By Damilare Adeleye
President John Mahama of Ghana has declared that his country’s stability and prosperity are closely tied to Nigeria’s success, revealing that he often prays against failure in Africa’s most populous nation to prevent a massive migration crisis.
Speaking at the African Heritage Awards 2026, Mahama highlighted the deep historical, cultural, and security links between the two West African neighbors.
“Nigeria is of keen security interest to us. If Nigeria does well, Ghana does well,” Mahama stated. He emphasized the sheer scale of Nigeria’s population as a factor in regional stability: “I mean, when you have cousins, 250 million of them, you want them to do well so that one million of them don’t come drifting towards a small country like Ghana.”
“So every day I wake up, I pray for Nigeria. I say, God, let Nigeria get their act together,” he added.
Beyond security and economics, Mahama underscored the ancestral connections between the two nations, tracing specific Ghanaian lineages back to Nigeria’s southwestern ethnic groups. “I remember when a lot of the people in Ghana migrated from Nigeria; they find their roots from the Yoruba kingdoms and all that,” he noted. “And so the Ghana people and all, you know, migrated from Nigeria.”
His remarks come at a time of heightened regional concern over economic hardship and migration flows. The former Ghanaian leader warned that instability in Nigeria inevitably creates ripple effects that impact the entire West African sub-region.