Ghana under the late General I. K. Acheampong’s National Redemption Council (NRC) regime from 1972 – 1978 took off very well with the introduction of Operation Feed Yourself (OFY) which led to the production of abundant food nationwide. Col. Frank Benarsko whom Ghanaians described as a man of Action led Ghana Youth to sugar plantations at Asutuare farms etc. to the envy of civilians who hate military rule. The NRC re-instated thousands of civil and public servants who were SACKED by the late Dr. Busia’s Progress Party government just because they served under Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s CPP government which he helped to overthrow violently on 24th February 1966 and power was handed over to him on a silver platter by General Afrifa, Ghana’s Number one Traitor in 1969.
ACHEAMPONG’S U-TURN 1975 – 1978
The “Kalabule” (corruption) episode which characterized the NRC regime headed by Acheampong became so intense and unbearable that at a time EVERY GHANAIAN VIRTUALLY BECAME A CHEAT, SWINDLER, SMUGGLER, and a CHARLATAN, so it was a crime to speak the TRUTH or do the RIGHT thing in Ghana, our motherland.
Dear reader I am writing this FACTUAL article for the benefit of Ghana Youth who were NOT born at that time, or were still kids and did NOT know anything only to grow up and be fed with fat lies by a bunch of de-Africanized political criminals who printed pictures of the June 4 Uprising in 1979 and distributed these pictures in order to destroy the NDC in the 2008 general elections because of Rawlings, role in the 1979 executions, Rawlings never killed a fly in this country – Rather, all those executions that took place on June 4 1979 and the 31st December revolutions were undertaken by the people of Ghana.
GOVERNMENT DESIGNATED SUPER MARKETS
The issuing of CHITS became the order of the day, “Essential Commodities”, like milk, sugar, milo, kerosene, matches, soap, sardines, candels, toilet rolls, textiles, tooth pastes, tooth brushes, cement, iron rods corrugated iron sheets, and even toilet rolls could be accessed cheaply or at control prices through the procurement of chits through patronage under whom you know basis or from the government designated super markets. Corruption was at its peak as it was given a blessing by that corrupt NRC military junta which was renamed the Supreme Military Council in 1978. In those hellish years, virtually every Ghanaian became a trader or salesman over night. Hoarding and profiteering became prominent and highly glorified. If you wanted to buy a cloth for your wife, you gave her the money and she would go and buy a broom at Makola in Accra, market circle in Takoradi or the Central Market in Kumasi with a piece of cloth tied to the broom to signify the particular cloth she liked. Petrol and kerosene were sold inside these big markets including the small markets, postage stamps, air mails, chalk, rulers, teachers’ note books as well as all educational materials were sold in the open markets.
In those days, woe unto you if you ask a trader to reduce the price of a commodity for you, and the situation became worse when you are a soldier in uniform or a policeman - the market women would pour urine onto your uniform and the junior soldier could not discipline that woman. Do it and see, because she is the girl friend of your superior officer, so your anger will have to remain in your body causing you sleepless nights until June 4 1979 when you get the chance to retaliate after the arrest and detention of your corrupt senior officers.
Life in Ghana became very difficult and people began to agitate for a CHANGE of the economic and political direction of the country. On May 15th 1979, J. J. Rawlings who was then NOT KNOWN by Ghanaians attempted a coup d’état to remove the then Supreme Military Council which was headed by General F. W. K. Akuffo who removed Gen. Acheampong in a palace coup in July 1978. Rawlings was arrested and put before a military court martial which was STRICTLY a military affair, but the President of the court martial, the late Col. Enningful made it an open trial which was covered by the PRESS. Rawlings used the opportunity to tell the nation that he was acting on behalf of the under privileged of our nation. So he and the 17 co-conspirators were trying to purge the Armed Forces from the TOP before the handover to civilian rule and bravely shouted thus: LEAVE MY MEN ALONE, I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING. The spontaneous reaction of the public against Gen. Akuffo’s SMC 2 government after Rawlings, brave speech forced the government to temporarily suspend the court martial and returned Rawlings and his group back to cells. Rawlings, and his fellow patriots were rightly released from cells, and when Ghanaians heard over the RADIO that Flt. Lt. J. J. Rawlings had taken over the reins of government through another military coup on June 4 1979 he was RIGHTLY hailed by 99% of Ghanaians. It should be admitted that his uprising was very, very popular, given the corruption, and haphazard way the economy was being run at that time. Now the question to ask then and now is: Was Rawlings a TRUE SAVIOUR? (2) Was he really the Caesar or Daniel that Ghanaians were yearning for on June 4 1979? Yes He was, and is still, and if so, why did his early collaborators later desert him?
