“If you break a law, then you have to pay for it,” said the president. Acquaye and millions like him with no papers were told to get out within two weeks or risk jail. Illegal immigrants, under normal circumstances, should not be given any notice whatsoever,” President Shagari said. “If they don’t leave, they should be arrested and tried and sent back to their homes. Acquaye had just listened to Shehu Shagari, the Nigerian leader who favoured long hats, declare the expulsion of an estimated two million undocumented migrants living in the country. “I was not ready to leave,” said Acquaye, now 67. They represent a period of despair that many Ghanaians would rather forget. The bags followed him home, as he crossed two countries to return to Ghana and, 36 years later, they still stare at him from stores on every corner - with the same cursed name. But it was when people started calling them “Ghana must go” bags that the young man knew it was time to leave. The bags had always been popular: they were big and spacious and sturdy enough for long-haul travel. Nigerian traders sold out of the bags as hundreds jostled to get as many as they could to pack their things into. They were wanted in Lagos markets with an intensity never experienced before. They had no name and came in blue and red, in big and medium sizes, all checked. It was the bags that made up Solomon “Acquaye” Asiedu’s mind.
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