ANALYSIS OF ATTACK ON NIGERIANS IN GHANA

The issues trending in Ghana concerning attacks on some Nigerian traders by some Ghanaians is worrying and must be condemned. It is disheartening how events have unfolded and until now considering the accounts given by the Ghana Union of Traders’ Associations (GUTA) government hasn’t made any efforts to stem the situation. The loud silence of the government on the matter leaves Ghanaians and Nigerians questioning this government’s commitment to improving international relations, especially within the West African Region.

It is requisite to look at the immediate and remote causes of this worrying situation within the Ghanaian society; our actions and inactions that have contributed and subsequently led to this worrying development. We equally need to examine the activities and actions of Nigerian actions.

Before we delve into what may lie at the root of these attacks, it should be noted that people have been habouring their anger and pain, a time-bomb just waiting to explode. The turn of events, therefore, is hardly surprising.

After the arrest of the kidnappers, most of the suspects were Nigerians and upon interrogation and investigations, some confessed to have been training some Ghanaians on the “job”. The mention of kidnapping hitherto in Ghana was heard only in reference to movies, especially Nollywood movies. What am I saying? Ghana as a country hasn’t got this as one of the crimes it battles with, and so, kidnapping is alien to us. The story about training Ghanaians in kidnapping is what has enraged some Ghanaians. This we may consider to be the immediate cause of what now looms over us as a Damoclean sword: xenophobia.

This notwithstanding, we must blame ourselves for our ineptitude, corruption, politicization of everything and lack of commitment by Ghanaian authorities and institutions and even government.

In the first place, let me point out some of our actions and inactions, commissions and omissions that hugely and negatively results in what we are experiencing today. Ghanaian politics have been smeared with cynicism, mediocrity and greed. It is crystal clear that political parties in opposition engage in a fault-finding game against their opponents in government to entice the electorate, to opt for them (parties in opposition) as best managers of the economy. The governing party in its bid to hold onto political power, does all it can to discredit, bastardize and ‘clip the wings’ of its opponents. This awkward and misplaced dexterity to capture or continuously hold on to political power exposes the country to the adventurous miscreants from both Ghana and abroad.

In the video of the Nigerian Professor at the University of Education, Winneba, he categorically and authoritatively stated : “… one day I was driving, the day I was coming in I have my workout things in the car, a Ghanaian police took my dumbbells and walked into his car and said I have taken it, a colleague was with me and he asked, ‘what do we do?’” He continued, “… I urinated and came and said go and bring it down to this car, and indeed, he is a Ghanaian police, I am a professor of English, from his accent, he is a Ghanaian police, from his accent I can bet my life he is a Nigerian, I can bet my life he is a Nigerian, he is a Ghanaian policeman but he is a Nigerian; his accent is obviously a Nigerian. The key things you use to identify where somebody comes from all of them …” The questions to ask are; how did Nigerians make their way through into the Ghana Police Service? Who is behind the recruitment of these Nigerians into the service? Others may trivialize these issues raised by the Professor, but these are serious issues confronting this country. This is where we can point to corruption as one of the major cankers confronting us. We have Ghanaians who are more than qualified to be employed in some of these places taken over by other nationals but because of the insatiable lust of our leaders to amass wealth for themselves, families and their generations yet unborn and lack of commitment to apply our laws are the cause of this heart-wrenching problems we see today.

The foregoing leads us to an inexorable conclusion: we must look at how elements heading government institutions have aligned themselves to political parties, a development which has rendered them incapacitated to stay in line with their core functions and powers and deal with it. Law interpretation and enforcement agencies must apply the law and be generally up and doing, to curb the reckless attitude of both citizens and foreigners who flout our laws with impunity.

Gabriel Amologu

Gabbydina75@gmail.com

0249042313