The colonial administration
Since 1850, the coastal regions increasingly came under control of the governor of the British fortress, which was attended by the Executive Council and Legislative Council. The Executive Board is a small advisory body of European officials that recommended laws and voted taxes, subject to approval by the governor. The Legislative Council consists of members of the Executive Board and unofficial members initially chosen from British commercial interests. After 1900 three chiefs and three other Africans were added to the Legislative Council, although the inclusion of Africans from Asante and the Northern Territory did not occur until much later.
The gradual emergence of centralized colonial government brought the unified control over local services, despite the current administration of these services was still delegated to local authorities. Specific duties and responsibilities became clearly defined, and the role of traditional states in local administration said. The local government structure was rooted in traditional patterns of government. Village councils of chiefs and elders were responsible for the immediate needs of individual localities, including traditional law and order and general welfare. The councils governed by consent and not on the right: although elected by the ruling class, a chief continued to rule because it was accepted by his people.
UK authorities have adopted a system of indirect rule, colonial administration, where traditional leaders in power, but he had instructions from their European supervisors. Indirect rule was cost effective (by reducing the number of European officials is necessary), minimize local opposition to the European regulations, and law and order guaranteed. Although theoretically decentralization, indirect rule in practice caused heads to look to Accra (the capital) instead of their people decisions. Many chiefs, who were rewarded with honors, medals and cavalry by the commissioners of the government, came to be regarded as a ruling aristocracy. In the preservation of traditional formS of power, indirect rule does not provide opportunities for the growth of the country's population of youth education. Other groups were not satisfied because there is insufficient cooperation between councils and central government and because some felt that local authorities were also dominated by the British district commissioners.
In 1925, the provincial councils of chiefs were established in the three provinces of the colony, partly to give the leaders a role in the colony. The 1927 Native Administration Ordinance to clarify and regulate the powers and areas of jurisdiction of chiefs and councils. In 1935, the Native Authorities Ordinance combined central colonial government and local authorities into a single system of government. New native authorities, appointed by the governor, were given broad powers of local government under the supervision of central government provincial commissioners, to be sure that his policies would be the central government. The provincial councils and in promoting them were not popular. Even by British standards, the leaders were not given enough power to be effective instruments of indirect rule. Some citizens of Ghana believes that the reformS, increasing the power of the chiefs at the expense of local initiative, enabled the colonial government to prevent movement towards any form of popular participation in government of the colony.
Economic and social development
The years of British rule in the Gold Coast during the 20th century were a time of significant advances in the social, economic and educational. Communications and railways have been greatly improved. New crops, including cacao trees were also introduced and gained wide acceptance, cocoa production would become an important part of the economy of Ghana.
Proceeds from the colony increased further from the export of timber and gold. Revenue from export of natural resources of the colony funded internal improvements in infrastructure and social services. The foundation of an educational system more advanced than anything else not in West Africa also resulted from mineral export revenue. It was through British-style education that a new elite of Ghana won the means and the desire to fight for independence. From its beginnings in missionary schools, the first part of the 20th century saw the opening of secondary schools in the country and the first institute of higher learning.
Many of the economic and social improvements in the Gold Coast in the first part of this century have been attributed to the Canadian-born Gordon Guggisberg, governor from 1919 to 1927. At the beginning of his government, presented a program of development of ten years for the Legislative Council. It was first suggested by improved transportation. Then, in order of priority, his prescribed improvements included water supply, drainage, hydroelectric projects, public buildings, city improvements, schools, hospitals, prisons, communication lines and other services. Guggisberg also set a goal of filling half of the technical posts to the African colony as soon as they could be trained. His program has been described as the most ambitious project in West Africa so far.
The colony of Great Britain helped in both WWI and WWII. In subsequent years, however, the post-war inflation and instability hampered readjustment for returning veterans, who were at the forefront of growing discontent and discomfort. His war service and veterans' associations had broadened their horizons, making it difficult for them to return to the humble and circumscribed positions set aside for Africans by the colonial authorities.
The growth of nationalism and the end of colonial rule
As Ghana economically developed in the center of government power gradually shifted from the hands of the governor and his officials in Ghanaians. Changes as a result of the gradual development of a strong spirit of nationalism and would lead to the end of independence. The development of national consciousness accelerated rapidly after World War II, when, apart from former military, an important group of urban workers and African merchants came to provide massive support for the aspirations of an educated minority.
The first manifestations of nationalism in Ghana
A late 19 th century, a growing number of educated Africans increasingly found unacceptable an arbitrary policy that placed almost all power in the hands of the governor for his appointment of council members. In the 1890's, some members of the educated coastal elite organized themselves into the Society of Aboriginal "Protection of Rights to protest against a draft law of the land that threatened traditional land tenure. This protest helped lay the basis for political action that would ultimately lead to independence. In 1920 one of the African members of the Legislative Council, Joseph E. Casely-Hayford, convened the National Congress of British West Africa, which sent a delegation to London to urge Colonial Office to consider the principle of elected representation. The group, which claims to speak on behalf of all the British colonies in West Africa, represented the first expression of political solidarity between intellectuals and nationalists in the area. Although the delegation was received in London (on the grounds that only represented the interests of a small group of urbanized Africans), their actions attracted considerable support among the African elite in the country.
Despite his call for elected representation in place a system whereby the governor appointed the members of the council, insisted that Nationalists were loyal to the British Crown and that it merely sought an extension of British political practices and African social. African leaders, notables include Horton, the writer John Mensah Sarbah, and SRB Attah Ahom. These men gave the nationalist movement a distinctly elitist flavor that was to last until the end of 1940.
The 1925 Constitution, promulgated by Guggisberg, created provincial councils of the supreme commanders of all but the northern provinces of the colony. These councils in turn elected six chiefs as unofficial members of Legislative Council. Although the new Constitution seems to recognize African sentiments, Guggisberg was concerned primarily with protecting British interests. For example, he provided Africans with a limited voice in the central government, however, by limiting nominations to chiefs, who drove a wedge between managers and their level of education. Intellectuals believe that the chiefs, in return for British support, had allowed the provincial councils to fall completely under government control. In the mid 1930's, however, a gradual rapprochement between chiefs and intellectuals had begun.
The agitation of a more accurate representation continued. Newspapers owned and managed by Africans played an important role in provoking this discontent and six were being published in the 1930's. As a result of the call for broader representation, two more unofficial African members were added to the Executive Board in 1943. Changes in the Legislative Council, however, had to wait for a change of political situation in London, which only occurred with the election of a post-war British Labour Party government.
