Ghanaian police arrest Nigerian professor, accuse him of incitement

[Edoman]

Ghanaian police arrest Nigerian professor, accuse him of incitement






A Nigerian Professor of English, Austin Nwagbara, who resides in Ghana, was yesterday arrested and then released on bail by the Ghanaian police on claims he was inciting the public against the Ghanaian authorities.
 
Nwagbara was arrested after a viral video showing him condemning the manner in which Nigerians are being treated in Ghana surfaced online.
 
In the video, the Nigerian academician pointed out that Nigeria has in recent times received so many insults and illtreatement from Ghanaians despite the massive contributions the Nigerian government and her people make for the growth of their country.
 
Accoridng to him, Nigerians have been sold as bad people by Ghanaian press. He called on the Nigerian government to use the Nigerian media to correct the wrong impression the Ghanaian media is giving about Nigerians.

''They (Ghana) are using our manpower. We have an advantage that we supply to them. What are we getting back? Insults! 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.
“If you ask Nigerians to donate N50,000 every year to contribute to that University, they will riot but the same Nigerians will come here and pay $10, 000 for something 80% inferior to Nigeria. I won’t pay 10% of that sum ($10,000) for my child to study to get a degree in a Ghanaian university. I am in the system, I know. The quality of education here (Ghana) is 80 per cent inferior to what we have in Nigeria.
“No Ghanaian degree is 20% up to the quality of a Nigerian degree. All our federal universities are better than any universities here (Ghana). What makes a university? It’s not buildings, it’s not trees; it’s the quality of staff that will recycle and produce others. They don’t have it.
“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”.
They have harassed us a lot, I know that... What I’m saying is we need strategies. I’ll suggest something which the embassy can think about. There is a bad image for Nigeria; we can take it back through the press. We can reverse it. We have powerful Nigerian media stations, ChannelsTV broadcast all over the world, there’s active social media. Let them come here (Ghana) and run documentaries on the experiences of Nigerians and blast it all over the world. In three days Ghana would respond.
“I have been a media person, you cannot be here and suffering. Let the leaders get our media persons to come here to cover what has been happening. Go to the student community, go to the business community, go to everywhere; go to the embassy. Go and confront the officials with the information, air it, within one week I can tell you part of worse happening. I’m sorry to say it but this is within us, the present government in Ghana came on the grounds of Nigeria bashing. I’ve listened to things some of their top leaders have said all over the world in major places. We did not take it back, if we take it back they will sit up, so media strategy is one.” Nwagbara said

 
The Criminal Investigative Department of the Ghana Police Service saw the video and immediately arrested Professor Nwagbara. He was released on bail and asked to always come to the police station for interrogation until the case is concluded. 
 

by Linda 

[Edoman]

Prof. Augustine Uzoma Nwagbara Sacked By Ghana Over 'Inciteful' Comments







The University of Education (UEW) has, with immediate effect, sacked its visiting Nigerian lecturer, Prof. Augustine Uzoma Nwagbara over comments he made in a video that has since gone viral.

Prof. Nwagbara was arrested on Tuesday but later granted bail for allegedly inciting the Nigerian community in Ghana to devise strategies that will destroy Ghana’s image internationally.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the University said the comments by the lecturer were inimical to the country’s educational sector, hence his dismissal.

“The University is highly disturbed by the huge embarrassment his unguarded statement has brought to the institution, the Ministry of Education, and indeed, Ghana as a whole. The University after subjecting Prof. Augustine Uzoma Nwagbara to the internal disciplinary process finds him culpable of gross misconduct and has, accordingly dismissed him.”

The University said, although Prof. Nwagbara has been on sabbatical leave from its Department of Applied Linguistics since October 2018, his comments after it set up an internal disciplinary process observed that the utterances were ‘ unsavoury, unethical and damning about the country, its history as well as its educational system. The University totally dissociates itself from the grossly irresponsible comments and condemns it in no uncertain terms.”

“The University apologises to Ghanaians for Prof. Nwagbara disparaging remarks about this country’s educational system and further indicates that the comment was full of factual inaccuracies”, portions of the statement added.

Read the full statement below:

PRESS RELEASE
PROFESSOR AUGUSTINE UZOMA NWAGBARA DISMISSED FROM UEW

1. The University of Education Winneba wishes to inform the general public that it has taken a very serious view of the video circulating on social media, involving Prof. Augustine Uzoma Nwagbara.

2. Augustine Uzoma Nwagbara, a Professor of English Language, has been on sabbatical at the Department of Applied Linguistics since October, 2018.

3. In the said video, Prof. Nwagbara makes several unsavoury, unethical and damning comments about our country, its history as well as its educational system. The University totally dissociates itself from the grossly irresponsible comments and condemns it in no uncertain terms.

4. The University is highly disturbed by the huge embarrassment his unguarded statement has brought to the institution, the Ministry of Education, and, indeed, Ghana as a whole.

5. The University, upon receipt of the video, immediately invoked its internal disciplinary process to fully examine his conduct relative to the content of the video.

7. The University wishes to indicate that it has in the past hosted several scholars on sabbatical leave from various countries, including Nigeria, and same have conducted themselves with high degree of decorum and professionalism during their stay. Prof. Augustine Uzoma Nwagbara’s behaviour is totally deviant and an aberration that runs contrary to those of his predecessors or the others currently at post.

8. The University after subjecting Prof. Augustine Uzoma Nwagbara to internal disciplinary process finds him culpable of gross misconduct and has, accordingly, dismissed him.
9. The University apologises to Ghanaians for Prof. Nwagbara’s disparaging remarks about this country’s educational system and further indicates that the comments were full of factual inaccuracies.

Thank you
Signed
Registrar



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