Ghana THE FALL OF THE NKRUMAH REGIME AND ITS AFTERMATH
Kwame Nkrumah, prime minister and president, 1957-66
Courtesy Embassy of Ghana, Washington
Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, head of state and
chairman of the National Redemption Council and Supreme Military
Council, 1972-78
Courtesy Embassy of Ghana, Washington
Leaders of the 1966 military coup, including army officers
Colonel E.K. Kotoka, Major A.A. Afrifa, Lieutenant General
(retired) J.A. Ankra, and Police Inspector General J.W.K. Harlley,
justified their takeover by charging that the CPP administration
was abusive and corrupt. They were equally disturbed by Nkrumah's
aggressive involvement in African politics and by his belief that
Ghanaian troops could be sent anywhere in Africa to fight so-called
liberation wars, even though they never did so. Above all, they
pointed to the absence of democratic practices in the nation--a
situation they claimed had affected the morale of the armed forces.
According to General Kotoka, the military coup of 1966 was a
nationalist one because it liberated the nation from Nkrumah's
dictatorship--a declaration that was supported by Alex QuaisonSackey , Nkrumah's former minister of foreign affairs.
Despite the vast political changes that were brought about by
the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah, many problems remained. For
example, the underlying ethnic and regional divisions within the
society had to be addressed. The apparent spirit of national unity
that seemed to have developed during the Nkrumah years turned out
to have resulted in part from his coercive powers as well as from
his charisma. As a consequence, successive new leaders faced the
problem of forging disparate personal, ethnic, and sectional
interests into a real Ghanaian nation. The economic burdens,
aggravated by what some described as past extravagance, would
cripple each future government's ability to foster the rapid
development needed to satisfy even minimal popular demands for a
better life. The fear of a resurgence of an overly strong central
authority would continue to dominate the constitutional agenda and
to pervade the thinking of many educated, politically-minded
Ghanaians. Others, however, felt that a strong government was
essential.
A considerable portion of the population had become convinced
that effective, honest government was incompatible with competitive
political parties. Many Ghanaians remained committed to
nonpolitical leadership for the nation, even in the form of
military rule. The problems of the Busia administration, the
country's first elected government after Nkrumah's fall,
illustrated the problems Ghana would continue to face.
Data as of November 1994
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