The new Constitution of Costa de Oro, 1946 (also known as the Constitution of burns after the governor at the time, Sir Alan Cuthbert Maxwell Burns) is a bold document. For the first time, the concept of government majority was abandoned. The Legislative Council is now composed of six ex-officio members, six appointed members, and eighteen elected members. The 1946 Constitution also admitted Asante representatives on the board first. Even with a Labour Party government in power, however, the British continued to view the colonies as a source of raw materials needed to strengthen their crippled economy. Change that would put real power into the hands of Africans is not a priority among British leaders until after the riots and looting in Accra and other cities in early 1948 on issues of pensions for ex-military, the dominant role of foreign in the economy, housing shortages and other economic and political demands.
With elected members in a decisive majority, Ghana had reached a level of political maturity unequaled anywhere in colonial Africa. The Constitution did not, however, grant full autonomy. Executive power remained in the hands of the governor, the Legislative Council who is responsible. Therefore, the constitution, although greeted with enthusiasm as an important milestone, soon encountered problems. World War II had just ended, and many veterans of the Gold Coast who had served in British overseas expeditions returned to a country beset by shortages, inflation, unemployment, and practices on the black market. There veterans, along with the discontent of urban elements, formed a nucleus of malcontents ripe for disruptive action. They were joined today by farmers, who resented drastic governmental measures required to cut diseased cocoa trees to control an epidemic, and many others were not happy that the end of the war had not been followed by economic improvements.
The policy of independence movements
Although political organizations had existed in the British colony, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), founded by educated Ghanaians known as The Big Six, was the first nationalist movement with the goal of self-government "in the shortest time as possible. " He called for the replacement of commanders in the Legislative Council with educated people. He also demanded that, given their education, the colonial administration should respect them and according to positions of responsibility. In particular, the UGCC leadership criticized the government for its inability to solve the problems of unemployment, inflation and unrest that had come to characterize a society at the end of the war. Although opposed to the colonial administration, UGCC members do not seek radical or revolutionary change. The cavalier way in which politics was conducted then, was to change after Kwame Nkrumah created his Convention People's Party (CPP) in June 1949.
After a brief stint in the UGCC, US-and British-educated Nkrumah broke with the organization and founded the CPP. Unlike UGCC call for self-government "in the shortest time possible," asked Nkrumah and the CPP "self-government now." The party leadership is identified more with the working people with the UGCC and intelligentsia, and the movement found support among workers, peasants, youth and women's market. Politicized population consisted largely of ex-military, literate people, journalists and teachers of primary, all of whom had developed a taste for populist conception of democracy. A growing number of industrial workers with no education, but also built part of the support group. In June 1949, Nkrumah had a mass following.
The Constitution of 1951 as a result of the report of the Commission Coussey created because of disturbances in Accra and other cities in 1948. In addition to the Executive Board of the vast majority of African ministers, it created an assembly, half of the elected members of which would come from the towns and rural districts and half of the traditional councils. Although it was a huge step forward, the new constitution still fell far short of the CPP call for full autonomy. Executive power remained in British hands, and the legislature is adapted to permit control by traditionalist interests.
With increasing popular support, the CPP in early 1950 began a campaign of "positive action" intended to incite a general strike and non-violent resistance. When some violent disorders occurred, Nkrumah was jailed for sedition. This only established him as a leader and a hero, building popular support, and when the first elections were held for the Legislative Assembly under the new constitution in 1951, Nkrumah (still in prison) won one seat and the CPP won a two-thirds majority. Nkrumah was released from prison and soon accepted an invitation to form a government as "leader of government business," a position similar to that of prime minister. The start of Nkrumah's first term was marked by cooperation with the British governor. Over the next few years, the government was becoming a parliamentary system. The changes were opposed by the more traditionalist African elements, despite the opposition proved ineffective in the face of popular support for independence at an early date.
In 1952 the position of prime minister was created and the Executive Council became the cabinet. The Prime Minister was responsible to the assembly, which duly elected Nkrumah prime minister. The Constitution of 1954 ended the election of assembly members by the tribal councils. The Legislature increased in size, and all members were chosen by direct election from equal groups, one member. Only defense and foreign policy remained in the hands of the governor, the elected assembly was given control of virtually all internal affairs of the colony.
The CPP pursued a policy of political centralization, which found serious opposition. Shortly after the 1954 elections, a new party, the Asante-based National Liberation Movement (NAM), was formed. NLM advocated a federal form of government with greater powers to the regions. NLM leaders criticized the CPP for perceived dictatorial tendencies. The new party worked in cooperation with another regionalist group, the Popular Party in the North. When these two parts of the region emerged from the discussions on a new constitution, the CPP feared that London might consider such disunity an indication that the colony was not ready for the next phase of self-government.
The British constitutional adviser, however, supported the position of the CPP. The governor dissolved the assembly to test popular support for the CPP demand for immediate independence. The crown agreed to grant independence if requested by a majority of two thirds of the new legislature. New elections were held in July 1956. In close elections, the CPP won 57 percent of the votes cast, but the fragmentation of the opposition gave the CPP each seat in the south as well as enough seats in Asante, the Northern Territory and the region Trans-Volta to hold a two-thirds majority of 104 seats.
Before the July 1956 general elections in the Gold Coast, a plebiscite was held at the United Nations (UN) auspices to decide the future disposition of the British and French Togo Togo. The British rule, the western part of the former German colony, had been linked to the Gold Coast since 1919 and was represented in Parliament. The dominant ethnic group, the sheep were divided between the Gold Coast proper and the two Togos. A clear majority of British Togoland inhabitants voted for union with their western neighbors, and the area was absorbed by the Costa Dorada. There was, however, vocal opposition to the incorporation of some of the sheep in southern British Togo.
Independent Ghana
On August 3, 1956, the new assembly passed a motion authorizing the government to request independence within the British Commonwealth. The opposition did not attend the debate and the vote was unanimous. The British government accepted this proposal as clearly representing a reasonable majority. On March 6, 1957, the anniversary of the Decree 113 of 1844, the former British colony of the Gold Coast became the independent state of Ghana, and the nation of the Legislative Assembly became the National Assembly. Nkrumah continued as prime minister, and Queen Elizabeth II as monarch, represented in the former colony by a governor general, Sir Charles Noble Arden-Clarke. This state of Ghana as the Kingdom of the Commonwealth would continue until 1960, when after a national referendum, Ghana was declared a republic.
The Independence Constitution of 1957 provided protection against the modification of several points of its clauses. Also the floor was given to the chiefs and tribal councils to consider setting up regional assemblies. No bill amending the entrenched clauses of the Constitution or change the competence of regional or privileges of the chiefs could become law except by a vote of two thirds of the National Assembly by simple majority approval in the two-thirds of the regional assemblies. When local CPP supporters gained control of enough regional assemblies, however, the Nkrumah government promptly secured passage of a law eliminating the roots of special protection clause in the constitution, a move that left the National Assembly the power to effect any constitutional change in the CPP considers necessary.
