Boakye-Djan revolution made Mike Oquaye ‘president’ in 1965

Major Kojo Boakye-Djan (rtd), prior to his infamous June 4 revolution, staged a ‘coup d’état’ in 1965 that made Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament Prof Mike Oquaye a president.

Recounting events of his university days on Accra-based 3FM’s Sunrise morning show last week, Maj. Boakye-Djan said he successfully led a revolution in 1965 to make Mike Oquaye president of the Akuafo Hall of the University of Ghana.

“I remember sometime [in] 1965 when we were in 2nd year…at the end of the year, we organized a party which was well attended, and when the incumbent SRC retained a profit of 20p we got irritated and nobody was going to do anything about it.

“So I took the constitution and called for an emergency meeting. At the end of the emergency meeting I had overthrown the whole SRC government and then put [Mike] Oquaye there as the president of Akuafo Hall” he recounted.

In 1965, Mike Oquaye and Kojo Boakye-Djan were classmates in the University and were in the same hall.

Maj. Boakye-Djan said Mike Oquaye accepted the position and acknowledged same.

For his efforts, the ex-military officer said he was at the time nicknamed “Colonel Burmudian”, in reference to an Algerian General who overthrew a civilian government, whose stature, he observed, was very much like him.

“When[ever] I was walking around Legon campus, they used to call me Colonel Burmudian, an Algerian General who overthrew the civilian administration around that time; very slim and wiry like I was,” he said.

Revolution ‘is in my blood’

Boakye-Djan who later masterminded the overthrow of the Supreme Military Council in the June 4 uprising admitted that revolution has always been in his blood. “It’s always been there,” he stated.

He, however, added that the June 4 revolution was substantially different from other revolutions because it was a military force seeking to overthrow a military regime and that required some violence.

“You can only do it by firefight, it’s not like a civilian regime where you rumble tanks into the broadcasting house and say ‘I, so so and so have taken over…but when there is a sitting military regime and you’re organizing a counter coup, it’s got to be a bullet for bullet and ours for instance lasted for more than 48 hours”, he said.

The veteran soldier who describes himself, as the founding father of the June 4 revolution was quick to state that a counter coup like the June 4 is pro-democracy but an anti-constitution coup against a sitting government is illegal.

He cautioned that under no circumstance should Ghanaians entertain an anti-democracy revolution.