POLITICIANS MOVE INVESTMENTS TO GHANA

Political leaders may have extended their areas of influence to cover the presidency of Ghana as checks revealed a growing economic links between key Nigerian leaders and top members of the Ghanaian ruling party.

While previous reports had hinted at alleged interference of leading Nigerians in Ghana’s political life, the massive attendance of key Nigerian leaders at the recent inauguration of President John Mahama is believed to be a confirmation of a new Nigerian presence in Ghana’s political life.

Records showed that governors, ministers, leading businessmen, top opposition figures from Nigeria struggled to outshine one another at the inauguration with unconfirmed reports hinting that the last Ghanaian election received considerable funding from Nigerians.

Although foreign funding is said to be illegal in Ghanaian election, top Nigerian leaders are said to have found their ways around the law in their alleged desperation to protect their investments in Accra and other cities in that country.

It was learnt that for the past few years, many wealthy Nigerian politicians have been looking within the African continent to invest, a situation said to have made Ghana become a major investment destination for them.

To protect their investments, it was gathered that many Nigerian leaders across party lines are getting involved in the Accra political process with huge funding said to be flowing from Lagos and Abuja.

During the time of Senator Musiliu Obanikoro as the Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Ghana, he advocated and successfully secured closer economic integration and relationship between the two countries.

Nigerian leaders are said to have invested heavily in schools, banks, telecoms, oil and gas, as well as import and export deals, leading to what many reports called direct relationship between recent presidents of Ghana and key Nigerian political leaders.

At a point, there were reports that some governors bankrolled the election of the late President John  Atta Mills to the tune of millions of dollars, while recent reports also indicated that a former state governor and leader of an opposition party in Nigeria is a financier of political activities in that country.

Further investigation shows that if the late Mills and Jerry Rawlings were very close to Nigerian power centres, the incumbent president is a personal friend of many big shots in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ACN.

Soon after Mahama assumed the presidency last year, a report surfaced listing Nigerians who the Ghanaian leader was very close to and who were likely to influence his presidency.

According to the report, top on the list of the Nigerian power brokers, who the new Ghanaian president is very close to, is Senator Bola Tinubu with hints that the relationship dated back to  the days when he was still vice president to the late Professor Mills.

Others include the Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi; Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu; Ekiti State governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi and Vice President Namadi Sambo.

Checks further showed that some Nigerian leaders are actually involved in the political mobilisation for President Mahama with a former senator (names withheld) fingered by the Ghanaian press as organising youths for Mahama’s NDC.

He was accused of mobilising the youth in the Jomoro Constituency of the Western Region and influencing them to join some political parties in the country.

Although the former senator has reportedly explained that he was just helping the youth in different ways, some people in the area are of the opinion that the former Nigerian lawmaker is influencing the youth with money to join a political party, particularly the NDC.

Source: Tribune