BY GODFREY UBAKA
LAST week Tuesday, I watched with some high level of accentuated historic concern as some Ghanaians protested against Nigerians resident in their country. Their protests were organized and premised on Nigerians allegedly engaging in mass prostitution, ritual killings and a recent incident of installation of an ‘Igbo king’ in their country.
While going through the video, my mind flashed back to incidents of similar socio-diplomatic import in 1983 under President Shehu Shagari popularly referred to as ‘Ghana Must Go’, 1985 expulsion of undocumented foreigners under Buhari as military Head of State and 1969 when the then-Ghanaian prime minister, Kofi Busia, invoked the Aliens Compliance Order.which deported an estimated 2.5-million undocumented African migrants; majority of whom were Nigerians. In all these, a familiar trend is so easily identifiable. Immigration is spurred at a time of economic boom, in the case of Nigeria, the oil boom era and the golden decade of the 1970s clearly made her the wealthiest in the continent.
This is eventually followed by a period of economic downturn resulting from mismanagement, poor policy formulation/ implementation and lack of visionary leadership on the part of political elites. As the economic opportunities get on the decline, stiffer competition is required to break even and excel in the economic space. Those who can’t stand the emerging competition, in their frustration, so easily forget the vision of late Kwame Nkruma concerning a United States of Africa in spite of the artificiality of what stands today as national boundaries that arose from the Berlin conference of November 15, 1884.
Kwame Nkrumah had envisioned a united, independent Africa. In his words, “The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa.” He therefore advocated for a continental government, believing that only through unity could Africa overcome its challenges and achieve its full potential in the midst of an evolving world. Nkrumah’s vision clearly extended beyond political independence encompassing economic, social and ideological reorganisation, aiming to build a “New Africa” founded on unity, science, technology, and traditional African values.
Today, governments in search of a convincing alibi for a worsening economic crisis and growing rate of unemployment look in the direction of fellow Africans considered as aliens and foreigners as the reason for the decline in tempo of desired economic growth. A gullible populace buys into the misleading mantra. What follows is some form of protests to prepare the grounds for a policy statement on mass deportation order which in any case does not translate into economic recovery.
The relationship between Nigeria and Ghana goes beyond ECOWAS to historic economic ties made stronger by a common colonial history and the resultant linguistic affinity in English language currently being explored maximally for a strong regional commercial base by the Nollywood entertainment industry. These ties as close as they are, have also culminated into rivalries in continental sports, control of business space and investment portfolios. This has sometimes become stiffly unhealthy.
In 1969 when Nigerians were ordered out of Ghana, it was historically clear that the Nigerians had grown annoyingly enterprising in their business acumen, outpacing that of the hosts. The scenario playing out this time around is also not too different.
The Ghanaian protesters in their large numbers, were seen wielding placards with various inscriptions such as “Armed robbery and violent attacks must stop; “ We demand an end to prostitution and ritual killings,” among other national image smearing banal messages.
I wondered how tables do turn both for individuals and nations. I had left the then Bendel State for Lagos in the early 80s in pursuant of higher education. Lagos then had a predominant population of Ghanaians. I benefitted significantly from the services of their professionals in two critical sectors; education and health. They were indeed great teachers and very caring nurses. It was also common knowledge that their young women who chose the path of prostitution understood the dexterity of the trade better than their Nigerian colleagues. They were part of Nigeria’s thriving economy where the national currency had commensurate exchange value with major currencies of developed economies.
So, from a historical perspective,“Ghana must go” happened in 1983 when President Shehu Shagari enacted a directive ordering about two million undocumented immigrants, many of whom were Ghanaians, to leave the country. A deadline of December 31 of that year was issued.
This action gave birth to a checked bag called “Ghana must go” into which the Ghanaians packed their belongings. Today, reflective of the state of the economies of both countries, the tune has changed from Ghana Must Go to Nigerians Must Leave Ghana. How the table turns. The Ghanaian economy has been rebuilt with dependable infrastructure and fairly predictable security architecture. Nigeria, once Africa’s economic giant is currently on her knees. And of course migration follows the direction of economic stability and envisaged prosperity.
The twist however is that a greater number of Nigerians targeted by the current protests constitute significant pillars to the Ghanaian economy. The point however needs to be made that no matter the level of success you attain in another man’s land, it should not enter into your head to the point of crowning a king in that land by whatever designation. That could be regarded as a cultural affront. You may have become a notable employer of labour, engaging many of their citizens, that should not in any way make you to begin to ascribe to yourself privileges only rightfully due to the indegenes.The Ghanaian economy was in ruins. It was like hell. They sought refuge in Nigeria with virtually every family being represented in one part of the country or the other. It took a renewed will and national resolve to have it rebuilt.
Today, if only the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Federal Government can sincerely target the restoration of the economy to avoid the kind of intensified international embarrassment as displayed in the protest banners held by the Ghanaians. If Nigerians can build formidable business empires in Ghana, I am sure that given the same enabling environment they will derive more fulfillment replicating same feat in their fatherland. Such investments can be considered far more secured because for all you care, we definitely have not heard the last of the Ghanaians’ protest and their ongoing efforts geared at sensitizing their Government and policy makers through national image smearing banners.
The hope and national pride of the 1970s during the oil boom era can be reinvented through astute management of state resources and urgent rebuilding of public infrastructure such as power for manufacturing and job creation. We should also as a country stop playing politics with issues of insecurity. No economy records meaningful growth in a state of pervasive insecurity. In the 70s Nigeria experienced a surge in economic activity which attracted a large influx of migrants from neighboring West African countries, including Ghana. That scenario can still be recreated to prove to the world that ‘Renewed Hope’ doesn’t end as an empty pernicious political propaganda. Hope should be restored on the value of the Naira as the economy gets working again and inflation is curbed to a manageable proportion.
We must accept that poor leadership decisions have contributed in turning citizens of Africa’s once wealthiest nation and continental Giant into refugees and asylum seekers across nations of the world. Nigeria must work her way out of that debasing epitaph as the global capital of multidimensional poverty.
If Ghana, once considered to be hell where nothing was working could be turned around, Nigeria’s case should not be considered as hopeless or irredeemable. When Ghana was considered as hell, Nigeria its closest English-speaking neighbour was booming. Today the table has turned ratherincredulously.
The greatest disservice done to Nigeria has been to run an economy almost exclusively reliant on oil. It is a delicate thing to do running a country’s annual budget solely dependent on revenue from oil. The time to diversify is now
Poor policy decisions at the highest level of government have continued to make things worse by the day. No nation ever grew its economy through the kind of borrowing spree the Federal Government is currently involved in. The average Ghanaian is usually not in a hurry to forget the deportation experiences of 1983 and 1985.
To them, the experiences of “Ghana must go” linger. “[Nigeria] chased us away, and now we’re doing better,” some of them will bluntly share on social media platforms.
The future of Africa surely is in unity rather than in sticking to the artificiality of national boundaries. The historic onus is on the Federal Government to through the Renewed Hope Agenda restore Nigeria to her pride of place through an economy that sustains dignified livelihood and enterprise not a beggarly existence that makes us a laughing stock in the committee of nations.
