Ghana: 1957 – 2007
A Brief Political overview
Introduction:Observers who point out that Ghana is the only stable country in a sub-region laden with conflict should be reminded that a country, like a child needs good upbringing. Ghana, unlike other countries in Africa, had an extremely good beginning. The seeds of national solidarity, development, sense of belongingness and pan African solidarity with others were sown by Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and his Convnetion Peoples Party (CPP). While regimes like the NLC and its precursor, PNDC2 tried to destabilise and downgrade everything Kwame Nkrumah achieved; Nkrumah’s legacy has had a lasting influence on Ghana, and ensures that Ghana remains a haven of stability.
Colonial History Ghana was the first country south of the Sahara to gain independence from British colonial rule on 6 March 1957. Prior to this, what is now known as Ghana was a collection of various states and ethnic groups only held together because they were under British colonial rule? The Southern part of Ghana was called the Gold Coast, while the North remained a Protectorate under British colonial rule. Ghana derives its name from one of the ancient Sudanese Empires, which flourished between the fourth and tenth centuries. These three empires were: the Mali Empire, the Ghana Empire and the Songhai empire. Several kingdoms emerged from these Empires, the most prominent of them being the Dagbon, the Ashanti, the Denkyira, the Fanti among several others. The arrival of the Europeans especially the Portuguese in the late 5th century, saw the beginning of slave trade in the area. In the following 300 years the Gold Coast became one of the largest slave trade centres of the region. Slaves from the area went as far as the new world, and the Caribbean. Gold and Cotton became common trading commodities. For a long time, the Ashanti kingdom resisted colonial takeover, but by the 19th century, the British with the help of the Fanti Kingdom, defeated the Ashanti in 1874.
The Bond of 1844 between the British and the Fanti confederacy had already allowed the British to control the coast of Ghana. Only the North and the Ashanti Empire remained outside this area of control. The conquest of the Ashanti Empire in 1874 completed the British takeover of the area then known as the Gold Coast, and brought the whole of the Gold Coast under British colonial control.The struggle for independence was long and less brutal than some African countries. The Aborigines Rights Protection Society, was one of the earliest anti-colonial movements in the Gold Coast. It was soon overtaken by the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) led by Dr. Danquah and others. Kwame Nkrumah’s return to Ghana from exile, on the invitation of the UGCC changed the course of Ghanaian history. Kwame Nkrumah broke away from the UGCC partly because it was not radical enough, and mainly because the UGCC leadership was considered by the youth to be pro-colonial. Kwame Nkrumah found the Convention Peoples Party to challenge the UGCC.
Independence and after1957, Ghana became the first British colonial territory in Africa to be decolonized. This was led by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and his Convention Peoples Party. From this time onwards, the CPP was confronted by an alliance of cocoa farmers, landowners and lawyers from the Ashanti region who formed the anti-CPP National Liberation Movement. Some factions of the Ewe Togoland which joined Ghana after independence also found a secessionist movement seeking to separate the Volta region from Ghana. In 1960, Kwame Nkrumah declared Ghana a Republic with himself as the first President.
With astonishing speed, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah accelerated Ghana’s economic development making serious progress in all sectors: industry, education, health, infrastructure development and social services. Ghana became a leader in the development of Africa, and Nkrumah became the envy of world leaders. It was in the anti-colonial struggle that Nkrumah became a leading advocate and star in Africa and the black world.Nkrumah and the pan African decolonizationKwame Nkrumah’s belief was the “the independence of Ghana was meaningless unless it was linked up with the total liberation of Africa.” He meant it. Kwame Nkrumah became a leader of the global Pan African movement, and was recognized for his contribution to peace and development the world over. He also played a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement and the Bandung conference of Africa, Asian, Latin American leaders. At the United Nations and the Commonwealth, Kwame Nkrumah was a stalwart, whose moving speeches were often the highlight of these conference. Nkrumah built a democratic liberal welfare state in which health, education and social services were all free. Kwame Nkrumah used his Young Pioneers and the Workers Brigade as institutions for pan African solidarity and nation building.