Among the first acts of the CPP was the outright abolition of regional assemblies. Another was the dilution of the clauses intended to ensure a nonpolitical and competitive civil service. This allowed Nkrumah to appoint his supporters to positions along the upper ranks of government employment. Thereafter, unfettered by constitutional restrictions and obedient party majority in the assembly, Nkrumah began his administration of the first independent African country south of Sahara.
Nkrumah of Ghana and Africa
Kwame Nkrumah has been described by author Peter Omari as a dictator who "made much of elections, when he was aware that they were not really free but rigged in his favor." According to Omari, the CPP administration of Ghana was the one who manipulated the constitutional and electoral process of democracy to justify Nkrumah's agenda. The extent to which the government would continue the agenda of the Constitution was shown in early life when the administration won approval from the Deportation Act of 1957, the year in which the ethnic parties, were banned religious and regional . The Deportation Act empowered the governor general and, therefore, subsequent heads of state to expel persons whose presence in the country is deemed not in the interest of the public good. Although the law would apply only to non-citizens of Ghana, several people who applied later claimed as citizens.
The Preventive Detention Act, passed in 1958, gave power to the prime minister to arrest people for up to five years without trial. Amended in 1959 and again in 1962, the act was seen by opponents of the CPP government as a blatant restriction of individual freedom and human rights. Once these had been granted legal authority, the CPP administration managed to silence their opponents. Dr. JBDanquah, one of the leading members of the UGCC, was detained until he died in prison in 1965. Abrefa Dr. Kofi Busia, leader of the opposition United Party (UP), formed by the NLM and other parties in response to Nkrumah's outlawing of so-called separatist parties in 1957, exiled in London to escape arrest, while other members remain in the country joined the party in power. On July 1, 1960, Ghana became a republic and Nkrumah won the presidential elections of that year. Shortly thereafter, Nkrumah was proclaimed president for life, and the CPP became the only part of the state. Using powers under the party and the Constitution in 1961 Nkrumah had arrested an estimated 400 to 2,000 of its opponents. Nkrumah's critics pointed to the rigid hold of the CPP on the country's political system and numerous cases of human rights violations. Others, however, defended Nkrumah's agenda and policies.
Nkrumah discussed his political views in his numerous writings, especially in Africa Must Unite (1963) and the neo (1965). These writings show the impact of their stay in Britain in the mid 1940's. The pan-Africanist movement, which had held one of its annual conference, attended by Nkrumah, in Manchester in 1945, was influenced by socialist ideologies. The movement seeks unity among people of African descent and also improvement in the lives of workers, it was claimed, had been exploited by capitalist enterprises in Africa. Western countries with colonial histories were identified as the exploiters. According to the socialists, "oppressed" people should identify with the socialist countries and organizations that best represent their interests, however, all the dominant world powers in the post-1945 period, except the Soviet Union and the United States, had colonial ties with Africa. Nkrumah said even the United States, who had never colonized any part of Africa, was in an advantageous position to exploit independent Africa unless preventive efforts were taken.
According to Nkrumah, his government, representing the first black African country to gain independence, played an important role to play in the struggle against capitalist interests on the continent. As he said, "the independence of Ghana would be meaningless if it was not related to the total liberation of Africa." It is important, then, he said, for Ghanaians to "seek first the political kingdom." The economic benefits associated with independence can be enjoyed later, proponents of Nkrumah's position argued. But Nkrumah needed strategies to achieve their goals.
On the domestic front, Nkrumah considers the rapid modernization of industries and communications was necessary and that could be achieved if the workforce were completely Africanized and educated. More importantly, however, Nkrumah believed that this national goal could be achieved faster if not hampered by reactionary politicians, elites of the opposition parties and traditional leaders, which could jeopardize the Western imperialists. From this ideological position, Nkrumah supporters justified the Deportation Act of 1957, the Acts of Detention, 1958, 1959 and 1962, intimidation of opponents of the CPP parliamentarians, the appointment of Nkrumah as president for life, recognition of his party as the only political organization of the State, the creation of the pioneers of the movement's ideological education of the nation's youth, and party control of government. Public spending on road construction projects, mass education of adults and children, health services and the construction of the Akosombo Dam, were very important if Ghana were to play its leading role in the release Africa from colonial domination and neo-colonial.
On the continental level, Nkrumah sought to unite Africa so he could defend their economic interests and international standing in front of political pressures from East and West that were the result of the Cold War. His dream for Africa was a continuation of the Pan-Africanist dream as expressed at the conference in Manchester. The initial strategy was to encourage revolutionary political movements in Africa, starting a union of Ghana, Guinea and Mali, which serve as the psychological and political impetus for the formation of the United States of Africa. Thus, when Nkrumah was criticized for paying little attention to Ghana or waste of national resources in supporting external programs, which reverses the argument and accused his opponents of being short-sighted.
But the financial burdens created by the development policies of Nkrumah and Pan-African adventures created new sources of opposition. With the introduction in July 1961 austerity budget the country first, workers and farmers in Ghana realized the critical and the cost for the programs of Nkrumah. His reaction to establish the model of the protests over taxes and benefits that were to dominate Ghanaian political crises in the next thirty years.
CPP backbenchers and UP representatives in the National Assembly strongly criticized the government's demand to raise taxes and, in particular, for a program of forced savings. Urban workers began a protest strike, the most serious in a series of public protests against government actions during 1961. Nkrumah public demands an end to corruption in government and the party further undermined popular faith in the national government. A drop in the price paid to cocoa farmers by resentment of the government marketing board aroused among a segment of the population that had always been the main enemy of Nkrumah.
The growth of opposition to Nkrumah
Nkrumah's complete domination of political power has served to isolate the retail leaders, leaving to each candidate a real or imaginary rule. After opposition parties were crushed, the only opposition came from within the hierarchy of the CPP. Its members Tawia Adamafio, a politician from Accra. Nkrumah had made him general secretary of the PPC for a short time. Later, Adamafio was appointed Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, the most important position in the President's staff in the Flagstaff House, which gradually became the center of all decisions and much of the administrative machinery real, for both the CPP and the government. The other leader was apparently autonomous basis John Tettegah, leader of the TUC. None, however, proved to have no other power than that accorded to them by the president.
