Ghana arrests Nigerian prof, accuses him of incitement

Austin Nwagbara, a Nigerian professor based in Ghana, has accused the Ghanaian government of maltreating Nigerians.

In a viral video, Nwagbara urged a group of people to employ the media from Nigeria to reshape the reportage of Nigerians based in Ghana.

He said Nigerians are highly talented but lack strategies to take advantage of their position, adding that the current government in Ghana rode to power “under Nigeria bashing.”

He also condemned the fee paid by Nigerian students in Ghana, saying the quality of education is inferior to Nigeria’s.

On negative reports, he said Nigerians have been sold off as bad people and “we have bought it” as a result of the way the Ghanaian media presented their own “version of truth”.

After the release of the video, the professor was arrested by the Ghanaian police. He was accused of  inciting the public.

According to Ghana Web, Nwagbara was subjected to hours of interrogation and later released on bail but asked to be reporting to the police periodically “until a final determination of the case”.

“They (Ghana) are using our manpower. We have an advantage that we supply to them. What are we getting back? Insults!” he said.

“Our people (Nigerians) will come here (Ghana) and pay $10,000 (as tuition) but they will not pay N20,000 in the University of Lagos…what an average student pays in the University of Lagos in one session to get a degree in English is N12,000.

“The Nigerian community here is bad image for Nigerian we can take it back through the press, we can reverse. We have powerful media stations, Channels broadcast all over world. Emm, well AIT has a problem now, NTA does many others, and there is online, active online social media they plot in Nigeria.

“Let them look at what we have said here today. Let them come here and run documentaries of the experiences on Nigerians and blast it all over the world. In three days, Ghana will respond. I have been a media person, I have been a media person.

“I’ve been a pressman, there is no absolute truth in the media. The truth is the truth as it is presented. Let us use our own media and get back to them (Ghana). Let us see life cases, let our media with this story say we want to go to their prisons to see Nigerians, of course, they will turn you back, you broadcast it. And by the time you’re through, you run series of documentaries on Nigerians-Ghana relations and sir, we’ll make history.

“We’re highly skilled, highly talented and blessed people but many at the time we lack strategy, Nigerians tend to lack strategy. You can have good skills, if you don’t know how to let people know it, it is there; it dies, like having a factory full of items in the warehouse. If you don’t advertise it remains in the warehouse”.

Nigerians in Ghana have been under a series of attacks in recent times.

Olufemi Abikoye, Nigeria’s high commissioner to Ghana, had expressed concerns over the manner in which the Ghanaian press had been “prioritising” negative reports about Nigerians.