Professor Augustine Uzoma Nwagbara
Professor Augustine Uzoma Nwagbara, an associate Professor of English Language and Linguistics in the Department of English, University of Lagos, who was arrested for allegedly inciting the Nigerian community in Ghana to destroy Ghana’s image, has been cautioned and granted bail.
He was cautioned on the offence of offensive conduct conducive to the breach of peace of Ghana by the police after being interrogated over the contents of a video that captures him asking Nigerian media to destroy Ghana’s image to the international community with negative reportage.
In the video, the English professor, who doubles as a visiting lecturer of the University of Education, Winneba, was seen having a meeting with some Nigerians in Ghana. He urged them to devise strategies to destroy the country’s image.
The public relations officer of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Juliana Obeng, in a statement, confirmed that the CID of the Ghana Police Service had initiated investigations into the said video which has gone viral on social media platforms.
According to her, Prof Nwagbara was arrested on Tuesday afternoon and was admitted to bail while investigation continues.
The Plot
The video captures the professor saying, “Nigeria already has a bad image mainly because of how they have been branded by others, especially by Ghana, so it is time to reciprocate that by coming up with innovative ideas and strategies.
“We’re highly skilled and highly talented and blessed people but many a time we lack strategy; Nigerians tend to lack strategy. You can have good skills but if you don’t know how to let people know it, it is there; it’s 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 that we need strategies. I’ll suggest something which the embassy can think about; I know they know what they can do immediately to the Nigerian community. 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, channels broadcast all over the world; there’s active online social media, the plot in Nigeria. Let them come here and run documentaries of the experiences of Nigerians and blast it all over the world. In three days, Ghana would respond,” he said in the video.
Meanwhile, the University of Ghana, Legon, has denied claims that professor Nwagbara teaches at the university.
In a statement issued in Accra, the university authorities indicated that Prof. Nwagbara was not a member of faculty at the University of Ghana.
“Our records show that Prof. Nwagbara was a visiting scholar at the Department of English during the 2011/12 academic year from August 8, 2011, to July 30, 2012.”
Besides, the statement indicated that claims by Prof. Nwagbara in the video relating to the university’s sources of income are incorrect and do not in any way represent the facts and figures of the university’s income and state of affairs.
(lindatenyah@gmail.com)
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey