freely. that was quite uncomplimentary1 according to jonathan the same president was speaking in the united kingdom when he made disparaging remarks about nigerias currency1 if it has got to a level when the presidents of neighbouring countries will cite nigeria as a negative example then we must know as leaders of this country that certain things are not going well and we must change the way we do things1 source with additional report from nan1