The honour amongst alleged coup plotters: The bizarre case of Koku Anyidoho

We have been reading somewhat incredulously that the Ghana Police Service has dropped all charges against the Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Koku Anyidoho, after the Attorney General and Minister of Justice made it clear that the state was no longer interested in the case (See: Koku Anyidoho walks free as State drops treason charges; starrfmonline.com/ghanaweb.com, 20/08/2018).

The firebrand NDC Deputy General Secretary, Koku Anyidoho was reported to have pontificated carelessly a few months ago: “On January 13, 1972, a certain Col. Ignatius Kutu Acheampong led a movement that removed the Progress Party from power. Busia was the Prime Minister and Akufo-Addo’s father was a ceremonial president. Somebody should tell Nana Akufo-Addo that history has a very interesting way of repeating itself.”

Subsequent to Anyidoho’s ostensive effusions, a friend apprehensively drew my attention to a publication which was being circulated on social media and other electronic news portals, captioned: “Exposed!!! NDC has set January 13 2019 as date for coup”.

Unsurprisingly, my pal appeared extremely disturbed about the alleged coup plot, albeit I tried desperately to allay his fears. I put it to him: “do you honestly believe that NDC faithful are capable of staging a coup d’état in Ghana?”

My friend however lamented apprehensively and sonorously: well”, if we do not know how death feels like, we can obviously take a cue from sleep”. “After all, wasn’t NDC founded on the ideals of coup making enthusiast J. J. Rawlings?”

To be quite honest, I was indifferent upon gingerly skimming through the story. On one hand, I soliloquised: ‘this could be fake news’. But upon a second thought, I murmured: ‘was Anyidoho actually telling us about the NDC’s alleged fiendish plot?’ ‘After all, who are we to call Mr Frog an inveterate liar for coming out of the water to announce the untimely demise of Mr Crocodile?’ ‘How could we have known the happenings under the water?’

In retrospect, the statement by Deputy General Secretary of NDC, Koku Anyidoho was without doubt, sounded ludicrous in the ears of discerning Ghanaians. But the fact of the matter is that coup d’états are synonymous with NDC. Indeed, Koku Anyidoho was only mimicking the ethos of NDC.

And considering the fact that the NDC has abhorrent track record, I will be extremely amazed if discerning Ghanaians obsequiously fall for NDC faithful’s desperate attempts to disassociate themselves from the incoherent remarks by the party’s Deputy General Secretary, Koku Anyidoho.

Apparently, Anyidoho was heard on Accra-based Happy FM ranting plangently and illogically: “history had an interesting way of repeating itself and that President Akufo-Addo will end up like his dad who was forced out of government via coup d'état in 1972.”

The fact however is, the likes of Anyidoho are synonymous with coup d’états. Indeed, we can take a cue from history. Verily, NDC was founded on the ideals of their coup making founder J. J. Rawlings (detailed in Article 6 of their party constitution).

Obviously, the NDC loyalists would never agree with some of us for persistently analysing the current affairs through the lenses of the past. But I am afraid we cannot make sense of the present happenings if we refused to take stock of the past events.



The story is told, in a historical perspective, that after deposing General Akuffo and his Supreme Military Council2 (SMC2) government on 4th June 1979, the founder of NDC, Rawlings and his coup making friends went ahead and formed their own government, which they called as the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and appointed Flt. Rawlings as their chairman.

The coup makers transferred power to Dr Hilla Limann and his PNP Party following the successful election in 1979.

Anecdotally, it was reported that, the Limann government assumed office at a time when the economy was stagnant; all credit lines to the country had diminished and were finally blocked due to brutalities and confiscations at the harbours and other points of entry into Ghana.

However, Rawlings and his cohorts did not give Dr Limann and his PNP government the breathing space to govern the country, as they relentlessly breathed down the neck of President Liman.

Rawlings and his conspiratorial plotters, as a matter of fact, unfairly kept criticising Dr Limann’s administration for what the coup makers perceived as economic mismanagement, until Rawlings and his jailbreaking geezers decided to depose Dr Limann.

Subsequently, J. J. Rawlings and the other obstreperous jailbreakers took arms and succeeded in deposing the democratically elected government of Dr Hilla Limann on 31st December 1981.

And, Rawlings and his friends formed a government which they called the Provisional national Defence Council (PNDC) and appointed Rawlings as the chairman.

Starvation, so to speak, visited the vast majority of Ghanaians, and hence developing revoltingly ugly collar bones which the humorous Ghanaians renamed as “Rawlings Chain”. That was indeed the pernicious extent of the hunger.

After imposing himself and despotically ruling the country for over 11 years, J. J. Rawlings retired from the military, formed the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and bizarrely metamorphosed into civilian president in 1992.

Apparently, the likes of Koku Anyidoho were brought from their hideouts to form all sorts of paramilitary groups, whose collective mandate was to defend the revolution by hook or by crook.

Whichever way you may view the issue under discussion, going forward, the authorities cannot and must not entertain any treasonable statements from coup making enthusiasts like Koku Anyidoho, given their despicable track record.

In sum, the security forces must be ready to thwart any conspiratorial plot by the enemies of the state.