Ghana Armed Forces - The Military in Politics

The Military in Politics

Ghana's modern military was formed after independence in 1957. Major General Stephen Otu was the first native Ghanaian Chief of Defence Staff, being appointed in September 1961. From 1966 the military was extensively involved in politics, mounting several coups. Kwame Nkrumah had become Ghana's first Prime Minister when the country became independent in 1960. Nkrumah's rule wore on, he began to take actions which disquieted the leadership of the armed forces, including the creation and expansion of the President's Own Guard Regiment. As a result, on February 24, 1966, a small number of army officers and senior police officials, led by Colonel Emmanuel Kotoka, commander of the Second Army Brigade at Kumasi, Major Akwasi Afrifa, staff officer in charge of army training and operations, Lieutenant General (retired) Joseph Ankrah, and J.W.K. Harlley, the police inspector general, successfully launched a coup d'état against the Nkrumah regime. The group formed the National Liberation Council, which was to rule Ghana from 1966 to 1969.

The second coup took place in 1972, after the reinstated civilian government had cut military privileges and began to start changing the leadership of the army's combat units. Lieutenant Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, temporarily commanding the First Brigade around Accra, led a bloodless coup that ended the Second Republic in January 1972. Thus the National Redemption Council was formed. Acheampong became head of state, and the NRC ruled from 1972 to 1975.

On October 9, 1975, the NRC was replaced by the Supreme Military Council. Its composition consisted of Colonel Acheampong, the chairman, who was also promoted straight from Colonel to General. The others included the military hierarchy consisting of Lt. Gen. Fred Akuffo, the Chief of Defence Staff, and the army, navy, air force and Border Guards commanders respectively.

In July 1978, in a sudden move, the other SMC officers forced Acheampong to resign, replacing him with Lieutenant General Akuffo. The SMC apparently acted in response to continuing pressure to find a solution to the country's economic dilemma. Inflation was estimated to be as high as 300 percent that year. The council was also motivated by Acheampong's failure to dampen rising political pressure for changes. Akuffo, the new SMC chairman, promised publicly to hand over political power to a new government to be elected by 1 July 1979. The decree lifting the ban on party politics went into effect on 1 January 1979, as planned. However in June, just before the scheduled resumption of civilian rule, a group of young armed forces officers, led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, mounted yet another coup. They put in place the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, which ruled until September 1979. However, in 1981, Rawlings deposed the new civilian government again, this time establishing the Provisional National Defence Council. The PNDC remained in power until January 7, 1993. In the last years of the PNDC, Jerry Rawlings assumed civilian status; he was elected as a civilian President in 1993 and continued in power until 2001.