In 1961, however, younger and more radical members of the leadership of the CPP, led by Adamafio, had gained ascendancy over the original CPP leaders as Gbedemah. After a bomb attempt on Nkrumah's life in August 1962, Adamafio, Ako Adjei (then foreign minister), and Cofie Crabbe (all members of the CPP) were imprisoned under the Preventive Detention Act. The first Inspector General of Police, ERT Madjitey from Manya-Krobo Asites in was also relieved of his duties. CPP newspapers accused them of complicity in the assassination attempt, providing the only evidence that he had chosen to travel by car all way behind the president when the bomb was dropped.
For more than a year, the trial of alleged conspirators in the stage of the 1962 attempted assassination of the busy center. The defendants were brought to trial before the tribunal of three judges for the security, headed by the Chief Justice, Sir Arku Korsah. When the court acquitted the defendants, Nkrumah used his constitutional prerogative to dismiss Korsah. Nkrumah, then obtained a parliamentary vote allowing a new trial Adamafio and his associates. A new tribunal, with a jury chosen by Nkrumah, found all defendants guilty and sentenced to death. These phrases, however, were commuted to twenty years imprisonment.
One-party state
In early 1964, in order to prevent future challenges of the judiciary and after a new national referendum, Nkrumah obtained a constitutional amendment that allows a judge to dismiss. Ghana officially became a one-party state and an act of Parliament said that there would be a single candidate for president. Other parties that have already been banned, CPP candidates came forward to contest the party list in the general elections announced for June 1965. Nkrumah had been reelected president of the country for less than a year when members of the National Liberation Council (NLC), overthrew the CPP government in a military coup on February 24, 1966. At that time, Nkrumah was in China. Taking refuge in Guinea, where he remained until his death in 1972.
Fall of the Nkrumah regime and its consequences
History of Ghana (1966-1979)
The leaders of the 1966 military coup justified their purchase by charging that the administration was abusive and corrupt CPP, Nkrumah's participation in African politics was too aggressive, and that the nation lacked democratic practices. They claimed that the military coup of 1966 was a nationalist, and that liberated the nation from Nkrumah's dictatorship. Despite the great political changes were brought about by the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah, many problems, including ethnic and regional divisions, the economic burden of the country, and emotions about the resurgence of a too strong central authority. A considerable proportion of the population had been convinced that an effective, honest competition was incompatible with political parties. Many Ghanaians remained committed to nonpolitical leadership for the nation, even in the form of military rule. The problems of the Busia administration, in the country's first elected government after the fall of Nkrumah of Ghana illustrates the problems that we face. It has been argued that the coup was supported by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
The National Liberation Council (NEC), consisting of four Army officers and four police officers, assumed executive authority. It appointed a cabinet of officials and pledged to restore democratic government as soon as possible. These actions culminated in the appointment of a representative assembly to draft a constitution for the Second Republic of Ghana. Political parties were allowed to operate from the end of 1968. In 1969 Ghana's elections, the first contest of political competition at the national level since 1956, the main contenders were the Progress Party (PP), headed by Kofi Busia Abrefa, and the National Alliance of Liberals (NAL), led by A. Komla Gbedemah. The PP found much of his support among the old opponents of Nkrumah's CPP - the educated middle class and traditionalists of Ashanti Region and the North. The NAL was seen as the successor to the right wing of the CPP. In general, the PP won 59 percent of the popular vote and 74 percent of National Assembly seats.
Gbedemah, which was excluded before taking his seat in the National Assembly by a decision of the Supreme Court, retired from politics, leaving the NAL, without a strong leader. In October 1970, NAL absorbed three other members of minor parties in the assembly to form the Justice Party (JP) under the leadership of Joseph Appiah. Their combined force is equivalent to a block in the south with a strong base among the majority of the sheep and the people of the coastal cities.
PP leader Busia became prime minister in September 1970. After a brief period in a presidential interim committee of three members, the Electoral College elected president Chief Justice Edward Akufo Addo, one of the leading nationalist politicians of the time UGCC and one of the judges dismissed by Nkrumah in 1964.
All the attention, however, remained focused on Prime Minister Busia and his government. Much was expected of the Busia administration, because its parliamentarians were considered intellectuals and, therefore, more perceptive in their evaluations of what needed to be done. Many Ghanaians hoped that their decisions would be in the interest of the nation, compared with those carried by the Nkrumah administration, which were judged to satisfy narrow party interests and, more importantly, Nkrumah's personal agenda. The NLC has assured that there would be more democracy, more political maturity, and more freedom in Ghana, because politicians can run for the 1969 elections were proponents of Western democracy. In fact, these were the same people who had suffered under the old regime and were, therefore, thought to understand the benefits of democracy.
Two early measures initiated by the Busia government were the expulsion of large numbers of non-nationals and an accompanying measure to limit foreign involvement in small businesses. The moves were aimed at relieving the unemployment created by the precarious economic situation. The policies were popular because they forced out of the retail sector of the economy of foreigners, especially Lebanese, Asians and Nigerians, who were perceived as unfairly monopolizing trade to the disadvantage of Ghanaians. Busia many other movements, however, were not popular. Busia decision to introduce a loan program for college students, which had previously received free education, was challenged because it was interpreted as the introduction of a class system in higher learning institutions in the country. Some observers even saw Busia devaluation of the currency and its promotion of foreign investment in the industrial sector of the economy in conservative ideas that might undermine the sovereignty of Ghana.
basic policies of the opposition Party of Justice did not differ significantly from those of the Busia administration. However, the party sought to stress the importance of central government rather than the limited liability company in economic development, and continued to emphasize programs of primary interest to the urban labor force. The ruling PP stressed the need for development in rural areas, both to stop the movement of population to cities and to correct regional imbalances in levels of development. The JP and a growing number of members of the PP for the suspension of some foreign debts of the Nkrumah era. This attitude became more popular as debt payments became more difficult to enforce. Both parties favored creation of a West African economic community or an economic union with neighboring countries in West Africa.
Despite broad popular support gained in its infancy and strong foreign connections, the Busia government fell victim to a coup within twenty-seven months. Neither ethnic nor class differences played a role in the overthrow of the PP government. The main causes were the country's continuing economic difficulties, both those arising from the high foreign debt incurred by Nkrumah and those resulting from internal problems. The PP government had inherited U.S. $ 580 million in debt in the medium and long term, an amount equal to 25 percent of gross domestic product in 1969. In 1971 the U.S. 580 million U.S. dollars had been overinflated U.S. $ 72 million in interest payments and the U.S. $ 296 million in short-term trade credits. Within the country, an even larger internal debt fueled inflation.
Ghana's economy remained largely dependent on the culture is often difficult and the cocoa market. Cocoa prices have always been volatile, but exports of this tropical crop normally provided about half of the country's income in foreign currency. From the 1960's, however, a number of factors combined to limit severely this vital source of national income. These factors include foreign competition (particularly from neighboring Ivory Coast), lack of understanding of free market forces (by the government in setting prices paid to farmers), accusations of bureaucratic incompetence of the Cocoa Marketing Board, and the smuggling of crops in the Ivory Coast. As a result, Ghana's income from cocoa exports continued to decline drastically.
