This archive report was first published on 31 July 2019.
On June 19, 2019, the University of Education Winneba in Ghana sacked Professor Austin Nwagbara, a Nigerian academic, over a viral video that sparked controversy in the country.
Prof. Nwagbara, a lecturer at the University of Lagos in Nigeria, was on a sabbatical at the University of Education in Winneba since October 2018. He claimed that the video was manipulated by a xenophobic Ghanaian journalist and wants his job back.
According to Prof. Nwagbara, he had a traumatic experience in Ghana, with only a few Nigerians having the courage to associate with him due to safety concerns. He was interrogated by the police for six hours, accompanied by the Nigerian High Commissioner.
The university disowned him, stating that it was no longer responsible for his presence in Ghana. His termination letter was posted online in two versions, one signed by the university registrar and another unsigned.
Prof. Nwagbara questioned the composition of the panel and the swiftness with which it acted on a disciplinary case that would ordinarily take two months.
Between January and June 2019, about 509 Nigerians were deported from Ghana, compared to 527 in the corresponding period in 2018. The Nigeria Diaspora Commission has called for dialogue and accountability in dealing with criminal cases without assigning blame to all Nigerian expatriates.
