Neighbours at Loggerheads: Assessing the Role of New Nationalism in Nigeria-Ghana Relations

Sunday Omotuyi ()
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Sunday Omotuyi: Obafemi Awolowo University

A chapter in A Sleeping Giant?, 2021, pp 87-100 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Despite their common historical antecedents rooted in Anglophonic ties in West Africa, Nigeria-Ghana relations have oscillated between mutual mistrust and occasional cooperation from the colonial period well into the post-colonial era. Indeed, interactions between the two powers at various levels have mostly been antagonistic. It is in this context that this chapter interrogates the prevailing frosty relations between the two neighbours. Besides the age-long distrust hinged on regional leadership and the infamous Ghana-must-go hysteria of the early 1980s, the recent escalation in hostile relations illustrated by the attack on the Nigerian diplomatic mission has demonstrated anti-immigrant sentiment in Ghana. Nigeria’s new border policy, fuelled in part by economic and security imperatives, has further compounded the situation, leading to a wave of xenophobia against Nigeria in the country. These attacks are targeted at ordinary Nigerians and their businesses and the government’s assets. In the interests of regional stability within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), it is critical that the two countries’ leaders adopt a joint coherent policy to comprehensively address this issue.

Keywords: Nigeria; Ghana; Nigeria-Ghana relations; Xenophobia; West Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:aaechp:978-3-030-73375-9_7

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-73375-9_7

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