Credit June 4 Uprising for Ghana's political stability - Boakye Gyan

A member of the erstwhile Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, Mr. Boakye Gyan, has said that the peace and stability enjoyed in the country today can be traced to the June 4, 1979 uprising

Boakye Gyan, leader and spokesman of the group that overthrew the Akuffo-led military government, says successive governments have been guided by the principles of the revolution and this has ensured stability.

He was speaking on Joy FM's Super Morning Show on Monday on the occasion of the 28th Anniversary of the uprising.

Boakye Gyan said although there have been several attempts to discredit the insurgence, it has shaped the national psyche without question.

On June 4th 1979, a group of junior officers staged what became known as a revolution to overthrow the then military government.

The overthrow by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council saw the incarceration of many people and the execution of others including some former heads of state; Generals A.A. Afrifa, F.W.K. Akuffo and I.K. Acheampong.

The coup was staged ostensibly to rid Ghana of corruption and to hold governments accountable to the people.

But speaking as the spokesman of the erstwhile AFRC, Retired Major Boakye Gyan maintained that the group had its own motives.

“Anytime anybody wants to talk about June 4, they go for the easy option, they did it because of corruption, which isn't true. We did it because we wanted to enforce the constitution which had been abrogated by the sitting senior officers then and had created the situation where they had broken the law; a: by initiating the coups, profiting from it corruptly and as a consequence throw the country into a economic, social and political chaos and yet when people want to react to June 4, they take the last two; you did it because there was economic difficulty. That's not true.”

Boakye Gyan said he had no regrets for what happened twenty-eight years ago and looking back he feels triumphant that the forces then were able to restore order and sanity.

He said the June 4 revolution has been very helpful in the country's political stability.

Mr. Boakye Gyan fell out with the former AFRC Chairman and colleague, Jerry Rawlings after the AFRC handed over power to a democratically elected government.

He stayed in exile until 2001 when the NPP government came to power. The two men remain estranged.