*Photo: Professor Kehinde Yusuf *
Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, was a Pan-Africanist par excellence. In his clear manifestation of this Africa-wide vision, Nkrumah declared as follows at the independence of Ghana on 6 March, 1957: “Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa.” In recognition of this broad commitment to African unity, Ghana became a magnet for Africans from across the continent and the diaspora. Many of the Africans who moved to Ghana were into farming, especially cocoa farming, and other commercial activities, and constituted a thriving immigrant community.
Unfortunately, the allure of Ghana as a Pan-African magnet was undermined, beginning with the coup which ousted the Kwame Nkrumah government. As GhanaWeb put it in a 24 February, 2020 article titled “Today in history: Ghana’s first coup – Nkrumah’s overthrow in 1966,” “On 24 February 1966, the National Liberation Council (NLC) overthrew Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) in a military coup d’état while he was on a peace mission in Hanoi the capital of Vietnam at the invitation of the president, Ho Chi Minh.” This coup was a joint military and police operation and was led by Lt-Gen E.K. Kotoka, Major A.A. Afrifa and then Inspector-General of Police, Mr. J.W.K. Harley, with the significant collaboration of civilians such as Professor Kofi Abrefa Busia.
According to biographical accounts, Busia acquired a First degree with Honours in Medieval and Modem History from the University of London (through correspondence), another First degree in Politics, Philosophy & Economics from Oxford University, a Master’s degree in the same subject area from the same university, and a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Nuffield College, Oxford. He was also a Fulbright Scholar in the United States in 1954. Busia was the first African Professor at the University College (now University of Ghana), and became a Professor of Sociology and Culture at the University of Leiden in The Hague, The Netherlands, and a Senior Member of St. Anthony’s College, University of Oxford.
About the 29 August, 1969 parliamentary elections, All Ghana Data, in a 12 April, 2008 article titled “The National Liberation Council and the Busia Years, 1966-71,” said: “The major contenders were the Progress Party (PP), headed by Kofi A. Busia, and the National Alliance of Liberals (NAL), led by Komla A. Gbedemah. Critics associated these two leading parties with the political divisions of the early Nkrumah years. The PP found much of its support among the old opponents of Nkrumah’s CPP … [while] the NAL was seen as the successor of the CPP’s right wing, which Gbedemah had headed until he was ousted by Nkrumah in 1961.”
Incidentally, regarding the elections, the immigrant community in Ghana, particularly Nigerians who were predominantly Yoruba, was largely sympathetic to Gbedemah’s NAL, but Busia’s PP won. He assumed office on 1 October, 1969, and by 18 November, 1969, ostensibly as an act of political vengeance, Busia announced the Aliens Compliance Order. Corroborating this fact, in a May 2009 Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) in History thesis titled “The origins, implementation and effects of Ghana’s 1969 Aliens compliance order” and submitted to the University of Cape Coast, Adjei Adjepong noted: “In spite of its general landslide victory, the Progress Party, it is alleged, blamed its minor losses on the presence of immigrants in the country. To prevent a similar occurrence in the future, the government decided on outright expulsion of all illegal immigrants as the only alternative.”
In addition to the political motive, Adjei Adjepong listed some of the other reasons for the order as: “the government’s desire to reduce the rate of unemployment and remittances from Ghana, combat crime, guarantee the security of the country, compel immigrants to comply with the immigration laws of Ghana, control the growth of the country’s population, ensure cultural homogeneity, clear the streets of immigrant destitutes and beggars, continue the policies of the NLC, and xenophobia on the part of some Ghanaians.”
Johnson Olaosebikan Aremu and Theresa Adeyinka Ajayi, in an invaluable 2014 journal article titled “Expulsion of Nigerian immigrant community from Ghana in 1969: Causes and impact,” quoted the most critical part of Busia’s Aliens Compliance Order which states: “It has come to the notice of the Government that several aliens, both Africans and non-Africans in Ghana, do not possess the requisite residence permits …. There are others, too, who are engaging in business of all kinds contrary to the term of their visiting permits. The Government has accordingly directed that all aliens in the first category, that is those without residence permits, should leave Ghana within fourteen days that is not later than December 2, 1969. Those in the second category should obey strictly the term of their entry permits, and if these have expired they should leave Ghana forthwith. The Ministry of Interior has been directed to comb the country thoroughly for defaulting aliens and aliens arrested for contravening these orders will be dealt with according to the law.”