Top military officers were executed including three former Heads of state namely Gen. Akuffo, Afrifa and Acheampong in June 1979. Other senior officers were sentenced to long jail terms. The junior ranks in the Army called for the elimination of ALL senior officers who were arrested and locked up in military guard rooms throughout the country and demanded to go the Ethiopian way as suggested by Rawlings during his trial at Burma Hall. The youth in Ghana’s Universities, Polytechnics, workers, prison warders, farmers, doctors, teachers, junior police officers, junior immigration officers, junior officers of the Border Guards now CEPS all joined in the refrain and cried on roof tops for Rawlings and his no-nonsense AFRC junta to LET THE BLOOD FLOW freely in this country. However, Rawlings, whose five finger nails were removed by force with a pair of pliers by his senior military officers forgave them and ordered the release of all the senior officers who were NOT CORRUPT and the corrupt ones were put before special tribunals and jailed instead of being shot by firing squad in 1979. The June 4 uprising took Ghana into a three month HOUSE CLEANING EXERCISE, unprecedented discipline, truth, honesty, fellow feeling. In fact June 4 invented a social vaccine that restored our moral standards as some Ghanaian women who dressed indecently were stripped naked publicly and whipped by junior soldiers to serve as a deterrent to others, and all Ghanaians came back to their senses by FIGHTING for their rights and questioning their senior citizens; accountability and probity was also restored. Yet, because of political expediency, the NPP printed several pictures of what happened on June 4 1979 and used these FALSE PICTURES as a campaign tool against the NDC during the 2008 general elections in order to win the hearts of the unsuspecting youth and women, but they failed because 28 years after June 4, most Ghanaians who went through that period are still alive in this country. I am tempted to ask the NPP whether they will RE-PRINT the same pictures of the June 4 era during the 2010 general elections again. If the NPP will re-print those pictures, thy should reprint the massacres in Kumasi and Kyebi during the National Liberation Movement’s (fights for federalism in Ghana) with the late Dr. Nkrumah’s CPP between 1951, 1954 and 1956 and also those killed after the 24th February, 1966 UP backed violent coup led by General Afrifa so that Ghanaian voters would compare notes and vote for the best political party in December 2012. Those so-called Angels and Apostles of Democracy in the NPP who always count the number of missing people as well as exiles and detainees under the Rawlings PDNC era MUST also count the VICTIMS of the COWARDLY and senseless bomb outrages by the Danquah/Busia tradition which killed thousands of innocent men, women and children in this country between 1956-1966. The Danquah/Busia tradition which the NPP represent today REFUSED to print calendars depicting their murderous activities in those years during the 2008 general elections to tell Ghanaians that their party threw a bomb in a bid to kill the late Dr. Nkrumah but failed and that 300 people died through that bombing by NPP human beasts and this compelled the late Dr. Nkrumah to send the preventive detention bill to parliament which was passed and Sir Ako Korsah, then Supreme court judge signed it into law in the absence of the Governor General, he gave the law a ROYAL ASSENT and the P.D.A became law in Ghana under the CPP regime because there was a coup attempt in 1958 led by Major Ahwaetey and the late R. R. Amponsah and this famous law was enacted by parliament to prevent the nation from being mangled at birth by elements of the UP tradition. And yet after the bloody coup on 24th February 1966 Sir Arko Korsah traveled on an official visit to Ethiopia and strongly condemned the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah for using the P.D.A. to deny his political opponents the operation of habeas corpus, and yet he was the very person who signed the P.D.A. in to law, was his behavior NOT a very dishonest and cowardly betrayal? Was he not a double faced professional hypocrite of international repute?
The late Dr. Nkrumah NEVER EVER signed the P.D.A. into law at all, it is a FACT. Those so-called democrats of the Danquah/Busia tradition who protested against the P.D.A. quickly replaced it with the Protective Custody Decree in 1966 after the violent overthrow of Dr. Nkrumah in which three socialist boys died at the Nsawam Medium security prison. They were comrades M. O. Kwatia, Maclean Kontche and Magnus George respectively. So who are the True Democrats in this country because the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah never killed a single person in this country throughout his presidency so why should the so-called democrats in the NPP with their hands stained with the blood of thousands of innocent men, women and children between 1951, 1954 and 1956 up to 1966 and beyond let the people know since you know how to print pictures of the so-called atrocities of Rawlings in 1979 and used it to campaign against the NDC during the 2008 general elections. This is very shameful and unfortunate if NOT dishonest. Are you people HUMAN BEINGS OR HUMAN BEASTS? This is the BIG question which you must answer. We must tell Ghana youth the TRUTH no matter how bitter it is, rather than resorting to soothing falsehood in order to score cheap political points, posterity will NOT forgive all those politicians who deceive the youth in Ghana.
The above write up was what our nation Ghana looked like before the June 4 uprising in 1979. I am setting the records straight because lies put up as propaganda remain lies no matter the political persuasion of the liar. From the above factual explanations, the Danquah / Busia tradition which the NPP represents today KILLED MORE PEOPLE in Ghana for political and tribal reasons than the combined revolutions of June 4th 1979 and the 31st December 1981 that is the main reason why the entire NPP membership hate the TRUTH. You either take is or leave it, but Rawlings is a GEM who must be preserved. I am done: Aluta Continua! …………………………… Clement Sangaparee
Executive Member June 4 Movement Obuasi
E-mail: clementsang@yahoo.com
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