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.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey
The post Nigerian Professor Cautioned For Anti-Ghana Comment appeared first on DailyGuide Network.
