GHANA-POLITICS: DEMOCRACY TAKES ROOT AFTER DECADES OF COUPS

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

EDWARD AMEYIBOR

ACCRA, Dec 30 1994 (IPS) - DEMOCRACY APPEARS TO BE TAKING ROOT IN GHANA EVEN IF A HISTORY OF MILITARY COUPS HAS TAUGHT THE SOME 15 MILLION GHANAIANS NOT TO BE OVERLY COMPLACENT.

WITH JERRY RAWLINGS – A MILITARY COUP LEADER TURNED CIVILIAN PRESIDENT – RIDING ON THE CREST OF RECENT POLITICAL SUCCESSES, THE CHANCES THAT THE GOVERNMENT OF THIS WEST AFRICAN NATION WILL SUFFER THE FATE OF PREVIOUS ONES ARE SLIM.

ON JAN. 13, 1972, GHANA’S SECOND REPUBLIC CAME TO AN ABRUPT END WHEN SOLDIERS MARCHED TO BROADCASTING HOUSE TO ANNOUNCE AN END TO AN EXPERIMENT OF DEMOCRACY.

A SIMILAR FATE WAS METED OUT TO THE THIRD REPUBLIC ON DEC. 31, 1981 AFTER ONLY 27 MONTHS OF CIVILIAN RULE.

THE MAN WHO UNSEATED THE THIRD REPUBLIC IS NOW RETIRED FLIGHT LIEUTENANT JERRY JOHN RAWLINGS, CIVILIAN HEAD OF THE FOURTH REPUBLIC.

TWO YEARS INTO HIS FOUR-YEAR TERM AS HEAD OF AN ELECTED GOVERNMENT, RAWLINGS IS FIRMLY IN THE SADDLE AND ENJOYING ENORMOUS POPULARITY AMONG HIS GRASSROOTS SUPPORT BASE.

AT A RALLY IN TAMALE, THE NORTHERN REGION CAPITAL WHERE AN ETHNIC WAR RAGED FOR SIX MONTHS THIS YEAR, HE TOLD A TUMULTUOUS CROWD “THEY (MY OPPONENTS) SAY I CANNOT COME TO TAMALE, BUT THERE IS NOWHERE IN GHANA I CANNOT GO.”

RAWLINGS IS RIDING ON THE CREST OF A SUCCESSFUL GOVERNMENT MEDIATION EFFORT WHICH HAS BROUGHT THE ETHNIC WAR TO AN END.

HIS TRIUMPH IN FINALLY GETTING LIBERIA’S WARRING FACTIONS TO AGREE TO PEACE, STARTING WITH A CEASE-FIRE THAT CAME INTO FORCE ON DEC. 28, HAS ALSO BOOSTED THE IMAGE, BOTH LOCALLY AND ABROAD, OF THE GHANAIAN LEADER, WHO IS THE CURRENT CHAIRMAN OF THE ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES (ECOWAS).

ON THE OTHER HAND, THE BIGGEST GROUP OPPOSING HIS GOVERNMENT, THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY (NPP) IS RIDDLED WITH FACTIONS.

THE OTHER MAIN OPPOSITION FORCE, THE PEOPLES CONVENTION PARTY, WHICH GROUPS SOME SUPPORTERS OF THE LATE FORMER PRESIDENT DR. KWAME NKRUMAH, IS ALSO WITHOUT A LEADER OF NATIONAL STANDING.

ALTHOUGH AN ALLIANCE BETWEEN RAWLINGS’ NATURAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS (NDC), THE NATIONAL CONVENTION PARTY (NCP) AND THE EAGLE PARTY IS SHAKY, THIS HARDLY APPEARS TO PRESENT A THREAT FOR THE GHANAIAN PRESIDENT.

GHANA-POLITICS: DEMOCRACY TAKES ROOT AFTER DECADES OF COUPS

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

EDWARD AMEYIBOR

ACCRA, Dec 30 1994 (IPS) - DEMOCRACY APPEARS TO BE TAKING ROOT IN GHANA EVEN IF A HISTORY OF MILITARY COUPS HAS TAUGHT THE SOME 15 MILLION GHANAIANS NOT TO BE OVERLY COMPLACENT.
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