The austerity measures imposed by the Busia administration, although long-term wise, alienated influential farmers, who until then had been PP supporters. These measures are part of Busia's economic structural adjustment efforts to put the country on a sounder financial base. The austerity programs had been recommended by the International Monetary Fund. The recovery measures also severely affected the middle class and the salaried workforce, which faced wage freezes, tax increases, currency devaluation and rising import prices. These measures precipitated protests from the Congress of Trade Unions. In response, the government sent the army to occupy the union headquarters and to block strike action, a situation that some perceived as negating the government's claim of not functioning democratically.
Army troops and officials on whom Busia relied for support are affected, both in their personal lives and in adjusting the defense budget, by these same austerity measures. As leader of the coup against Busia said the January 13, 1972, including the services enjoyed by the army during the Nkrumah regime were no longer available. Knowing that austerity had alienated the officers, the Busia government began to change the direction of the army's combat elements. This, however, was the last straw. Lt. Col. Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, temporarily commanding the First Brigade around Accra, led a bloodless coup that ended the Second Republic.
National Redemption Council years, 1972-1979
Despite its short existence, the Second Republic was significant in that the development challenges facing the nation came clearly into focus. These include the unequal distribution of investment funds and favoritism toward certain groups and regions. Important questions about development priorities remain unanswered, and after the failure of both the Nkrumah and the Busia regimes (a one-party state, and the other a multiparty parliamentary democracy) Ghana path to political stability was dark.
Acheampong's National Redemption Council (NRC) claimed that he had to act to eliminate the negative effects of the devaluation of the previous government and therefore, at least in the short term to improve living conditions for individual Ghanaians. To justify its acquisition, the coup leaders leveled charges of corruption against Busia and his ministers. The NRC sought to create a truly military government raised no plan for returning the nation to democracy.
In economic policy, the austerity measures is reversed Busia, Ghana's currency was revalued upward, foreign debt was rescheduled repudiated or unilaterally, and all major foreign-owned companies were nationalized. The government also provided price supports for basic food imports, while seeking to encourage Ghanaians to become self-sufficient in agriculture and production of raw materials. These measures, while instantly popular, did nothing to resolve the country's problems and actually exacerbates the problem of capital flow. Any economic successes were offset by other basic economic factors. Transport industry and suffered greatly as oil prices rose in 1974, and the lack of foreign exchange and credit left the country without fuel. Basic food production continued to decline even though the population grew. Disillusionment with the government developed, and the corruption charges began to appear.
The reorganization of the NRC in the Supreme Military Council (SMC) in 1975 may have been part of an attempt to save face. little participation from the civil sector was allowed, and military officers took charge of all ministries and state enterprises to the local level. During the early years of the NRC, these administrative changes led many Ghanaians to hope that the soldiers in command would improve the efficiency of the country's bloated bureaucracies.
Shortly after that time, the government sought to stifle opposition by issuing a decree banning the spread of rumors and by banning a number of independent newspapers and arrested journalists. Also, armed soldiers stormed the student demonstrations and the government repeatedly closed the universities, which had become important centers of opposition to NRC policies. Ashanti's self-appointed General, IK Acheampong seemed to have much sympathy for women in their economic policies in crisis. As the Commissioner (Minister) of Finance, Government signed checks to the concubines and other women he barely knew. VW Gulf were imported and given to beautiful women he met. Import licenses were given to friends and members of ethnic groups with impunity.
The SMC in 1977 was limited by the growing non-violent opposition. Without doubt, the discussions on the political future of the nation and its relationship with SMC had begun in earnest. Although the various opposition groups (university students, lawyers and other organized civilian groups) called for a return to civilian constitutional rule, Acheampong and the SMC for a unity government, a mixture of elected civilian and military leaders appointed, but in which party politics would be abolished. College students and many intellectuals criticized the idea of Government of the Union, but others, such as Justice Gustav Koranteng-Addow, who chaired the seventeen-member ad hoc committee appointed by the government to work out the details of the plan, defended it as the solution to the country's political problems. Supporters of the idea of Government of the Union considers multiparty political contests as the perpetrators of social tension and community conflict between classes, regions and ethnic groups. The union argued that the plan had the potential to depoliticize public life and to enable the nation to focus their energies on economic problems.
A national referendum held in March 1978 to allow people to accept or reject the concept of Government of the Union. The rejection of the Government of the Union means a continuation of military rule. Given this choice, it is surprising that so narrowly voted for the Government of the Union. Opponents of the idea of organizing demonstrations against the government, arguing that the referendum was not free nor fair. The Acheampong government reacted by banning several organizations and imprisoning some 300 of their opponents.
The agenda for change in the referendum asked the Union Government to draft a new constitution by an SMC-appointed commission, the selection of a constituent assembly in November 1978 and general elections in June 1979. The ad hoc committee had recommended a non-partisan election, an elected executive president and a cabinet whose members would be elected out of a single house National Assembly. The military council then resign, but its members could run for office as individuals.
In July 1978, a sudden movement, the other SMC officers forced Acheampong to resign, replacing him with Lieutenant General Frederick WK Akuffo. The SMC apparently acted in response to continued pressure to find a solution to the country's economic dilemma. Inflation is estimated at as high as 300 percent this year. There were shortages of commodities, and cocoa production fell to half its peak of 1964. 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 on 1 July 1979.
Despite assurances Akuffo, opposition to the SMC persisted. The call for the formation of political parties intensified. In an effort to gain support in the face of continuing strikes over economic and political issues, the Akuffo government finally announced the formation of political parties would be allowed from January 1979. Akuffo also granted amnesty to former members of both Nkrumah's CPP and Busia PP, as well as to all persons convicted of subversion in Acheampong. The decree lifting the ban on political parties came into force on January 1, 1979, as planned. The Constituent Assembly had been working on a new constitution presented an approved draft and adjourned in May Everything seemed ready for a new attempt at constitutional government in July, when a group of young army officers overthrew the SMC government in June 1979 .
