Ghanaian President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has broken silence over the recently trended near xenophobic attacks on some nationals including Nigerians, saying “There is no xenophobia in Ghana, we are not a xenophobic State. We are the pan-African nation that has opened its doors to all Africans, and they are not going to be the object of any hate campaign in Ghana.”
Speaking at a short ceremony to honour outgoing Ambassador of Cote d’Ivoire to Ghana, Bernard Ehui-Koutua, President Akufo-Addo argued that “What we do insist on, which is what every nation insists on, is that our own domestic laws are respected by those who come into our country, and, in so saying, we are no different from other people”.
Though he did not make any particular reference during the speech, he advised Ehui-Koutua to convey to President Allassane Outtara that “the impression being created abroad, that Ghanaians had gone xenophobic was far from the truth”.
President Akufo-Addo recalled that “one of the most important, diplomatic, strategic and political relations that Ghana could have with any country, was with the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire, because the two countries shared ties of common blood, common history, common ethnicity and common geography”.
Though he his address went specifically to Cote d’Ivoire, Business Hilights Ghana Bureau chief recalls that there were incidences of diplomatic row between Nigeria and Ghana which many analysts translated to xenophobic issue.
