“Ghana Must Go” — Mass Deportation of 2 Million Immigrants

In January 1983, President Shehu Shagari ordered the expulsion of all undocumented immigrants from Nigeria, giving them just two weeks to leave. An estimated 2 million West Africans — including over 1 million Ghanaians — were deported in what became one of the largest mass expulsions in modern African history. The move came as Nigeria’s oil-fueled economy collapsed after the global oil price crash.

Deportees hurriedly packed their belongings into large, cheap, striped woven plastic bags — which have been called “Ghana Must Go” bags across West Africa ever since. The deportation damaged Nigeria’s relationships with its neighbours and contradicted the pan-African ideals of ECOWAS, which Nigeria had helped establish just eight years earlier.