By Prisca Sam-Duru
Feet in the streets, placards in the air, voices of Ghanaian protesters echoed one phrase, ‘Nigerians Must Go’. Widely circulated video on social media captured visibly angry Ghanaians screaming on top of their voices, ‘Nigerians Must Go’. One of the ladies who spoke up said: “Nigerians Must Go because you cannot be in someone’s country and be doing anyhow, Nigerians Must Go.”
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The agitators accused Nigerians of engaging in crimes in their country with some inscriptions on the placards reading, “Our Health at stake due to mass prostitution”, “Who protests the right and freedom of Ghanaians”, “Nigerians are kidnapping and using people for Rituals”, “Armed Robbery and violent attacks must stop.” This is quite sad. It is the height of embarrassment! You know that ugly feeling when a little boy insults his elder. You’d say, this is history repeating itself but in reverse order.
Hopefully, we will not be having trending bags called ‘Nigeria Must Go’ just as we have ‘Ghana Must Go’ bags in Nigerian markets. Content Creators remember, are bursting out with creativity.
Why the sudden burst of animosity from this sister nation? Did the protesters read history books and decided to take revenge because of the mass expulsion of some Ghanaians from Nigeria in the early 80s leading to the popularization of the term ‘Ghana Must Go’. But Ghana was the first to expel Nigerians in the 60s. Or, they see all Nigerians as criminals due to the activities of a few bad eggs.
What the protesters are oblivious of is that there are massive communities of Ghanaians in various states in Nigeria. Many Ghanaians are related by marriage to Nigerians as well.
Nigerians are demanding that the Ghanaian government calls its people to order. They advocate working together to fish out perpetrators of crimes in Ghana instead of engaging in Afro phobic activity. Many however put all the blame on the political elite for the poor state of the nation.
“This reminds me of what happens incessantly in South Africa” Vimbai said on Arise News programme. “The Afrophobia is around illegal activities that they feel are perpetrated by Nigerians in South Africa. They would say Nigerians are illegal, responsible for drug trafficking, prostitution, etc. The irony is that looking at South Africa now, over the past two weeks, the headlines have been wash with the news that the minister of police has been relieved of his duties as they found a huge drug cartel within the police force. It shows that yes, there are bad eggs, however, to attribute all the illegal activities to one nationality is wrong.”
On X, @austinealozie656 commented, “Imagine Ghana asking Nigerians to go. We don’t blame Ghanaians; we blame the Nigerian politicians who keep messing up the economy. Shame on Nigerian politicians and leaders.”
Also, @leo-ken stated, “If Nigerians must go from Ghana, then Nigerian companies employing Ghanaians should go too. Anyway, they should know that not all Nigerians are into crimes in their country. So, they should fish out the criminals and punish them.”
“Nigeria must go; where? Where are we going?” Rufai Oseni asked. “We are not going anywhere. We are going to be with you there in your country in Ghana. Nigerians have been settling in Ghana way back in the 20s and 30s. In fact, one of the biggest markets in Ghana is called Makola after the Nigerians there. This started as a political gimmick in the 60s when Kofi Bosia had this ordinance act to remove illegal migrants. Many Nigerians were removed. In 83, Nigeria too had a lot of problems with the economy, we blamed illegal migrants so we pushed Ghanaians out. But does that settle the matter? A lot lies within Nigerians and Ghanaians; so, where are we going to push ourselves to?”
Reacting further Rufai explained that, “Famous Ghanaian journalist Komla Dumor grew up in Nigeria at some point. The current Ghanaian president lived around Kwara State in Nigeria. The same too can be said about many Nigerians in Ghana. What we should do is to find a way to collectively fight the perpetrators of evil and vice and solve the problem. And this matter they are escalating, the Eze has clarified that he meant nothing of such; that they whipped up sentiments from an old interview of something that never existed. He has clarified that so; Nigerians are not going anywhere. We must come together and make our countries work”
Also on X, @user-di53ev81 said it was high time Nigerians came home and developed our country. “Please our people should come back home and develop our own country.”
@innocentamaefule1594 wrote, “How low Nigeria has fallen to the extent of Ghana telling Nigerians to go. Shame to the government.”
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