A great advantage of living and working in a small country is the greatest opportunity to meet prominent people, including prime ministers, military dictators, and heads of state. For twenty-six years in Ghana I was able to meet several of the prominent people who held power during the period 1971-1997. When I first arrived in Ghana on February 3, 1971, Mr. E Akuffo-Addo was president but the head of the government was Prime Minister Dr. KA Busia. Over the next eleven years there were five regime changes until Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings' "Second Coming" on December 31, 1981, which heralded a period of 19 years and seven days of uninterrupted rule.
I regret not having had the opportunity to meet Dr. Busia, although I did see him once addressing a large crowd gathered in Konongo Market Square. Dr. Busia's government had asked the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to conduct a survey of the Suame magazine in Kumasi, Ghana's largest informal industrial zone or kokompe. As a newly arrived engineer, I was asked to join the study team, and so I began a career-long involvement in small business promotion.
To my surprise, I discovered that university students had formed the impression that there was a lot of corruption in Dr. Busia's regime, and Colonel I K Acheampong's military coup on January 13, 1972 was initially greeted with some enthusiasm. This enthusiasm had completely evaporated in 1976 when the vice rector of KNUST asked me to set up a university booth at the Second Ghana International Trade Fair. It was an honor to greet the President of the Supreme Military Council at the Accra fairgrounds and show him the university exhibition. My memory is of a rigid uniformed military figure who points out each exhibition in turn with his general's cane.
IK Acheampong was removed from office by his colleague General FWK Akuffo on July 5, 1978. I never had the pleasure of meeting General Akuffo during his brief eleven months in office, but I knew his cousin, also named Fred Akuffo, who was a fellow engineer in KNUST's academic staff. I once asked Fred if he had known his cousin since he took over the government. He replied that he had arrived at the house once, but security arrangements deterred him from entering.
When Flight Lieutenant JJ Rawlings carried out his first coup d'etat on June 4, 1979, he had IK Acheampong and FWK Akuffo executed by firing squad, along with another former head of state, General AA Afrifa, and nine others. . A few days later, Rawlings came to KNOW to speak to students and staff at the university. The revolutionary leader was received with great enthusiasm and the students asked that more corrupt people share the fate of the three celebrities. However, the charismatic young man with a bright orange complexion seemed punished for his savage act and declined to be dragged into a replay. For more click here https://newsghana.com.gh/
After a general election, Rawlings handed over President-elect Hilla Limann on September 24, 1979. I did not meet Dr. Hilla Limann but I did know her Vice President, Dr. Joseph WS DeGraft-Johnson, pretty well as the former director. of Building and Road. Research Institute (BRRI) based on the KNUST campus. On one occasion, after dinner at his home in Kumasi, I heard the future vice president declare to visiting American professors that the British claimed to have abolished slavery on the Gold Coast "but we still have slaves in our homes." Hopefully he would talk about alcohol and that his views would have advanced before taking office, but the Limann regime was also considered corrupt and the student community was welcomed by Rawlings when it organized his return on December 31, 1981. .
To my surprise, I discovered that university students had formed the impression that there was a lot of corruption in Dr.