Aflao (VR)-Ghana, Jan. 31, GNA – Madam Abla Dzifa Gomashie, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu South, has waded into circumstances leading to a scuffle between popular Ghanaian YouTuber, Wode Maya and some Immigration officials at the Togo side of the frontier.
The incident was captured in a viral video circulating on social media.
The MP in a video shared online by Wode Maya, complained bitterly about the lack of free movement between countries within the continent, particularly in the ECOWAS sub-region.
The former actress and deputy Creative Arts Minister asserted that free movement within the continent and between nations should be made a reality as it was the case in the past before colonialism divided the various nations.
“We have to tell the story of who we are – we can continue blaming colonialists for all we want but they have been gone for so long and we need to wake up and smell the coffee,” Mad. Gomashie said.
“We need to wake up, all these seemingly “hen coop” thing we are doing business with is against ourselves is depressing, truly depressing – I am willing to break a few protocols speaking the way I am,” she was heard saying in the Video.
Wode Maya and the Immigration officials from the Togolese side of the border were said to have got into a scuffle after the popular YouTuber refused to make a CFA 2000 bribe payment, infuriating the officers, who forcefully seized his camera in the process, attracting some Ghanaian officials to his rescue.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday, Madam Gomashie said she intended to make a strong case on this happening on the floor of Parliament, when the house reconvenes in February.
“These back and forth between border security officials and persons travelling across our frontiers – I mean not only Ghana and Togo but across West Africa and the rest of the continent, my brother, is becoming something else.
I am not from a security background, but I strongly believe this is a security issue that should be taken a second and serious look into by the authorities responsible for these things,” Mad Gomashie, who chairs a four-nation Ewe speaking Committee of member states, said.
“I think as a people with a common identify as Africans, we should find a way to deal with these things – our structures must be made to operate properly, rather than always blaming colonialists for our failures – I think this issue has to be raised on the floor of Parliament, yes these things have to stop,” she added.
The development and previous happenings not only along Ghana’s border with Togo, but elsewhere in the sub-region and the continent, brings into question the commitment of member countries to adhere to the ECOWAS Protocols on Free Movement of Persons, Goods and Services and the promotion of Free Trade and Business among member countries under the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) regime.
Wode Maya, in a media interaction, said he would continue to persevere for a borderless Africa, where citizens could move from one country to the other without impediments like the Togo experience.
He and his crew were travelling to Benin by road when the unfortunate border altercation ensued sharing some of his worse experience as suffering a slap attempting to enter the Gambia and the demand for $250 before accessing Congo.
Wode Maya pledged to wage a relentless crusade against the menace till continental Heads of State reached a practical agreement on the matter.