The Rawlings era
On May 15, 1979, less than five weeks before constitutional elections to be held, a group of young officers led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings attempted a coup. Initially unsuccessful, the coup leaders were jailed and held for court martial. On June 4, however, sympathetic military overthrew the Akuffo regime and Rawlings and his comrades released from prison fourteen days before the scheduled election. Despite the promise of the SMC to return political power to civilian hands in the concerns of those who wanted a civilian government, the young officers who had organized the June 4 coup insisted that the key issues for the image Army and important for the stability of the national policy had been ignored. Naomi Chazan, principal analyst of the politics of Ghana, correctly assessed the importance of the 1979 coup in the following statement:
Unlike the initial SMC II [the Akuffo period, 1978-1979] rehabilitation effort which focused on the power elite, this second attempt to reconstruct a situation of disintegration was propelled by growing alienation. He strove, by reforming the behavior patterns of the citizens, to redefine the structure of state power and to review its social obligations inherent ... In retrospect, the most irreversible outcome of this phase was the systematic elimination of leaders of SMC ... [His] performances are marked only the end of the myth and fallacy of non-violence policy of Ghana, but more specifically, the serious determination of the new government to clean the political slate clean.
Rawlings and the young officers formed the Revolutionary Council Armed Forces (AFRC). The armed forces were purged of senior officials accused of corruption in the image of the military. In fulfilling its purpose, however, the AFRC was caught between two groups with conflicting interests, Chazan observed. These include the "soldier-supporters of the AFRC who were happy to lash out against all manifestations of the old regimes and political parties organized now denounced the excessive violence and advocated change with restraint.
Despite the coup and subsequent executions of former heads of military governments (CTN Afrifa, Acheampong and some members of the NRC, and Akuffo and leading members of the SMC), the planned elections took place, and Ghana had returned to constitutional rule in late September 1979. Before power was granted to the elected government, however, the AFRC sent the unambiguous message that "people who deal with the public, whatever their ability, are subject to popular supervision must comply with the fundamental notions probity, and are required to put the good of the community above personal goals. "AFRC's position was that the political leaders of the nation, at least those within the army, had not been accountable to the people. Hilla Limann administration, inaugurated on September 24, 1979, at the beginning of the Third Republic, is expected therefore to match the new standard advocated by the AFRC.
Limann People's National Party (PNP) began the Third Republic for the control of only seventy-one of 140 legislative seats. The opposition Popular Front Party (PPP) has won forty and two seats, while twenty-six elective positions were distributed among the three minor parties. The percentage of the electorate that voted had fallen to 40 percent. Unlike previous elected leaders of the country, Limann was a former diplomat and a figure noncharismatic no personal monitoring. Limann As can be seen, the ruling PNP included people of conflicting ideological orientations. Sometimes he disagreed strongly with each other in national policies. Many observers, therefore, wondered whether the new government was equal to the task facing the state.
The most immediate threat to Limann administration, however, was the AFRC, especially the officers who organized the "June 4 Movement" to oversee the civilian administration. In an effort to keep the AFRC to look over his shoulder, the government ordered Rawlings and several other army and police officers associated with the AFRC to retirement, however, Rawlings and his associates remains a latent threat, particularly as that the economy continued its decline. Limann The first budget for the fiscal year (FY-see Glossary) 1981, estimated the rate of inflation in Ghana to 70 percent for the year, with a budget deficit equivalent to 30 percent of gross national product (GNP see Glossary .)The TUC said that workers do not earn enough to pay for food, let alone anything else. A series of strikes, many considered illegal by the government, resulted, each reduced productivity and therefore national income. In September the Government announced that all striking public workers would be fired. These factors rapidly eroded the limited support that Limann government enjoyed among civilians and soldiers. The government fell on December 31, 1981, in another coup led by Rawlings.
Rawlings and his colleagues suspended the 1979 constitution, dismissed the president and his cabinet, dissolved parliament and banned existing political parties. Established the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), initially composed of seven members with Rawlings as chairman, to exercise the executive and legislative branches. The existing judicial system is preserved, but alongside it the PNDC created the National Commission of Inquiry to eradicate corruption and other economic crimes, the anonymity of the Citizens' Vetting Committee to punish tax evasion, and public courts to try different crimes. The PNDC proclaimed its intention to allow the people to exercise political power through defense committees to be established in communities, workplaces, and in units of the armed forces and police. Under the PNDC, Ghana remained a unitary government.
In December 1982, the PNDC announced a plan to decentralize government from Accra to the regions, districts and local communities, but retains overall control by appointing regional and district secretaries who exercised executive powers and also chaired the regional councils and district levels. Local councils, however, is expected to progressively assume the payment of wages, with the regions and districts to assume more powers by the national government. In 1984, the PNDC created a National Appeals Tribunal to hear appeals from the public tribunals, changed Vetting the Citizens' Committee in the Office of Revenue and replaced the system of defense committees with Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.
In 1984, the PNDC also created a National Commission for Democracy to study ways to establish participatory democracy in Ghana. The commission issued a "Blue Book" in July 1987 outlining modalities for district-level elections, held in late 1988 and early 1989 meetings of the newly created district. One third of the members of the Assembly are appointed by the government.
The Second Coming of Rawlings: The first six years, 1982-1987
The new government that took office on December 31, 1981, was the eighth in the fifteen years since the fall of Nkrumah. Calling itself the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), its members include Rawlings as chairman, Brigadier Joseph Nunoo-Mensah (whom Limann had dismissed as army chief), two policemen and three civilians. Despite its military connections, the PNDC made it clear that unlike other soldier-led governments. This was verified immediately with the appointment of fifteen civilians to cabinet positions.
In a radio program on January 5, 1982, Rawlings presented a detailed statement explaining the factors that had necessitated the termination of the Third Republic. The President assured the people of the PNDC had no intention of imposing itself in Ghana. On the contrary, he "wanted an opportunity for the people, peasants, workers, soldiers, the rich and the poor, to be part of decision-making process." He described the two years since the AFRC had handed over power to a civilian government as a period of regression during which political parties attempted to divide the people to rule. The ultimate goal for the return of Rawlings, therefore, to "restore human dignity to Ghanaians." In the words of the president, the dedication of the PNDC to achieving its goals was different from any other country had ever known. That was why the acquisition was not a military coup, but rather a "holy war" that involve people in the transformation of the socioeconomic structure of society. The PNDC also notified friends and foes alike that any interference in the PNDC agenda would be "strong resistance."
Opposition to the PNDC administration developed, however in different sectors of the political spectrum. The most obvious groups against the government were former members of the PNP and the PFP. They argued that the Third Republic had not had time to prove themselves and that the PNDC administration was unconstitutional. opposition came from the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), who criticized the government's use of the courts of the people in the administration of justice. Members of Congress of Trade Unions also were angered when the PNDC ordered them to withdraw demands for increased wages. The National Union of Ghana Students (buds) went further, calling on the government to hand over power to the attorney general, who would oversee new elections.
In late June 1982, a coup attempt had been discovered, and those involved had been executed. Many who disagreed with the PNDC administration were driven into exile, where he began organizing their opposition. It accused the government of human rights abuses and political intimidation, forcing the country, especially the press, in a "culture of silence."
