As Ghana mass deports Nigerians
In a development with significant diplomatic, political and sub-regional implications, Ghana reportedly deported as many as 723 Nigerians within the past 12 months. According to statistics from the Nigeria High Commission in Accra, these deportees were so accused of indulging in cybercrime, prostitution, illegal residence and unruly public conduct. The deportees were reportedly molested and tortured by officials of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) before being thrown out of that country. Lately too, there have been reports of routine harassment and undue interrogation sessions meted out specifically against Nigerian travelers to Ghana at the country’s eastern Aflao border.
Nigerian victims of such harassment are usually stopped, marched to the Immigration office there, interrogated on demand that they produce Residence Permit, and when they fail to do so, were detained. It is easily recalled that the Ghana Ministry of Trade and Industry had on several occasions issued restrictions on foreigners in the name of reserving some trading activities exclusively for their nationals. Many observers are linking the deportation activities to the restrictions on trade by foreigners.
The development had however attracted vigorous response from the Nigerian community in Ghana who lodged an official protest to the Nigeria High Commission in that country. The High Commissioner, Ambassador Olufemi Abikoye, promptly took up the matter with Ghanaian authorities. In the light of various responses, the situation seems to be enjoying the prospects of an amicable resolution, which would be in the interest of the age-old cordial relations between Nigeria and Ghana. The two countries’ cordial and fraternal relations predated and transcended British colonization of both countries in the late 19th century.
Incidentally the recent development revives memories of lowpoints in the relationship between these two countries beginning with November 18th 1969, when Ghana’s Prime Minister Kofi Busia first deported Nigerians under the Alien Compliance Order. In 1983, President Shehu Shagari’s government also expelled a million Ghanaians due to the economic crisis in this country. The military administration of General Muhammadu Buhari followed suit in 1984 by deporting millions of Ghanaians and other West Africans. These actions were said to be due to the uncontrolled mass emigration by Ghanaians from their country in the face of serious economic hardship in the early 1980s, coupled with the widespread abuse of the provisions of the 1975 ECOWAS Protocol, which was signed by West African Heads of State in May 1975.
However, the recent deportation activities by the Ghanaian authorities seem to be driven by a protectionist motive beyond any other consideration. The targeted Nigerian community in Ghana have complained of series of discriminatory measures by the Ghanaian authorities which are aimed at destroying or whittling down their business concerns. This is where the entire deportation enterprise violates the essential principle of the ECOWAS Protocol which is intended to promote within the subregion, a borderless region and common citizenship.
The ECOWAS Protocol also aims to promote intra-regional trade and business ties within the sub-region. How far the tendencies of xenophobia and excessive protectionism can boost the goals of ECOWAS remain to be seen. The Nigerian community in Ghana by their contributions individually and collectively, have been agents of progress in Ghana and promoters of the ECOWAS founding fathers’ vision of regional integration.
It is important for Ghanaian authorities to curb xenophobic tendencies in their country which negate and undermine the goals of regional integration, interdependence and collective progress and prosperity. ECOWAS Protocol provides for free movement of citizens of the sub-region within extant rules and such should be allowed to operate.
However, this is not in any way to support criminal activities by Nigerians resident in Ghana. Anyone who goes to live and earn a living in another country must respect the laws and culture of that country if he desires to live in peace. Our advice to Ghana authorities is that anyone who flouts their country’s laws should be apprehended and punished under the laws. That is better than mass deportations.