Another January 13 passeth by!

On Saturday, 13th January 2024, another 13th January slipped by quietly. For anyone born on that day in 1972, it was the 52nd anniversary of then Lt Col (later Gen) IK Acheampong’s overthrow of Ghana’s Second-Republic led by Prime-Minister Dr KA 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 IK Acheampong (2023) titled “General Acheampong: The Life and Times of Ghana’s Head of State.”

13th January Significant?

Like the Ides (15th) of March (44 BC) in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” the date 13th January is significant. Why? On 13 January 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 13th January 1972, the government of Prime Minister Dr Busia was overthrown by then Lt Col IK Acheampong. This was not Ghana’s first coup d’etat though.

It started on 24 February 1966, when then Colonel EK Kotoka (later Lt Gen), Commander 2-Infantry-Brigade-Group in the northern sector of Ghana and his Brigade-Major, Major AA Afrifa (later Lt Gen), supported by Police Commissioners Harlley and Deku, overthrew the government of President Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah. The bloody coup saw the killing of the Army Commander Maj Gen CM Barwah. Lt Gen JA Ankrah (Rtd) became the Head of State.

President Nkrumah who was then on his way to Viet-Nam ostensibly to broker peace for the Viet-Nam War was left stranded. Eventually, President Sekou Toure of Guinea made Osagyefo co-President of Guinea until his death in Romania on 27th April 1972 aged 62.

On 17th April 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 SB Arthur, Lt Moses Yeboah and 2/Lt Osei-Poku. Arthur and Yeboah were executed by firing squad while Osei-Poku was jailed for thirty years. Incidentally, like Gen Barwah in the first coup, Gen Kotoka was killed in the abortive coup.

1979-1992 

Apart from the period between 24 September 1979 and 31 December 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 and 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 IK Akyeampong, Gen FWK Akuffo and Gen AA Afrifa. The rest were a former Army Commander Gen REA Kotei, the Navy Commander Rear-Admiral Joy Amedume, the Air-Force Commander Air-Vice-Marshal GY Boakye and the Border-Guards Commander Gen EK Utuka. 

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

On 30th June 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 KA Agyapong, Justice FP Sarkodie and Major Buckman (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. Like it 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 have 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.

The Schneider Doctrine  

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…The only limitation to this is in the case that, the State stopped acting within its legality. In that case, the Armed Forces have a higher loyalty to the people, and are free to decide an abnormal situation beyond the framework of the Law.”

On 24 October, 1970 Gen Schneider was assassinated.

Teodoro Nguema has been president of Equatorial Guinea for 45 years. Paul Biya of Cameroons has been president for over forty years.

Eyadema was president of Togo for 38 years from 1967-2005. His son Fuare Gnassingbe has since been president of Togo from 2005.

Examples like this give credence to and support the Schneider Doctrine. Unsurprisingly, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have all had military interventions in recent times.

In 2016, ECOWAS forced out President Yahyah Jammeh after he refused to hand over after being defeated.

Summary

The phenomenon of coups d’état in West Africa which started in Togo on 13th January 1963 with Sgt Eyadema killing President Olympio, was soon to spread across the sub-region. Gen Acheampong’s overthrow of Dr Busia on 13 Jan 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, hind-sight has been the better teacher. Did 1979/1981 coups stop corruption in Ghana after all the bloodshed? Sadly, when military rule is lambasted, Ghanaians conveniently forget prominent civilians who contributed immensely to the bloodshed in 1979/1981!

For Ghana, we have seen it all, and we should know better. At age sixty-seven on 6th March 2024, all we want is peace, not multidimensional corruption continued. That way, Ghana can develop the way Malaysia which gained independence in 1957 like Ghana, has done. 

Leadership, lead by example! Fellow Ghanaians, WAKE UP!

The writer is a former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association, Nairobi, Kenya and Council Chairman, Family Health University College, Accra

dkfrimpong@yahoo.com