Meanwhile, the PNDC was under the influence of contrasting political philosophies and objectives. Although the revolutionary leaders agreed on the need for radical change, which differ in the means of doing so. For example, John Ndebugre, secretary of agriculture in the PNDC government, which later became the northern regional secretary (governor), belonged to the radical Kwame Nkrumah Revolutionary Guards, a left-wing organization that advocated a course Marxist-Leninist PNDC. He was arrested and jailed for most of the last part of the 1980's. Other members of the PNDC, including Kojo Tsikata, PV Obeng, and Kwesi Botchwey, is believed to be united only by their determination either to lift the country from its desperate situation or to protect against strong opposition.
According to Rawlings's commitment to populism as a political principle, the PNDC began to form coalition governments and institutions that are incorporated into the general population in the machinery of government. "Defense Committees (WDC), the Popular Defence Committees (PDCs), Citizens' Vetting Committees Workers (CVC), Regional Defence Committees (RDCs), and National Committees for the Defense (CND) was created to ensure all than those in the bottom of society the opportunity to participate in the decision making process. These committees were to participate in community projects and community decisions, and individual members are expected to expose corruption and "anti-social activities." Public courts that were established outside the normal legal system, were also created to try those accused of acts against the government. And a four-week aimed at making these cadres morally and intellectually prepared for their participation in the revolution was completed at the University of Ghana, Legon, in July and August 1983.
Various opposition groups criticized the PDC and WDC, however. The aggressiveness of the WDC certain, it was argued, interfered with the ability of management to take the bold decisions necessary for national economic recovery. In response to these criticisms, the PNDC announced on December 1, 1984, the dissolution of all PDCs, WDCs, and NDCs, and their replacement with Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR). With regard to public meetings and legal firms, excluding banks and financial institutions, advisory committees (JCCs) that acted as advisory bodies to the CEOs were created.
Public courts, however, despite their characterization as undemocratic by the GBA, were maintained. Although courts were established in 1982, the law provides for the creation of a national public tribunal to hear appeals, and decisions of, regional public tribunals was not passed until August 1984. Section 3 and Section 10 of PNDC Establishment Proclamation courts limited to cases of political and economic. The restrictions imposed on public courts by the government in 1984 may have been an attempt by the administration to correct some deficiencies. The courts, however, were not abolished, but defended it as "fundamental to a good legal system" that must be maintained in response to the "increasing legal awareness by the people."
In the time bases of these socio-political institutions are established, the PNDC also participated in a debate over how to finance the reconstruction of the national economy. The country had suffered from what some have described as excessive spending and imprudent, if not absurd, the Nkrumah regime. The degree of decrease in the NRC and SMC had also been devastating. In December 1981, when the PNDC came to power, the rate of inflation reached 200 percent, while real GDP fell by 3 percent annually for seven years. Diamonds are not only the production of cocoa, but still and timber exports had dropped drastically. Gold production also fell by half the level preindependence.
sorry economic situation in Ghana, according to the PNDC, caused in part by the absence of political leadership well. In fact, the AFRC administration in 1979, Rawlings and his associates had accused three former military leaders (generals Afrifa, Acheampong and Akuffo) of corruption and greed and thereby contribute to the national crisis and had executed Based on this allegation. In other words, the AFRC in 1979 attributed the national crisis of inmates, mostly political, causes. The overthrow of the administration by the PNDC Limann in 1981 was an attempt to prevent another inept administration exacerbate an already bad economic situation. By implication, how to solve some of the problems was to stabilize the political situation and to improve the nation's economic conditions radically.
At the end of his first year in power, the PNDC announced a four-year program of economic austerity and sacrifice that was to be the first phase of an Economic Recovery Programme (ERP). If the economy would improve significantly, there was no need for a large injection of capital, a resource that can only be obtained from international financial institutions in the West. Were the PNDC's ideological left, however, rejected the consultation with these agencies, because these institutions were blamed in part by the plight of the country. Precisely because some members of the government also held such views, the PNDC secretary for finance and planning of the economy, Kwesi Botchwey, felt the need to justify the World Bank (see Glossary) assistance to Ghana in 1983:
It would be naive and unrealistic for certain sectors of the Ghanaian society to think that the application for financial assistance from the World Bank and its affiliates, a sell-out of the purposes and objectives of the revolution in Ghana to the international community ... It makes no sense for the country to become a member of the Bank and the IMF and continue to pay their dues only to refrain from using the resources of both institutions.
The PNDC recognized that it could rely on friendly nations such as Libya to tackle the economic problems of Ghana. The magnitude of the crisis, aggravated by widespread forest fires that devastated agricultural production in 1983-1984 and the return of more than one million Ghanaians who had been expelled from Nigeria in 1983, which had intensified the situation Unemployment called monetary assistance from institutions with greater financial coffers.
Phase One of the ERP was launched in 1983. Its goal was economic stability. Overall, the government wanted to reduce inflation and to build confidence in the country's ability to recover. In 1987 progress was evident. The inflation rate fell to 20 percent, and between 1983 and 1987, said Ghana's economy grew at 6 percent per year. Official development assistance from donor countries to Ghana's recovery program U.S. an average of $ 430 million in 1987, more than double the previous year. PNDC administration also made a special payment of over U.S. $ 500 million in loan arrears dating to before 1966. In recognition of these achievements, international agencies had pledged more than U.S. $ 575,000,000 for future programs in the country in May 1987. With these achievements in place, the PNDC launched the second phase of the ERP, which provides for the privatization of state assets, the devaluation of the currency and the increased savings and investment, and will continue until 1990.
Despite the successes of Phase One of the ERP, many problems remained, and both friends and foes of the PNDC were quick to note. One commentator noted the high rate of unemployment in Ghana as a result of the austerity policies of the PNDC. In the absence of employment policies or conversion to remedy these problems, he wrote, the effects of the austerity programs might create circumstances that could derail the PNDC recovery program.
Unemployment was only one aspect of the political problems facing the government of the PNDC, another was the size and breadth of the PNDC's political base. The PNDC initially pursued a populist agenda that appeals to a wide variety of components of rural and urban areas. Still, the PNDC was the subject of significant criticism from several groups in one form or another call for a return to constitutional government. Much of this criticism came from student organizations, the GBA, and opposition groups in self-imposed exile, who questioned the legitimacy of military government and its declared intention to return the country to constitutional rule. So vocal was the outcry against the PNDC that appeared on the surface as if the PNDC enjoyed little support among groups that had historically molded and influenced public opinion in Ghana. In a difficult time policies are implemented, the PNDC could not afford the continued alienation and opposition of such prominent critics.