Foreign Interventions and Coups On 24th February 1966, the radical progressive government of Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown by a gang of traitors led by a Colonel Emmanuel Kotoka and his National Liberation Council. The coup had been financed and directed from the United States by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its Ghanaian traitors. Kwame Nkrumah went into exile in Guinea, where he remained till his death in 1972. The National Liberation Council (NLC) was a right wing military dictatorship, which under the tutelage of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), destroyed Kwame Nkrumah’s legacy. Kwame Nkrumah dubbed this group the National Liars Council.In 1969, the NLC handed over power to the Progress Party (PP) under the Prime Ministership of Dr. Abrefa Busia, an Oxford educated academic. The PP government will be remembered for its rural development policy. Dr. Busia’s government was also overthrown on 13th January 1972 by General Kutu Acheampong, ushering in the National Redemption Council (NRC) which later metamorphosed into the Supreme Military Council (SMC). The Supreme Military Council saw a change in leadership with the overthrow of General Acheampong’s government, and his replacement by General Akuffo’s lackluster and totally incompetent SMC2 regime.June Four 1979 and afterGeneral Akuffo’s SMC2 was also overthrown on 4th June 1979 by the rank and file of the Ghana Armed Forces, who formed the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) under the leadership of Ft. Lt. Jerry Rawlings and Major Boakye Djan. Contrary to popular belief, Rawlings was not the real architect of the June 4 Uprising. The AFRC handed over to the Peoples National Party (PNP) under Dr. Hilla Limann in 1979. The PNP sought to repair the damage done to Ghana by years of military rule, but the PNP government suffered from sabotage and constant coup plot led by Rawlings and the June 4 Movement.
The June Four Movement (JFM) was founded by ex-student leaders like Mr. Kwesi Adu, Sakua Agambilla, Zaya Yeebo, Nyeya Yen, and Nicholas Atampugre and Kofi Portuphy. Rawlings was invited to join the JFM soon afterwards. Other radical groups of that period were: the New Democratic Movement (NDM) led by Akoto Ampaw (popularly known as “sheshe”) and Kwame Karikari; the Movement for National Affairs (MONAS), led by Major Boakye Djan, Kwesi Pratt and Kweku Baako jnr, and the Peoples Revolutionary League of Ghana (PRLG) led by Kojo Ababio Nubour. The 31st December 1981 coupOn 31st December 1981, the government of the late Dr. Hilla Limann was also overthrown in a coup led by an alliance of junior ranks of the armed forces, progressive ex-students, labour unions and foreign interests. This brought about the birth of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime under the chairmanship of Ft. Lt Jerry Rawlings. Initially the PNDC had a progressive pro-people outlook as it sought to promote a genuine peoples revolution based on the concept of a peoples and workers defence committees and self reliance. The progressive section of this regime, led by Chris Atim, Sgt Allolga Akata-Pore (members of the PNDC) and Zaya Yeebo, secretary for Youth and Sports, also sought a radical socialist development policy, based on self reliance. This faction of the regime had to contend with the right wing faction which sought an unholy alliance with the IMF and the World Bank.Between 1982–1983, Rawlings pro-market, proto-fascist policies failed and led to the country to complete economic collapse. Instead of seeking an alternative, Rawlings dug his heels deeper into an unholy alliance with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. This led to a collusion course with junior ranks of the armed forces and the radical faction of the PNDC. Through executions, torture and arrests, Rawlings finally saw off the radicals within the PNDC. While he arrested several soldiers, others like Chris Atim (PNDC member) and Zaya Yeebo (PNDC Secretary for Youth & Sports) resigned from the PNDC in December 1982. Other members of the PNDC like Brigadier Nunoo Mensah, John Agyekum Kuffour (now President), also resigned from the PNDC and ministerial positions respectively. These resignations paved the way for PNDC 11 which later emerged as one of the most brutal regimes in Ghana’s history. Between 1984 – 1990, the Rawlings dictatorship implemented one of the severest structural adjustment policies in Ghanaian history. This led to the retrenchment of several thousands of workers, the abuse of human rights, censorship of the press, and severe hardship for most Ghanaians. It is estimated that several hundreds of Ghanaians were executed for crimes ranging from corruption to coup plots. While Ghanaians suffered excruciatingly under the brutal hardships imposed by the IMF and the World Bank, Ghana was hailed as a “success story.” The western media and the foreign supporters of Rawlings dubbed Ghana the “IMF baby”. As the IMF policies failed, the regime was forced to more desperate measures. The Rawlings PNDC regime epitomised the weaknesses of foreign induced economic philosophies and their reliance on the IMF and World Bank orthodoxy. The support which Rawlings enjoyed was also a reflection of the double standards of African academics and their foreign counterparts, for whom everything is fine and worthy of support as long as it happens to somebody else, or does not take place in their own countries.Due to popular pressure for democratic multi-party rule led by the exile movement and radical progressive forces in Ghana like Kwesi Pratt, Rawlings was forced to concede to the peoples demand for democratic accountability. A constitutional review process resulted in the restoration of political parties in 1992, after a ten-year hiatus. It is important to point that Rawlings tried all the tricks in the book to hang on to power, but the will of the people prevailed and he had no choice but to hand over power when he was finally defeated at the ballot