Another January 13 passeth by!

On Saturday, January 13, 2024, another January 13 slipped by quietly.

For anyone born on that day in 1972, it was the 52nd anniversary of then Lt Col (later Gen) I.K. Acheampong’s overthrow of Ghana’s Second Republic led by Prime Minister Dr K.A. Busia.  

While some Ghanaians opine that the day does not deserve remembering, as it was a coup by the military against a constitutionally elected government, the day cannot also be wished away and erased from Ghana’s history.

This is because, given the fallible nature of the human being, no nation can catalogue only good deeds as constituting its history.

Life’s reality is that every country’s history is a mixture of “the good, the bad and the ugly!” Mistakes must be acknowledged and corrected.

Prof. Baffour Agyeman-Duah has written a book on General I.K. Acheampong (2023) titled General Acheampong: The Life and Times of Ghana’s Head of State.

January 13th significant?

Like the Ides (15th) of March (44 BC) in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, January 13th is significant. Why?

On January 13, 1963, West Africa’s first coup d’état took place in Togo.

On that day, President Sylvanus Olympio was overthrown and killed by Sgt Eyadema, leading a group of colonial Togolese soldiers demobilised by France after service in French Indo-China.

Eyadema subsequently made himself the Head of State.

In Ghana, on January 13, 1972, the government of Prime Minister Dr Busia was overthrown by then Lt Col I.K. Acheampong.

This was not Ghana’s first coup d’etat though.

It started on February 24, 1966, when then Colonel E.K. Kotoka (later Lt Gen), Commander 2-Infantry-Brigade-Group in the northern sector of Ghana, and his Brigade-Major, Major A.A. Afrifa (later Lt Gen), supported by Police Commissioners Harlley and Deku overthrew the government of President Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

The bloody coup saw the killing of Army Commander Maj. Gen. C.M. Barwah. Lt Gen JA Ankrah (Rtd) then became the Head of State.

President Nkrumah, who was then on his way to Vietnam, ostensibly to broker peace for the Vietnam War was left stranded.

Eventually, President Sekou Toure of Guinea made Osagyefo co-president of Guinea until he died in Romania on April 27, 1972, aged 62.

On April 17, 1967, the 2 Recce (Reconnaissance) Squadron based in Ho staged an unsuccessful countercoup named operation guitar boy against the military junta.

The three young officers who led the coup were Lt S.B. Arthur, Lt Moses Yeboah and 2/Lt Osei-Poku. Arthur and Yeboah were executed by firing squad while Osei-Poku was jailed for 30 years. 

Incidentally, like Gen. Barwah in the first coup, Gen. Kotoka was killed in the abortive coup.

1979-1992

Apart from the period between September 24, 1979 and December 31, 1981, when Dr Hilla Limann served as President in the Third Republic, the rest of the period from 1979-1992 was dominated by Flt Lt Rawlings, the bloodiest in Ghana’s history.

Significant events include the execution of the Generals, the killing of the Judges, and the disappearance of an estimated 150 Ghanaians.

Executed Generals in June 1979 included three former Heads of State, Gen I.K. Akyeampong, Gen F.W.K. Akuffo and Gen. A.A. Afrifa.

The rest were a former Army Commander, Gen. R.E.A Kotei; Navy Commander Rear-Admiral Joy Amedume; Air-Force Commander Air-Vice-Marshal G.Y. Boakye and Border-Guards Commander Gen. E.K. Utuka. 

Gen. N.A. Odartey-Wellington, the Army Commander, was killed in action while opposing the June 4, 1979, insurrection. Colonel Roger Felli, who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was executed with the Generals.

On June 30, 1982, three judges and a retired Major were abducted from their homes.

Their charred bodies were found at a Military range outside Accra.

They were Justice Cecilia Koranteng-Addow, Justice K.A. Agyapong, Justice FP Sarkodie and Major Acquah (Rtd).

Discussion

The question of the military’s engagement in politics has been extensively discussed in academia.

Harvard Professor Samuel Huntington and University of Michigan Professor Morris Janowitz have written profusely on the subject.

As is the case with most subjects in academics, opinion is divided. 

Some argue that the military as an institution of discipline does not stage coups.

 It is individuals within the military who stage coups.

However, Pakistan and Myanmar (Burma) are cited as examples of countries where the military top hierarchy has led coups and governed.

Others opine that for developing third-world countries, a strong visionary military hand of discipline is needed for direction.

In 1970, a new theory called the Schneider Doctrine came into being.

Gen. Rene Schneider was the Army Commander of Chile in 1970, when Marxist Professor Salvador Allende won the presidential elections at the fourth attempt. Reacting to US objection to Chile having a Marxist President, Gen. Schneider stated as follows:

“The Armed Forces are not a road to political power, nor an alternative to that power.

They exist to guarantee the regular work of the political system, and the use of force for any other purpose than its defence constitutes high treason…”

On October 24, 1970, Gen. Schneider was assassinated.

Summary

The phenomenon of coups d’état in West Africa, which started in Togo on January 13, 1963, with Sgt Eyadema killing President Olympio, was soon to spread across the sub-region.

Gen. Acheampong’s overthrow of Dr Busia on January 13, 1972, was preceded in 1966 by the overthrow of Dr Nkrumah by Gen Kotoka, and President Hilla Limann by Flt Lt Rawlings in 1979.

While coming in through a coup may not make Gen. Acheampong a darling boy of democracy, one cannot deny his contributions to national development.

Some are the Kpong Dam, Dansoman Estates, El Wak Stadium, accommodation for the Armed Forces, Dawhenya Irrigation Scheme and above all “Operation Feed Yourself”, which immensely enhanced Ghana’s food security.

While academics have been divided on the propriety of coups against democratically elected governments, hindsight has been the better teacher.

For Ghana, we have seen it all, and we should know better. 

At age 67 on March 6, 2024, all we want is peace, not continued multidimensional corruption.

 That way, Ghana can develop like the way Malaysia, which also gained independence in 1957, has done.

Leadership, lead by example! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!