In mid 1980, therefore, has become essential that the PNDC demonstrate that it was actively considering measures to constitutionalism and marital status. This was true despite the recognition of Rawlings as an honest leader and the perception that the situation he was trying to repair it was not his creation. To move in the desired direction, the PNDC needed to weaken the influence and credibility of all antagonistic groups while creating the necessary structures Ghana policies that bring more and more in the process of national reconstruction. The PNDC's solution to his dilemma was the proposal for district assemblies.
District Assemblies
Although the National Commission for Democracy (NCD) has existed as an agency of the PNDC since 1982, it was not until September 1984 that Justice Daniel F. Annan, himself a member of the governing council, was appointed president. The official opening of the NDA in January 1985 noted the PNDC determination to move the nation in a political sense. According to its mandate, the NDA was to design a viable democratic system, the use of public debates. Annan said the need for the commission's work, arguing that the system of political parties in the past lost count of the development process of socio-economic country. There was a need, therefore, the search for a new political order that would be functionally democratic. constitutional rules of the past were not acceptable to the revolutionary spirit, Annan continued, which saw the old political order and the use of polls "just to make sure that politicians were elected into power, after communication between the electorate and their elected representatives completely collapsed.
After two years of deliberations and public hearings, the CND is recommended the formation of district assemblies, local government institutions that provide opportunities for the average person to participate in the political process. The PNDC scheduled elections in the meetings proposed for the last quarter of 1988.
If, as Rawlings said, the PNDC revolution was a "holy war", then the proposed assemblies were part of a PNDC policy intended to annihilate enemy forces, or at least to reduce them to impotence. The strategy was to deny the opposition a legitimate political forum in which they could articulate their opposition to the government. It was for this reason, much as it was for which is indicated by Annan that the five members of the Assembly District Committee was established in each of 110 administrative districts of the country and was accused by the NDA with assurance all electoral candidates followed the rules. District committees were to automatically disqualify any candidate who had a history of criminal activity, insanity, or imprisonment for fraud or electoral offenses in the past, especially after 1979. Also excluded from the elections were all professionals accused of fraud, dishonesty and malpractice. The ban on political parties, instituted at the time of the Rawlings coup, was to continue.
By excluding candidates associated with corruption and mismanagement of national resources are submitted to the positions of the District Assembly, the PNDC expected to set new values to govern political behavior in Ghana. To do this effectively, the government also made it illegal for candidates to mount campaign platformS other than that defined by the NDA. All eligible voters in the district could propose candidates or be nominated as a candidate. Candidates can not be appointed by the organizations and associations, but had to run for district office on the basis of personal qualifications and service to their communities.
Once in session, a meeting would become the highest political authority in each district. Assembly members were responsible for deliberation, evaluation, coordination and implementation of programs approved as suitable for the economic development district, however, the district assemblies should be under the overall guidance and direction from central government. For the development of the district were in line with national policies, a third of the members of the assembly should be traditional authorities (chiefs) or their representatives, which members must be approved by the PNDC in consultation with traditional authorities and other productive sectors "economic groups in the district." In other words, a degree of autonomy granted to the assemblies in determining the most appropriate programs to the districts, but the PNDC retains ultimate responsibility for ensuring These programs were in line with national economic recovery program.
The district assemblies as indicated in the documents of PNDC were widely discussed by friends and enemies of the government. Some hailed the proposal is consistent with the objective of granting the ability of individuals to manage their own affairs, but others (especially the political right) accused the government of concealing his intention to remain in power. If the government's desire for democracy were genuine, a timetable for national elections that have been its priority rather than the concern with local government, they argued. Some questioned the wisdom of incorporating traditional leaders and the extent to which these traditional leaders are committed to the idea of the district assembly, while others attacked the election guidelines as undemocratic and, therefore, as a contribution to a culture of silence in Ghana. To these critics, the district assemblies were nothing more than a move by the PNDC to consolidate its position.
Rawlings, however, responded to such criticism by restating the PNDC strategy and the rationale is as follows:
Steps towards more formal political participation are being taken through the district-level elections that will take place throughout the country as part of our policy of decentralization. As I said in my broadcast nationwide on December 31 if we are to see a sturdy tree of democracy grow, we must learn from the past and nurture very carefully and deliberately political institutions that will become the pillars on which people power is erected. A new sense of responsibility must be created in every workplace, every village, every district, and we see the elements of this in the work of the CDR, 31 December Women's Movement, the June 4 Movement City and Rural Development Committees and other organizations through which people's voice being heard.
As for the classification of certain PNDC policies as "leftist" and "right" Rawlings dismissed the allegations as "very simplistic ... What is certain is that we are moving!" For the PNDC, therefore, the district elections constituted an obvious first step in a political process that would culminate at the national level.
Rawlings explanation notwithstanding, various opposition groups continued to describe the PNDC district assemblies, intended as a mere public relations ploy designed to give political legitimacy to a government that had come to power through unconstitutional means. long time observers of the political scene in Ghana, however, noted two main issues at stake in the conflict between the government and its critics: the means by which political stability would be achieved, and the problem of achieving sustained economic growth. Both were concerned about the country since the days of Nkrumah. Economic recovery programs implemented by the PNDC in 1983 and the proposal for district assemblies in 1987 were important elements in the government's strategy to address these fundamental problems and persistent. Both were an important part of national debate in Ghana in late 1980.
Recent events
Under international and domestic pressure for a return to democracy, the PNDC allowed the establishment of 258 members of the Consultative Assembly made up of members representing geographic districts, and establish civic or business organizations. The assembly is charged with preparing a draft constitution to establish a republic in fourth place with PNDC proposals. The PNDC accepted the final product without revision, and submitted to a national referendum on April 28, 1992, which received 92% approval rating. On May 18, 1992, the ban on political parties was lifted in the preparation of multi-party elections. The PNDC and its supporters formed a new party, National Democratic Congress (NDC), to contest the elections. Presidential elections were held on November 3 and parliamentary elections on 29 December of that year. The members of the opposition boycotted parliamentary elections, however, resulting in a 200 seat Parliament with only 17 opposition members and two independents.
The Constitution came into force on January 7, 1993, to found the Fourth Republic. That day, Rawlings was inaugurated as President and members of Parliament swore their oaths of office. In 1996, the opposition fully to the presidential and parliamentary elections, which were described as peaceful, free and transparent by domestic and international observers. Rawlings was reelected with 57% of the vote. In addition, Rawlings' NDC party won 133 of Parliament's 200 seats, just one place below the two-thirds majority required to amend the Constitution, despite the election results of two seats in Parliament before the legal challenges.
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Topic: HISTORY OF GHANA (Read 2821 times)
