In 1983, the Nigerian Government
ordered more than a million Ghanaian migrants to leave the country within just
a few weeks.
It was late January 1983 and
President Shehu Shagari suddenly announced that all foreigners without the
right paper work had just two weeks to leave the country. Almost all of them
were West African; the majority of them were from Ghana.
The Nigerian Authority said in an
official statement: “If they don’t leave, they should be arrested, tried and
sent back to their homes. Illegal immigrants, in fact, under normal
circumstances, should not be given any notice whatsoever.”
Across Nigeria, up to two million
migrants heard these warnings. They packed what they could in trucks, cars,
pick-ups and taxis, and tried to get out of the country. The main route home to
Ghana was west through the tiny neighbouring states of Benin and Togo.
Many families were stranded; over
laden lorries, cars or taxis had brought them this far but they camped out in
the hope of being capable to complete their journey home.
Among the exiles, at least one
million were Ghanaians.
The majority of Ghanaians were
drawn to Nigeria during the oil boom of the seventies, but by 1983, the
Nigerian economy was suffering and it was an election year. Nigerian
politicians hoped the expulsion would prove popular. Those with longer memories
remembered that Ghana had expelled Nigerian migrants in 1969 but the scale this
time was unprecedented.
Following an attempted coup the
previous year, Ghana’s leader Jerry Rawlings had clo9sed the main land crossing
with Togo and so, to avoid being host to a sudden influx of over a million
migrants, Togo, in turn shut its border with Benin. That left the Ghanaian
refugees stuck again.
Tens of thousands of refugees,
mostly Ghanaians, were massed at the border of the two tiny African states of
Benin and Togo. The road home to Ghana had come to a standstill, hopelessly
clogged with vehicles and a mass of refugees, while the frontier remained
temporarily closed.
Finally, Ghana relented and
opened its border. Togo followed suit. Within minutes of the frontier opening,
there was chaos. Many families had been waiting ten days to walk the fifty
yards from Benin to Togo.
There had been real fears that
Ghana whose population was then around 12 million, could not cope with such an
influx. Its economy was already in crisis. There were shortages. There were
bush-fires and drought, and yet, across the country, the refugees were
reabsorbed by their communities.
Within a year, thousand of
Ghanaians had returned back to Nigeria and there was another, much smaller
round of expulsions two years later. Today, there remains a small everyday
reminder of the exodus called ‘Ghana must go’.
‘Ghana must go’ was the name given
to the huge cheap checkered bags used by Ghanaians more than thirty years ago
which are still popular today. The migration then was called ‘Ghana must Go’.
Source: Legit.ng, Ourpage9ja
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