In local parlance, interestingly in Hausa which is widely spoken in Ghana, especially in the Northern Region of the country, expelled immigrants were derogatorily called “Koren Busia” (‘People expelled by Busia.’) The expulsion of Nigerians from Ghana was done at a most traumatic time. As Aremu and Ajayi put it, “it needs be stated that perhaps the greatest impact of the 1969 expulsion of Nigerians by Ghana in the heat of [the] Nigerian Civil war was interpreted as a tacit way of destabilizing Nigeria and weaken its cohesion, especially when the Igbo elements in Ghana were classified as ‘special refugees’ and were thus exempted from the expulsion order.” The expulsion led to widespread humiliation, suffering and even death of some of the expellees.
Busia’s precipitate ejection of so many investors from Ghana resulted in economic shock. Due to a combination of adverse local and international conditions, and the inflation and patent pains that come with implementing IMF/World Bank policies (which Busia adopted), he fell out of favour with the people, because the Eldorado that the common folks had envisioned from the aliens expulsion did not come to reality. Moreover, the inclement economic climate of the nation necessitated reducing the funding of the military, and the army rode on the back of the citizens’ disaffection with Busia to oust his government on 13 January, 1972 in a coup led by Lt-Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. At the time, Busia was in London receiving medical treatment.
In spite of the coup, Ghana’s economy continued to nosedive. This led to Ghanaians’ economically-motivated ‘reverse immigration’ to Nigeria. Following the established pattern, Ghanaians and other immigrants were held accountable for economic decline, religious crises, and violent crimes like armed robbery. Elections were approaching and anti-immigrant stereotyping was made a campaign strategy. As a show of how the ruling National Party of Nigeria could defend the ‘besieged’ citizens, President Shehu Shagari issued an Executive Order giving illegal immigrants two weeks to leave Nigeria, with effect from 17 January, 1983. Ghanaians were about half of the around two million illegal immigrants affected. The preponderance of Ghanaians among the expellees gave the policy the name “Ghana Must Go” – a name that has also come to stand for the very practical, red or blue, strong checked low-priced bags with which the expellees caried their belongings.
The expulsion was horrendous and led to the death of some of the victims. But it didn’t result in the social and economic benefits that had been envisaged by its supporters. As with the case of Busia, the disillusionment provided the excuse for the military to take over government and usher in the General Muhammadu Buhari military administration on 31 December, 1983. Incidentally, the Buhari government continued with the immigrants expulsion policy.
Beyond West Africa, United States President Donald Trump and his supporters have regularly alleged that illegal immigrants were allowed to vote in 2020, and that this was what led to Trump’s loss. In relation to this claim, CBS fact-checker Laura Doan, in a 30 October, 2024 piece titled “Trump falsely claims noncitizen voter fraud is widespread,” notes: “During the 2024 presidential race, former President Donald Trump and his allies, including X owner Elon Musk, have promoted an unfounded conspiracy theory that undocumented migrants are being allowed into the U.S. to vote. Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud by undocumented immigrants are not new. In 2020, after losing his reelection bid, he alleged that tens of thousands of noncitizens voted in the battleground state of Arizona, which election officials there disputed. Trump made similar claims about illegal voting as far back as 2014.”
Moreover, Trump often blames immigrants for crimes in America. In fact, in his inaugural address on 20 January, 2025, he said: “First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border [with Mexico]. All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. We will reinstate my “Remain in Mexico” policy. I will end the practice of catch and release, and I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country. Under the orders I sign today, we will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. And by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities.”
There is also the belief that undocumented immigrants have been taking Americans’ jobs, and that they have been enjoying benefits they never worked for. So, from his first day as the 47th President of America, Trump signed a series of anti-immigrant Executive Orders. As a consequence, thousands of immigrants have been arrested, handcuffed with legs shackled, and herded on to military planes to be dumped at various borders and foreign airports in horrible conditions. The Executive Orders also allow security personnel to raid stores, farms and churches, among other places, looking for illegal aliens. Many undocumented immigrants have therefore stayed away from work. This has been having devastating effects on Americans with some stores already limiting the quantity of food items a single person can purchase, and with inflation biting hard.
From the foregoing, whether it was Busia’s 1969 “Koren Busia” or Shagari’s 1983 “Ghana Must Go” or Trump’s 2025 “Remain in Mexico” policy, the pattern has been the same. Economic, social and political problems were encountered; immigrants were held responsible; expelling them was seen as the solution; the massive expulsion of immigrants was ordered; and the crises worsened.