box. Civil Military Relations Ghana was the first country south of the Sahara to win impendence for the British colonial administration. Like most post colonial countries, its achievements, failures and problems have been associated mainly with the institutions of the colonial power. Most institutions of the colonial regime were refined, ‘Africanised’, not structurally reformed to respond to the needs of the emerging democratic systems. In the case of Ghana, military rule has dominated Ghanaian politics since independence for several reasons. Ghanaian politics is largely defined by the main players of the struggle for independence, thus defining periodically, which social class or ideological bloc has to come to power. Unfortunately, the neo-colonial system did not have inbuilt democratic systems for changes in leadership, or for addressing the concerns of minorities (political, not ethnic). Hence, we find that until 1994, power has always fluctuated between the Kwame Nkrumah party and its supporters, or the Busia/ Danquah supporters or fraternity. Military regimes always followed this rule. So for instance, a militaty regime had to be either pro-CPP (Kwame Nkrumah) or pro-PP (Busia/Danquah). National Liberation Council – Pro-Busia/Danquah, anti CPP. Pro cocoa growing areas, rich lawyers and farmers in the Ashanti regions. Supreme Military Council 1 – anti-Busia/Danquah, pro-CPP and pan Africa. Preached self reliance. Angered the IMF and international financial institutions by repudiating Ghana’s debts. Between 1957 and 2007, civil military relations has been defined by tension and also by the intervention of powerful western interests. On top of this relationship has been:
§ Role of western financial institutions (IMF, World Bank, CIA, etc)
§ How governments respond to neo-colonial economic crisis (Acheampong, Rawlings)
Which social group/class is on the ascendancy (CPP/Busia dichotomy – left/right of the ideological divide)
Democratic Transition In 1992, Rawlings began to reluctantly implement a limited lifting of the ban on political activity, while his own National Democratic Congress (NDC) held sway. Rawlings introduced a new constitution and rigged the Presidential and parliamentary elections of 1992 and in 1996 elections. The Rawlings era will be remembered for its gross abuse of human rights, the assassination of three High Court Judges and a retired army office, and the executions of several opponents. The western world hailed Ghana as a model for the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) for developing nations. However, political and economic instability stalked the Rawlings regime. His government was also known for the increase in unrest created by domestic inter-communal violence caused by ethnic rivalries and disputes over land ownership accentuated by years of SAP programmes. Multi-party elections held in December 2000 saw a peaceful transition of power from the long serving ‘quasi military’ regime of Jerry Rawlings to a fully-fledged democratically elected civilian government led by John Agyekum Kuffuor and his NPP administration. The NPP inherited a country beholden to neo-colonialism and to the IMF//World Bank, a country in which the disparity between the rich and the poor is constantly widening, HIPC (highly Indebted Poor Countries) was the wrong medicine. Towards the end of his despotic, incompetent and utterly corrupt rule, Rawlings (second four-year term) had become one of the most unpopular leaders in contemporary Ghanaian history. The Rawlings era will be remembered for its high degree of cronyism, insensitivity towards the poor, mismanagement, arrogance, incompetence, and corruption. These also became the hall marks of the NDC administration in power.
§ Rawlings spread the poison of dishonesty, deceit corruption, dishonour and mistrust in the Ghanaian political system. His (Rawlings) entire political period has been a weapon of moral destruction (WMD). It was therefore no surprise when Ghanaians voted his corrupt government out of power in the year 2000. Kuffour defeated Rawlings and his NDC 2000. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has since ruled Ghana, taking measures to address some of negative consequences of the years of Rawlings abysmal administration. In 2004, Kuffour once again defeated the NDC party, led this time by Arthur Mills. Ghana has made considerable political progress in recent years. It remains one of the few functioning multi-party parliamentary democracies in the highly unstable West-African sub-region. The effectiveness of the Parliamentary process is improving, both in terms of the quality of debate and in increasingly effective scrutiny through the committee system. Since the 1996 elections, Parliament has maintained an effective opposition, which participates in policy debates and provides appropriate checks and balances in the legislative process. The favourable political environment has had a positive impact on press freedom, on the quality of governance and human rights. It has encouraged the development of a strong civil society, including NGOs, community based organisations (CBOs) and faith-based groups. Civil society organisations (CSOs) are active in service delivery, advocacy issues and debates on public policy. The government is keen to expand its partnership with CSOs, in order to develop the range, scope and effectiveness of its services. This partnership between civil society and the state, especially at a local level, is seen as critical to developing local services with local ownership. Although democratic processes at national and local levels have produced significant and progressive changes in governance structures, overall, institutions remain generally weak and capacity to implement policies is variable. Significantly too, limited progress has been achieved in terms of gender equity and the promotion of women’s rights. Women are still under-represented at decision-making levels in public life.
Zaya Yeebo
Source: The GhanaianOracle.com
