‘’We should be grateful for the continuing peace and stability of our nation and the freedom the people continue to enjoy….
We were lucky to escape the Ebola virus and we have to commend the government and the public health institutions for the work they have done so far in keeping our nation and our borders free of this virus.’’ — Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, NPP 2016 flagbearer
Page 2 of Daily Guide, January 7, 2015.
Last Wednesday January 7, 2015, was the 22nd anniversary of the Fourth Republic, a very long time indeed in the history of this country for a regime based on a constitution, to survive. Indeed, if you were born 22 years ago, you would have voted once for our President, in 2012, and the lurid reports of our tumultuous undemocratic past stretching way back from 1957 would be considered as fanciful tales of overheated imaginations.
It is the Fourth Republic because the first three regimes were interrupted by military juntas which overthrew the civilian constitutional governments of the first, second and third republics. Up to January 7, 1993, therefore, this country was considered politically unstable and risky for all sorts of ventures; economic, social and political. This view held sway even though for 11 years before the 1993 date, one military regime, the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) of then Chairman Rawlings, had remained in office, and imposed its own view of stability on our national affairs.
Mahama’s 2nd year
The date also coincided with the second year in office of President John Mahama, having been sworn in on January 7, 2013. For some of us who have completely lost sight of the entire forest for the seduction of individual trees, this is more important than the whole edifice which has bestowed on the people of this country 22 long years of normalcy, peace and stability that had eluded us since independence in March 1957.
This narrow interest in who is President or Head of State at any time obscures the political reality of this country; the ideological inclination of the majority of Ghanaians. Apart from the initial National Liberation Council from 1966 to 1969, all other military regimes have been leftish in nature, and so have the majority of our freely and fairly elected civilian governments. The truth here is that our people prefer those in power to be so, and it is neither here nor there to condemn such politicians for lapses of any kind because their ideological inclinations are found agreeable by Ghanaians over the period.
For those of us who did not live through the long period before the Fourth Republic, it is a valid question to inquire into why our earlier republican attempts at self-rule failed because the civilian politicians were dislodged from office by soldiers. I believe the answers to this explain, to some degree, the longevity and undoubted success of the Fourth Republic.
Collective failure
I am aware of the very many reasons for our collective failure to sustain civil democratic government, and also of the propensity of a whole lot of us to blame others for the failure of the politicians in situ at the time of the disruptions.
I use collective because I am keenly aware of the loaded truth and wisdom in an oft-quoted line of John Milton poetry that “They also serve who stand and wait.’’ This is a line which underscores the interest and participation of the poet in the English Revolution of 1688. It was a favourite quotation of Dr Busia in the years of opposition to the CPP government of President Nkrumah.
I am a member of the tiny school that lays the blame principally in the bosoms of those who were in power at the time, and whose principal job was to sustain themselves in power, to enable their own programmes to be executed for the benefit of Ghanaians. The story of the earlier regimes which failed in this primary task of self-preservation is further testament to the lessons our leaders have learnt in this Fourth Republic.
1966 Coup makers
Before President Nkrumah left on his fateful trip to Hanoi to broker peace in the Vietnam War, he was informed of the names and plans of the leading military officers who eventually overthrew him on February 24, 1966. His amazing response to this report was that he would deal with the identified persons on his return from his Vietnam trip. He was overthrown in his absence. This mistake of executive judgement trumps all other reasons for the demise of the First Republic.
Overthrow of Busia
It was worse with the Second Republic of Prime Minister Busia. He discounted a security report on the CPP inclinations and, therefore, anti-government propensities of the then Colonel Kutu Acheampong, whom he amazingly appointed to be the commander of the Ist Infantry Brigade. The reason Acheampong was preferred over others even more qualified than him, is too contemptible to be repeated here. This appointment gave Acheampong the authority and the means to remove his benefactors from office, and end the Second Republic of Dr Busia.
Dr Hilla Limann
By the time of the Third Republic administration of President Hilla Limann in 1979, the military had been politicised beyond salvation by their combined participation in our politics from 1966 to 1969, and 1972 to 1979. Some of us have blissfully forgotten the obvious fact that without the coming into political office of Acheampong, who in turn was inspired by the 1966 coup makers, there would have been no Rawlings, or even succeeding republics.
President Limann was merely a victim of the vicious infighting among his party gurus who sought personal advantage through his ignorance of the nooks and crannies of a hopelessly divided ruling party. It is my conviction that the situation was ripe for a disruption, and that we had a Jerry Rawlings who stuck to his promise to make his December 31, 1981 coup the last coup in this country.
If you are just above 22 years of age, the above statement regarding the Arkaah matter can be presented in another way; that without Vice- President Kow Arkaah’s removal from the NDC ticket in 1996, there would have been no Vice President, and later, President John Atta Mills. The only positive difference in the two scenarios both spawning what followed was that in the case of Vice President Arkaah, we stuck with the constitution, and thus no undue disruption was caused in our politics.
We have come a very long way indeed, and we must congratulate ourselves on sticking with our present constitution. Our leaders have learnt the hard way of experience.
