June 4 uprising: Ghanaians reflect on their memory of the 4th coup d'etat

On this day June 4, 1979, Ghana experience its fourth coup d'etat when Major Boakye Gyan led a group of junior military officers to overthrow the Supreme Military Council II (SMC II) headed by Lieutenant General Frederick William Kwasi Akuffo.

The orchestrators of the coup after their successful operation freed Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings who was awaiting a military tribunal for attempting to oust the SMC regime from prison and chose him as the leader for their revolution.

They cited mass allegations of corruption, bad governance, frustration among the general public, and lack of discipline and frustrations within the Ghanaian army as their reasons for the revolt.

After 41 years of the uprising, GhanaWeb took to the streets of Accra to interact with Ghanaians who were old enough to appreciate the events of that day to share with us what they remember when the phrase June 4 'uprising comes to mind'.

"We were here in Accra when we heard that the soldiers have done a coup d'etat. They cited the difficulty in the economy at that time as the reason for their coup. Indeed, things were very hard, you had to queue for essentials commodities like soap, sardine, sugar, milk before you can get some to buy. I will not pray for a coup again because the treatment we got from the soldiers was so bad."

Another respondent said "Rawlings has never done a coup before. He didn't orchestrate the 1979 coup. It was Major Boakye Gyan who ousted the then regime and released Rawlings from prison to come and lead the revolution. Rawlings made things difficult for the old people after the coup and he created enmity between the old and the youth as he replaced all the old people in public offices with young blood. It was indeed a difficult time to live as a Ghanaian.No one should pray for a coup d'etat again."

Watch the video below and tell us what you remember about the June 4 uprising in the comments section.