Famed Nigerian academic, Akin Oyebode, says President Nana Akufo-Addo must apologize to Nigerians over the treatment meted to Prof. Augustine Nwagbara, a Nigerian lecturer in Ghana who reportedly spoke ill about Ghana in a viral video in Ghana.
Oyebode, who is an international law and jurisprudence professor in an interview with Punch Nigeria’s Tunde Ajaja said an apology was necessary because “if we were to kick Ghanaians out of Nigeria, how would they feel?”
Although he believes, the treatment was unfair he said Nigeria will not mistreat Ghanaians there.
“The Ghanaian President ought to apologise to us because if we were to kick Ghanaians out of Nigeria, how would they feel…We don’t want to re-enact that tit-for-tat situation. We are very liberal in Nigeria…We can’t descend to others’ level of myopia,” he said in the interview.
There has been some level of disquiet expressed by many Nigerians about Ghana following the dismissal of Prof. Augustine Nwagbara from the University of Education Winneba (UEW).
Recent attacks against some Nigerian traders by Ghanaian traders in some of Ghana’s business hubs including Abossey Okai, Opera Square and Suame have also heightened concerns in Nigeria about the treatment of their nationals in Ghana.
Recently, the Chairperson of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, explained that 508 Nigerians had been deported within the last six months from Ghana, while 486 were repatriated in 2018.
She disclosed this in Abuja during a meeting with the dismissed Nigerian professor, Augustine Nwagbara.
Dabiri-Erewa cautioned that the continent would suffer should Nigeria treat other nationals in the same manner.
She said, “It will not go down well on the continent if Nigeria decides to do what they do to Nigerians over there. We demand respect. If a Nigerian commits a crime, you should deal with that particular person rather than generalize issues by punishing those who are innocent of the crime.”
