I’m sure you must be familiar with the popular phrase, “Ghana Must Go”? Not talking about the bag, but the incident that brought about the phrase where Ghanaians were being deported from Nigeria back to their country in the early 1980s.
Historic pictures of Ghanaians returning to their country after being expelled by Nigeria has surfaced online.
You can see Ghanians being deported from the ship deck in Lagos on Feb 2, 1983 as they prepared to sail back to their country.
In the 1970s, Ghana was facing a lot of economic hardships, just about the same time Nigeria had an oil boom, Nigeria’s economy was flourishing. Citizens of some West African countries (mostly Ghanians) flocked into Nigeria in search of greener pastures .
In a similar vain, oil prices dropped in the 1980s and the revenue from foreign exhange dropped drastically due to the over-reliance of Nigeria on oil. There were no jobs and the hardship started, hence, the need to expell the Ghanaians that were straining the Nigerian resources.
Other foreign African nationals had to leave too. The Federal Government endorsed the expulsion of 700,000 Ghanaians. They all packed their properties in a particular bag and till date the bag is still being referred to as the “Ghana Must Go” bags.
–Tori
