Military Leading Ghana To New Form Of Government To Keep Reigns
July 24, 2026
Transcript
The New York Times
December 13,1977
ACCRA, Ghana, Dec. 10-Four months after Ghana’s military leaders were nearly toppled by an unusual campaign of civil disobedience, Gen. Ignatius Kutu Acheampong has reasserted control and is leading the country toward a new form of government that may perpetuate his leadership.
The new form of government, called “union government,” would be a return to constitutional and civilian rule. But under it, General Acheampong might continue to be Ghana’s strongman if he changed his military uniform for a business suit and ran for election as president, as many are convinced he will.
The turnabout in the general’s political fortunes has astounded many here. In July and August, Ghana’s military rulers were confronted with an “intellectuals’ revolt” that posed the gravest
crisis since they seized power in 1972.
The revolt began in May with a student strike. The students, agitating initially about parochial issues, accused the Government of repression, corruption and fiscal mismanagement. In the context of, Ghana’s economic doldrums, the charges struck a sympathetic chord among many of its 10 million people.
Protest Turned to Sabotage
The Government responded by closing the country’s three universities. The students were joined by doctors, lawyers, engineers and other professionals who walked off their jobs in a demand that the military step down. A protest that began with clandestine distribution of leaflets reached the dimensions of industrial sabotage, plunging Accra into power failures and cutting off its water supply.
In mid-July, the ruling Supreme Military Council had been forced into a reluctant pledge to return to constitutional rule in two years’ time, but the protests made it look like the council would cave in to demands to resign before then.
Now, for the time being at least, the protest has fizzled. The civilian opposition, whose boldness in confronting a military regime was so rare in Africa, is dispirited, fragmented and leaderless.
“The causes of the grievances are still there, and of course the whole opposition could rise up again,”
said a Ghanaian journalist.
“But what is amazing is how quiet it is now, like a war that
suddenly ended before the great battle.”
How He Restored Control
With a deft political hand, General Acheampong regained power. He negotiated with the professionals until their movement lost momentum. He shored up support among the workers by doubling the minimum wage. And he used the Government-controlled media to hammer home his forbearance in not eliminating protestors whom he depicted as unpatriotic and, possibly, financed from abroad.
Opposition leaders assert that the Government reneged on a pledge, contained in a joint communiqué that was signed at the height of the protest but never made public, to turn power over to civilians within a year.
“They agreed to elections within a year and produced a document to that effect,”
said one lawyer involved in the talks.
“Then they requested not to have the contents disclosed while negotiations
continued. So we called off the strike and they repudiated it.”
The assets of the Professional Bodies Association, a collection of professional organizations that spearheaded the protest, have been frozen and the body has lost its legal right to function.
For the past two months, General Acheampong, a 45-year-old normally reclusive army man who rules with a tough but not a brutal hand, has been touring the country’s upper regions,
barnstorming like an American politician. He has been meeting tribal chiefs, attending harvest festivals and promising the people, among other things, new schools, drinking water, electricity and cargo boats on the Volta Lake.
His campaign is on behalf of what he calls “union government,” a kind of national government combining civilian expertise with military might. General Acheampong first raised the idea in
November 1976 after the Ghana Bar Association issued a call for the military to resign.
As defined in a September report by a committee commissioned by the Government to sound out public sentiment, a union government would have elected representatives, including a
powerful president and a single-house parliament. No political parties would be allowed, and the armed forces would exert a strong influence on government through three bodies-a council of
state, a forces advisory council and a national security and defense council.
Proponents of union government, beginning with General Acheampong, assert that it is a uniquely African form of government, unlike the British parliamentary models that have
failed in the past. Political parties lead only to divisiveness, cronyism and violence, they argue, and the strong arm of the military is needed to discipline a developing nation.
Rooted in Tradition
“Union government is nothing alien to Ghana but stems directly from our tradition,”
General Acheampong said, replying in written form to questions submitted by The New York Times. “In our traditional setup, decisions were normally arrived at after a long debate by the Council of Elders, who do not represent any party or ideology but are chosen on merit.”
As the signboards around this capital put it, referring to the fractious days of party politics under Dr. Kofi A. Busia from 1969 to 1972, a union government would be one “in which all of us could
move as one nation, one people, one destiny, thus avoiding the rancor and bitterness of our recent past.”
Many of the professionals and former Busia officials who led the anti-Government strikes see union government as a charade. Without a party structure, opposition candidates could not find
finances or a forum for their ideas, they say. The military leaders,
most notably General Acheampong, could remain in power by taking temporary leaves from the armed services.
In his written replies, General Acheampong said, “I do not have any plans to stand for election in the proposed union government.” Nevertheless, it is widely assumed that he will run-an assumption fueled by the front-page coverage in the two major government-owned newspapers that was given to a minor chief who called upon him to do so. Although he is not charismatic or even very popular, there are no commanding challengers around, and so it is also widely assumed that he would win.
The Government has registered over four million voters for a referendum on union government next March. It has promised that there will be a full debate on the issue. But a symposium Oct. 12, with anti-Government speakers, was broken up by hoodlums in the front rows who wore T-shirts bearing General Acheampong’s photograph.
The New York Times/Dec. 13, 1977
Camera Press Gen. Ignatius Kutu Acheampong
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