Political Re-birth In Ghana

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30998, 2 March 1966, Page 16

Political Re-birth In Ghana

The first question to be asked concerning the overthrow of Dr. Nkrumah's dictatorship in Ghana is, why did he leave Accra to visit Peking and Hanoi on a self-conceived Vietnam peace mission? He must have known that such a mission had not the remotest prospects of succeeding. He must have known also that his absence from Accra would provide the perfect opportunity for an uprising against the regime he headed. By leaving Ghana he seemed deliberately to invite the Army action that immediately followed. Dr. Nkrumah was a man living in constant fear for his life. Since the beginning of this year he had not left Christianbourg Castle, a 17th-century slave fortress dominating the cliffs above Accra harbour, which he turned into a sanctuary. He refused to leave it even to attend a reception at the Chinese Embassy during the recent visit of Mr Chou En-lai; he had the function transferred to the castle. Guards constantly patrolled the approaches to the castle: and four walls, also heavily guarded, prevented unauthorised entry to Flagstaff House, the administrative headquarters where he worked before he retreated to his hideout.

Dr. Nkrumah was completely aware of the seething unrest beneath the surface calm of his one-party state, since he had already survived five attempts to kill him. He knew that his determination to turn Ghana into Africa’s first doctrinaire Marxist state would be bitterly opposed, if it were possible to express opposition at all. The United (Opposition) Party had. however, been suppressed, and most of its members were among the hundreds of Ghanaians held in preventive detention, under a law for the denial of freedom of political utterance. The Army revolt may have been planned by a revolutionary group in London, as has been claimed; but clearly there was effective underground organisation in Ghana also, for the timing was perfect and the action carried out almost without a hitch. It would not be surprising to discover, indeed, that Dr. Nkrumah, suspecting that his days of power were numbered, deliberately arranged an “ escape ” mission to China.

Dr. Nkrumah may not have given up all hope of returning to Ghana and resuming power, if he can muster sufficient support from outside and inside Ghana. But no hint of worthwhile aid from Peking. Moscow, or the Organisation of African States has yet emerged. In the meantime, the new regime is in full control. It intends, apparently, to give Ghana’s seven million people a fresh opportunity to realise the high hopes with which they greeted independence eight years ago. Parliament, formed entirely of approved Convention People’s Party members, has been dissolved, and the party with it. Dr. Nkrumah’s ministers have been dismissed, and some will presumably face trial in due course. And, needless to say, Dr. Nkrumah’s political prisoners have been liberated. Free elections may be expected as soon as they can be organised, for the country’s pressing economic problems make political reorganisation a matter of extreme urgency.

Ghana, a naturally rich country with a relatively high standard of living, had reserves amounting to £l9O million when independence came. Less than £5O million remains. Trade and industry have been badly disorganised, owing to political interference, mainly in the direction of nationalisation in terms of socialist theory, and to wasteful expenditure on luxury imports. The new Government is certain to seek new trade links with other countries and to clamp down heavily on imports, to curb both internal and external spending. It is also likely to make a second approach to the International Monetary Fund for financial assistance, with every expectation of a sympathetic response, now that the bubble of “ Marxist-Nkrumahism ” has been burst. Educational freedom will also be restored, together with the Independence and integrity of the judiciary, which Dr. Nkrumah did not hesitate to subvert to serve his own ends. The Western world may now hope for a resurgence in Ghana of democracy and individual freedom which its people so freely embraced when they accepted the responsibilities of self-government. Under British rule. Ghana was the best educated of the African colonies. Its people have both the talent and the idealism to write now a political philosophy free from all the taints of state despotism.