General News of Tuesday, 18 June 2019
Source: classfmonline.com
UG disowns 'mischievous' Nigerian professor in viral video
The management of the University of Ghana, Legon (UG) has disassociated itself from Professor Austin Nwagbara, a Nigerian Professor of English who was captured on video denigrating the university and other Ghanaian tertiary institutions at a meeting.
"Professor Nwagbara is currently not a member of faculty at the University of Ghana," the university disowned him in a statement.
Professor Nwagbara claimed in the video which has gone viral on social media that he was a lecturer at the English faculty of the university.
The university said beyond the many "provocative statements" Prof Nwagbara made, he also launched into a tirade against universities in Ghana in general, and the University of Ghana, in particular.
He said: "…Our people will come here and pay $10,000 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. Ghanaians are there paying N12,000… if you ask Nigerians to donate N50,000 naira every year to contribute to that university they will riot but the same Nigerians will come here and pay $10,000 for something 80 per cent inferior to Nigeria."
"I won't pay 10 per cent of that sum for my child to get a degree in a Ghanaian university, I am in the system, I know the quality of education we receive here is 80 per cent inferior to what is in Nigeria. I can tell you authoritatively," he added.
"No Ghanaian degree is 20 per cent up to the quality of a Nigerian degree. All our federal universities are better than any universities here. 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," he said.
The UG management in its statement said its records show that Prof Nwagbara was a visiting scholar at the Department of English during the 2011/12 academic year from 8 August 2011 to 30 July 2012.
The UG statement noted that the claims Prof Nwangbara made in the video relating to the University's sources of income are incorrect and do not in any way represent the true facts and figures of the university's income and state of affairs.
"The University of Ghana disassociates itself from the claims Professor Austin Nwagbara makes in the video which we find as mischievous and intended to mislead the public and harm the reputation of the university," the statement said.
UPDATE 1:
A Nigerian Professor of English, Prof. Austin Nwagbara, has lamented the ways Nigerians are treated in Ghana.
In the video obtained by SaharaReporters, Nwagbara was seen talking to a group of Nigerians in the video about the poor quality of Ghana's varsities and unfair treatment to Nigerians in Ghana.
Nwagbara recounted how he heard some Ghanaian leaders abuse Nigerians despite the country's contributions to their economy.
"They (Ghana) are using our manpower. We have an advantage that we supply to them. What are we getting back? Insults!"
The don urged the Nigerian government to swiftly respond to reports of crimes and kidnapping attributed to Nigerians by withdrawing its investment to Ghana.
He said, "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."
For criticizing Ghana's varsities and exposing unfair treatment to Nigerians in Ghana, a Nigerian Professor of English, Prof. Austin Nwagbara, was arrested by the Criminal Investigative Department of the Ghana Police Service yesterday.
SaharaReporters gathered that Nwagbara was arrested –later granted bail – in Ghana for a viral video in which he criticised Ghana's varsities and the way the Ghanaian media has been painting Nigerians black in the wake of recent kidnappings in Ghana.
Reacting to negative reports about Nigeria being peddled by Ghanaians, Nwagbara said, "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 called for the introduction of help lines at different embassies, airports and immigration offices to address cases of human right abuses against Nigerians.
"Do we have help lines? If I am in a problem, who do I call? Can't we have Nigerian help lines at entry points in different countries? If we have contacts, it will be easier. They have sold us as criminal and we have bought it."
On Wed, Jun 19, 2019 at 7:00 AM Kwabena Akurang-Parry <kaparry@hotmail.com> wrote:--
Nigerian Professor arrested; charged with incitement and breach of peace
Professor Austin Nwagbara
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--Okey C. Ihedurue-mail: okeyiheduru@gmail.comJust published "The African Corporation, 'Africapitalism' and Regional Integration in Africa" (September 2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781785362538.
Just published "The African Corporation, 'Africapitalism' and Regional Integration in Africa" (September 2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781785362538.
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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