Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG), has condemned the recent xenophobic sentiments expressed by a vocal group calling for Nigerians to leave the country, labelling the campaign as “backward,” “shameful,” and a distraction from the real struggles facing ordinary Ghanaians.
“The Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG) condemns the calls by a tiny, but loud, group of citizens demanding that “Nigerians” leave Ghana,” the statement stated.
In a statement released on 11 August and signed by the Group General Secretary, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, ,the SMG described the attacks on Nigerian residents in Ghana as “xenophobia weaponised by sections of the African elite and their imperialist collaborators.”
“These backward and shameful displays of xenophobia that erupt periodically across our continent serve the diversionist and divide-and-rule agenda of tiny sections of the African elite and their imperialist masters,” the statement said.
Citing African revolutionary Amílcar Cabral’s words “There are no contradictions amongst the African masses only amongst Africa’s elites” the SMG accused a “tiny but loud” minority of stoking division that ultimately harms the entire continent’s working class.
“Do irate Ghanaian ‘nationalists’ really believe that there are more ‘Nigerians’ hustling here than ‘Ghanaians’ hustling in Nigeria?” What will this xenophobia yield except reprisals by equally frustrated Nigerian youth?” the group questioned.
The organisation urged Ghanaian youth to resist manipulation by what it described as “ignorant and vicious forces” trying to shift attention away from the root causes of Africa’s challenges exploitation, inequality, and imperialism.
“We face an international system of exploitation that seeks to divert the attention of its victims and channel our pent-up energy into fighting and killing one another, So that we do not come together to fight our common exploiter,” the statement said.
The SMG drew attention to worsening conditions across the continent, including economic hardship, disintegrating regional institutions, and increasing migration driven by desperation.
According to the group, these are symptoms of neocolonialism not migration or inter-African mobility.
“There is creeping genocide in the DRC and Sudan. Our regional institutions are disintegrating. Even neo-colonial constitutionalism is collapsing in country after country as imperialism props up its strongmen,” the group warned.
They further called for solidarity and a Pan-African response, citing Kwame Nkrumah’s vision of continental unity as the only long-term solution.
“Nkrumah taught us that Africa must unite… Our wealth, and even our youth, leave our shores at an accelerating pace. The only solution is to collectively take control of our resources and use them to serve our people’s needs not the West’s greed,” the statement indicated.
The group appealed to Pan-Africanists, student unions, organised labour, and working-class organisations to resist xenophobia and “mobilise for what matters.”
“We must educate, organise, and mobilise for collective ownership and the peaceful, planned development of Africa’s vast resources. We stand in solidarity with Nigerian communities living in Ghana and against those who seek to victimise them,” SMG urged.