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13 Jan – A Tragic Day of National Mourning
Yes, today 13th of January marks exactly 50 years when the government of Dr K.A was deposed in a military coup one of the two unjustified coups.
That 13 Jan event is one of the two unjustified coups in Ghana. The other one 31st December which toppled another constitutional democracy presided over by Dr Hilla Limann.
Both putsches, to say the least, were utterly senseless and pointless!
My daddy of blessed memory, S.O Akosah of Jamasi, was a stalwart of Nkrumah, who together with my mom, also of blessed memory, were at the founding of CPP at Saltpond in 1949.
But despite being an adherent of Nkrumah, my father never ceased bemoaning the pro-Nkrumah coup of 13 Jan.,1972 which denied Dr Busia the opportunity of running his full four-year tenure [and highly likely a second term.]
My daddy’s argument had always been that as thr leading political and philosophical adversaries of our immediate post-independent politics, both Nkrumah and Busia ought to have been given almost the same period of time in government so that a fair, balanced verdict could have been issued as to which of the TWO STATESMAN had been a BETTER LEADER.
Nkrumah got time in government, yes, Nkrumah was in power for close to 15 years so he had relatively adequate time to set a higher bar of performance which had been pretty difficult to match up largely due political instability since his [Nkrumah] ouster in 1966.
Some may be quick and point to Rawlings who was at the helm for 20 years! But what we need to be reminded is that Rawlings was an aberration who wasn’t Nkrumah or Busia.
Yes, that Airforce Pilot, just didn’t possess the skills of statecraft of either Nkrumah or Busia. smart statesmen. Rawlings’ 20-year rule was a fool’s errand of no consequence. In the end, he returned the nation to the very spot that he had snatched it on the eve of new year in 1981 by replacing his repressive dictatorship with a quasi democracy after a decade-long misadventure he dubbed revolition.
And Rawlings had opted for democracy not because he believed in it but because he saw it as a safe way of extending his brutal hold hold on our poor nation.
Events of 13 Jan. did irredeemable disservice to the homeland and must be deemed a Tragic Day of National Mourning.
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