USA Africa Dialogue Series - I HEAR AND SENSE A DANGEROUS TREND IN ACCRA

In July 1938, or thereabout, Nnamdi Azikiwe's West African Pilot newspaper wrote a long and moral critique of the Nazi behaviour of holding the "sins" of a few Jews against the entire Jewish people of  Germany. I wish the press in Accra, with a few exceptions, will mount a similar moral mission against what is becoming a creeping and dangerous trend in Accra: the ascription of the criminal conduct of a few Nigerians in Ghana, to "Nigerians" as a group of people.

Yes, there have been apprehensions of some Nigerians by the Ghana police for criminal conduct that includes kidnapping of foreign nationals. I hear too, as I move around Accra, cautionary whispers to be careful of the "Nigerians" who have flooded the country.  I wonder how Ghanaians in the capital city are able to make facial recognition of who is, and is not Nigerian. Nevertheless, while every nation is obligated to secure the welfare of its citizens, and visitors, it is equally obligatory for every nation to tamp down any potential descent of its citizenry into the demonization of a national group from the invidious conduct of a few.

I don't like this tendency when it is used to demonize and criminalize a racial group in America. I have looked at the same with scorn in my study of Nazi racism and antosemitism, and I will not be faithful to my intellectual and moral creed if I did not express my dismay at the same creeping trend in my own country Ghana. This time, it is about Nigerians. Somewhere in the world, it could be about Ghanaians.  I remember the wise words of Father Niemoller: First, they came for the Communists.

Edward Kissi
Accra