People power — Mark II — for Ghana

Press, 20 January 1982, Page 19

People power — Mark II — for Ghana

. . . The night 'Junior Jesus’ staged his second coming

SINCE Ghana's latest coup on New Year’s Eve there have been few reports from inside the country by independent observers. Behind sealed borders the new leader, Flight Lieutenant .Jerry Rawlings, locked up the opposition and prepared his bewildered countrymen for rule by decree. Now, in this first dispatch from Accra, “Sunday Times’’ correspondents MARTIN MEREDITH and CAMERON DL'ODU, describe how the coup was planned, how Ghana is taking it, and what the country's chances are for recovery.

To his friends, he is known as "Junior Jesus.” this former airman who has twice seized his country in the space of two years. His friends are the army officers who support his leadership, and the poor who gathered in their thousands in Accra’s market square to celebrate the “second coming.”

To his enemies, Jerry Rawlings is the great antidemocrat, the man who has ruthlessly extinguished the torch lit 25 years ago by independent Ghana’s first leader, Kwame Nkrumah.

His enemies are the middle class, the politicians and, perhaps most important of all, the fat blackmarketers who over the years have grown rich as the nation slid into economic ruin. These people, characterised by the heavyweight market women, are said to wield "bottom power." Among the 200.000 who celebrated the Rawlings revolution in the market

square were holders of placards that called for an end to "bottom power." People climbed on buses, rooftops, and treetops to greet Rawlings, but the messiah’s message was not coming through strong and clear. The hastily-assembled loudspeaker system conked out, forcing Rawlings to give the same speech several times over as he moved round the square.

“You, the people, must do it!” he yelled. "No one can do it for you.” By "it” he meant the seizure of power and the formation of committees "to control your own lives." It is an invitation as well-meant in its delivery as it is cruel in its impossibility of fulfilment.

The people Rawlings was addressing clearly believe he will bring an end to the corruption, shortages, and rampant inflation that marked the Government of

the ousted president, Hilla Limann.

Yet if Rawlings proves to be a frustrated prophet, his predecessor seemed to lack any foresight at all. A few days before Christmas, Limann was warned that a coup was being planned. He was even told the date: December 30, the night of the all-ranks dance at Burma Camp on the outskirts of Accra. The • dance was to be a grand occasion, with Limann guest of honour. Limann was also reasonably well informed about the identity of the plotters. They were said to be supporters of Jerry Rawlings, 35-year-old airman and leader of the 1979 coup who after handing over power to Limann’s civilian government, had become embittered at the persistent corruption and crushing economic problems of the nation he had “rescued.” Limann, however, made no

special preparations and as the dancers waltzed to a finish he went home. No sooner was his head on the pillow than eight former members of the reconnaissance regiment seized three armoured cars.

The men, previously dismissed from the army for bad behaviour, had been trained in Libya and returned to Ghana with smuggled Russian-made AK47 automatic rifles. Driving around the Burma Camp, calling for support, they met with little response at first. An officer who tried to remonstrate with them was shot dead. It was not until several hours word spread that Rawlings was behind the planned coup. The men of Burma Camp gave their support to the plotters. Troops seized the airport, army headquarters, and radio station. Limann’s Government collapsed instantly without a struggle.

Since then Rawlings has held court at the Gondar barracks headquarters to exuberant chants from outside his window. Among the chanters are the plump market women, whose “bottom power” is on the wane. They hired 10 buses and drove out to the barracks to sing Rawlihg’s praises, spread their cloths on the ground for him to walk on — hoping he will relent.-.- But they got short shrift and were sent away by the soldiers.

The women were told that lower prices and not demonstrations would win their new’leader's favour. How the market women react to this will give an early indication of how the revolution is likely to proceed.

If they accept some control, it .is expected that Rawlings will try to hand back some power to civilian hands. But if the traders, who form an influential section of the middle class, refuse to co-operate, a more repressive regime is expected. Rawlings has already announced changes that will transform Ghana's ramshackle government into a bureaucratic nightmare apparently modelled on Colonel Gadaffi’s Libya. People power will be expressed through people’s defence committees in shops, offices, factories, the army, and police. It is assumed that the committees will report through other as yet unnamed committees to a Government group chaired by Rawlings. Rawlings appears to those who know him to have an almost fanatical belief that corruption is at the root of all Ghana's problems, and if only it could be stamped out the country would once again be prosperous. Even his admirers at the time of his

first coup conceded that he had little ideological grasp. "Rawlings is really a showman," says " one Ghanaian observer. “He has a high sense of drama, and he is an idealist with a longing for reform but little understanding of how to run a country." Others behind him have their own ideas and the fear that many Ghanaians have is that these people and their opinions remain unknown.

When Rawlings first took power in 1979 he immediately executed eight senior army officers, confiscated land and property, and imprisoned the more corrupt officials. His firmness in dealing with corruption meant that for a time goods were readily available in the shops and prices fell dramatically.

In September, 1979. he handed over power to the elected government of Hilla Limann with a stern warning that if it became "corrupt or complacent" it would be "resisted and overthrown.” Within two months of taking power, Limann fired Rawl-

ings from the air force and launched a propaganda campaign aimed at undermining his popularity. The campaign was so badly handled that Rawlings added a martyr’s mantle to his hero's garb. In the end. it was Limann’s mishandling of the fragile Ghanaian economy that forced Rawlings to act against "the most disgraceful government Ghana has ever had."

At the time of the coup a labourer’s daily wage was needed to buy a loaf of bread or four fingers of plantain, a staple food. Then word leaked out that members of the Government had been taking huge bribes from currency printing firms among others. When the President refused to act. the fuse for the coup was lit. In his first radio broadcast Rawlings denied that the army's action amounted to a coup. He did not make his second broadcast for some 60 hours, giving rise to the rumour that he had been wounded or killed; but his announcements then became

much tougher.

The constitution was suspended, parliament dissolved. the president dismissed and put under arrest. He also announced that there would be people’s tribunals. Rawlings has some formidable tasks ahead of him. Ghana is virtually bankrupt. Its major export industries — cocoa and gold — are in decline. Because of an acute shortage of foreign currency, industry, starved of raw materials, operates at only 10 or 15 per cent capacity. Roads, railways, and ports are in disrepair and inflation is running at more than 100 per cent. The International Monetary Fund tried to persuade Limann to devalue his currency, but Limann refused, on the grounds that previous devaluation led to a coup. Rawlings may well feel less restricted now that the coup is over.

While Rawlings is apparently a reluctant ruler with little long-term political ambition, Giiana may be in for a long period of military rule.