How alleged abuse of power prompted the NDC founders 1979 coup d’état

An account is given, albeit anecdotally, that the arrogance of power, abuse of power, needless arrests and detentions, injustices, alleged bribery and corruption, and the harsh living conditions at the time prompted a group of patriotic citizens to stand up against the injustices and demanded a democratic rule in 1979.

But before the country could reach a consensus on the question of civilian rule, a group of discontented junior army officers led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings of blessed memory failed in their insurrection against General Fred Akuffo’s regime on 15^th May 1979, which led to the arrest and trial of Rawlings and his cohorts.

Nevertheless, the judicial process was halted prematurely by a group of soldiers sympathetic to Rawlings, who revolted on 4^th June 1979.

The June 4 1979 jailbreakers gleefully released suspects and convicts from a lawful penitentiary, deposed the government of the day and gave uncountable innocent Ghanaians a hell in the process.

While the unrepentant exponents of the founders of the National Democratic Congress’s(NDC) 1979 sanguineous coup d’état continue to argue impetuously that but for the excesses, the action by the coup makers was in order, the opponents of the bloody coup contend forcefully that the coup makers were rather dishonest and pharisaic.

The opponents would contend solemnly that Ghanaians were slavishly maltreated in their own homeland; the good people of Ghana, rather, received cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment at the hands of the coup enthusiasts.

Notwithstanding the unbridled abuse of power by the government of the day, some of us are of the view that such coarse administration should not be deposed via ballistic missiles, machine guns, bazookas, and machetes, it should rather be done through the universal suffrage.

The seasoned journalist, Malik Kweku Baako, could not have put it any better when he aptly described the founders of the NDC as nothing but ‘remorseless’ opportunists’ (emphasis mine).

Kweku Baako was absolutely right when he asserted that the socio-economic meltdown during the Supreme Military Council (SMC 1&2) regimes called for drastic measures to ‘clean’ the system, but the excesses of the 1979 coup d’état , regrettably, debased the otherwise necessary intervention.

Baako, however, did not waffle at all, when he ventured and stressed forthrightly that he can never forgive the founder of NDC, Rawlings and his rabble rousers for stretching the whole concept of ‘house cleaning exercise’ and needlessly deposing the democratically elected government of the People’s National Party(PNP) led by Dr Hilla Limann of blessed memory on 31st December 1981.

The coup makers proceeded with their intentions and callously exterminated prominent people including General Fred Akuffo, General Kutu Acheampong, General Akwasi Afrifa and many others, who were accused of unbridled sleazes, bribery and corruption .

Regrettably, however, if we juxtapose the so-called sleazes and corruption back then to the bribery and corruption in today’s Ghana, we cannot help but to conclude that people were shot for less.

In Ghana today, some public servants would unblushingly dip their hands into the national coffers as if tomorrow will never come and go scot free, while the goat, mobile phone, cassava and plantain thieves are incarcerated.

Apparently, the arrogance of power and power abuse prompted the founder of NDC, the late President Rawlings to lament: “The principles of June 4 are not alien or has never been alien to mankind. They are no different from the most basic religious or human values. Probity, accountability and social justice would on any day liberate the overwhelming majority of our people from the bondage or difficulties they find themselves in.

“The fight against corruption, greed and avarice has however been at great cost. Noble soldiers have died; noble civilians have died for it and so many of the noble ones have suffered and continue to suffer all kinds of indignities for their principles and convictions.

“I want to remind people that we could not have possibly forgotten that Generals were executed. The greed, corruption and injustice of today is a thousand times more than what these Generals were executed for, and if we are unable to restore a firm measure of integrity into our dealings, then the blood of many would have been shed in vain”(Rawlings; myjoyonline.com, 2017).

Much as it is absolutely abominable for an elected government to resort to sleaze and corruption and gratuitous arrests and detentions of citizens, it is treasonable to supplant a democratically elected government through a vicious coup; it should rather be done through the ballot box.

May God bless our homeland Ghana!
K. Badu, UK.
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