Ghana INDEPENDENT GHANA
Ghana's monument to independence, Black Star Square,
Accra
Courtesy James Sanders
On August 3, 1956, the new assembly passed a motion authorizing
the government to request independence within the British
Commonwealth. The opposition did not attend the debate, and the
vote was unanimous. The British government accepted this motion as
clearly representing a reasonable majority. On March 6, 1957, the
113th anniversary of the Bond of 1844, the former British colony of
the Gold Coast became the independent state of Ghana, and the
nation's Legislative Assembly became the National Assembly. Nkrumah
continued as prime minister. According to an independence
constitution also drafted in 1957, Queen Elizabeth II of England
was to be represented in the former colony by a governor general,
and Sir Arden-Clarke was appointed to that position. This special
relationship between the British Crown and Ghana would continue
until 1960, when the position of governor general was abolished
under terms of a new constitution that declared the nation a
republic.
The independence constitution of 1957 provided protection
against easy amendment of a number of its clauses. It also granted
a voice to chiefs and their tribal councils by providing for the
creation of regional assemblies. No bill amending the entrenched
clauses of the constitution or affecting the powers of the regional
bodies or the privileges of the chiefs could become law except by
a two-thirds vote of the National Assembly and by simple majority
approval in two-thirds of the regional assemblies. When local CPP
supporters gained control of enough regional assemblies, however,
the Nkrumah government promptly secured passage of an act removing
the special entrenchment protection clause in the constitution, a
step that left the National Assembly with the power to effect any
constitutional change the CPP deemed necessary.
Among the CPP's earliest acts was the outright abolition of
regional assemblies. Another was the dilution of the clauses
designed to ensure a nonpolitical and competitive civil service.
This allowed Nkrumah to appoint his followers to positions
throughout the upper ranks of public employment. Thereafter,
unfettered by constitutional restrictions and with an obedient
party majority in the assembly, Nkrumah began his administration of
the first independent African country south of the Sahara.
Data as of November 1994
|