Between July 26 and 29, 2025, parts of Ghana’s capital and other towns saw protests under the slogan “Nigerians Must Go!”, demanding the mass expulsion of Nigerians living in the country. The protests are said to have been led by a vocal but small group of people in Ghana.

Placards bearing the slogan, videos, and similar messages trended on social media, a development that risks inflaming xenophobic violence in a region with deep historical and cultural ties.

Similar to the waves of xenophobic sentiments seen in South Africa over the past decade, the recent protests in Ghana point to a worrying continental trend in which social and economic frustrations are redirected toward migrant communities. Across Africa, high unemployment, widening inequality, and inadequate public services create fertile ground for resentment. In such conditions, misinformation, often spread through social media or political rhetoric can be weaponized to scapegoat foreign nationals for problems rooted in systemic governance failures and global economic exploitation.

Migrants are frequently accused of “taking jobs”, “dominating markets”, or “driving crime rates”, narratives that obscure the deeper structural causes of poverty and unemployment.

Socialist Movement of Ghana statement

In a statement, the Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG) condemned the July protests, describing them as a “backward and shameful display of xenophobia” that served the “divide-and-rule agenda of Africa’s elites and their imperialist masters”.

Citing revolutionary thinker Amílcar Cabral’s assertion that “there are no contradictions amongst the African masses only amongst Africa’s elites”, the SMG says that xenophobia distracts from the real causes of economic hardship: an international system of exploitation that keeps African nations dependent on foreign powers for trade, resources, and investment.

“The frustrated youth of Ghana should think clearly and reject the fantastical rumors spread by ignorant and vicious forces that seek to use them,” the statement read. “What will their xenophobia yield except reprisals by equally frustrated Nigerian youth? Who wins in such a senseless confrontation?”

The SMG called for unity between African peoples, stressing that pre-colonial communities often lived and traded across what are now artificial national borders. Warning that “colonial divisions” remain a tool for neo-colonial exploitation, enabling multinational corporations and imperialist states to dominate Africa’s cocoa, oil, gas, and mineral wealth while fostering dependency on imported food.

Pan-African context

The statement also linked Ghana’s current tensions to broader instability across the continent, citing the conflicts in the Sahel, violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan, and the erosion of regional institutions. The SMG invoked the vision of Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, who championed African unity as essential for resisting exploitation.

“The solution to our problems is to collectively take control of our resources and use them to serve our people’s needs and not the West’s greed,” the movement declared, urging a shift toward a socialist Africa.

Call to action

The SMG encourages Pan-Africanists, organized labor, student movements, and working-class organizations to counter xenophobia with education, mobilization, and demands for socio-economic rights including work, education, housing, and healthcare and fight for collective ownership and peaceful planned development of Africa’s vast resources to meet the needs of our people.

“We stand in solidarity with the Nigerian communities living in Ghana and against those who seek to victimize them,” the statement concluded. “Down with xenophobia! Forward to African unity! Forward to socialism!”

President John Mahama of Ghana has assured Nigeria of the safety of its citizens living in the country, making it clear that there is no place for xenophobia in Ghana. He made the remarks last week while receiving a special envoy from Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.

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