An Anatomy Of Ghanaian Politics

Managing Political Recession, 1969-1982

Naomi Chazan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367019495
• eBook ISBN: 9780429725128
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: African Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The paths of African states have diverged markedly since the termination of colonial rule. Nevertheless, Ghana, the first African state to achieve independence, epitomizes both the political gyrations and the overall stagnation common to many other countries on the continent. This work concentrates on the 1969–1982 period in Ghana, focusing on two interrelated facets of African politics: the decline of state power and authority, and adjustments to political recession. The author traces the dual patterns of diminution of the state and the adaptation of autonomous coping mechanisms in the separate spheres of political leadership, political structures and institutions, ideology, and political economy. The dynamic of state-society interactions is then treated in terms of the rhythm of dissent, conflict, and disengagement. Dr. Chazan provides a comprehensive study of Ghanaian politics from the 1970s to the present. By systematically analyzing the process of political decline and regeneration, she highlights similar processes apparent elsewhere in Africa. The stress on the subtleties and direction of political change has important implications for policymakers and policy analysts alike.

1
The Texture of Ghanaian Politics: An Overview

1969–1982: Patterns of Poverty and Political Uncertainty

Ghana’s emergence on the African political scene in 1957 was greeted with considerable fanfare and followed with intense interest. Twenty-five years later it appeared that the same Ghana was on the verge of receding into veritable political oblivion. If, at the outset, every move and action of this first African state to achieve independence from colonial rule was documented, analyzed and debated at length, after two decades some of the most salient political events were often either overlooked or ignored. The Ghanaian studies industry has turned Nkrumah, the CPP, and the African Personality into nearly household terms. The main features of Ghanaian political history until the demise of the First Republic in 1966, have been surveyed and explicated in depth.¹ The recounting of the trends and occurrences of the second decade of Ghanaian politics is, however, hardly redundant.

Ghana of the 1980s did, in fact, present a far more sobering picture than at any time since independence. In the short period between 1969 and 1982 Ghanaians experienced seven different regimes. The National Liberation Council (NLC) returned power to civilians in 1969. After a hard-fought election, the Progress Party assumed control of the government. But the Second Republic under Premier Busia was short-lived. In January 1972 Colonel (later General) I.K. Acheampong, together with a coterie of army officers, established the National Redemption Council (NRC), and a new period of military overrule was launched. In 1975 Acheampong conducted a major reshuffling of his administration, divested himself of the services of other leaders of the 1972 coup ďétat, and set up a small, military-based governing body, the Supreme Military Council (SMC), that then became the focal point of the administration. The period between 1975 and the summer of 1978 was one of economic crisis, administrative breakdown, and civil disorder. After a referendum aimed at attaining approval for a no-party constitution (euphemistically dubbed Union Government), public unrest grew to such an extent that General Acheampong was removed as head of state in a July 1978 putsch carried out by his closest cohorts. The reconstituted military government under General Fred Akuffo (commonly referred to as SMC II) attempted to redress some economic ills and to insure a smooth transition to civilian rule. Two weeks before the elections, another military clique, led by Flight-Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings and some junior and noncommissioned officers, toppled the government and proceeded (in a spurt of violence unprecedented in recent Ghanaian political history) to effect a major house-cleaning campaign. In this atmosphere of confusion, elections were held to return Ghana, once again, to the politicians. The People’s National Party (PNP) emerged as the leading organized political force at the polls. The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) scrupulously adhered to its own transition timetable. On 24 September 1979, a week ahead of schedule, Dr. Hilla Limann was sworn in as the first President of Ghana’s Third Republic. But Limann’s grasp on the reins of power in Ghana also proved transitory: on December 31, 1981 Rawlings returned to office at the head of the Provisional National Defence Council.

The rapid flow of events in these years highlights the vagaries, inconsistencies, and severe fluctuations that have dominated much of recent Ghanaian political history. The pattern evoked by these occurrences is a curious admixture of continuity and change. Thus, the passing away of K.A. Busia in August 1978, coupled with Nkrumah’s death in 1972, seemed to mark the end of the nationalist era in Ghanaian politics. Even the slate of military leaders, with the sole exception of General Ankrah, was wiped clean after the executions carried out under the aegis of the AFRC. However, the results of the 1979 elections bore strong similarities to those of 1956 and 1969, and the new political personalities and constellations were well known from the pre-independence period. The pendulum swing of Ghanaian politics, together with the combination of recurring themes and the continuous breaking of new ground, underlies the politics of uncertainty of the 1970s.

The key foci of politics at the close of the decade were indicative of the shifting themes that had come to preoccupy Ghanaian life. Though economic progress has always been a central concern of African states, the substance of political economy considerations moved from industrialization to rural development, from growth to averting total collapse, from production of surplus to maintaining minimum food supplies. The emphases, hence, were less developmental and more survival oriented. Economic stagnation also centered attention on the prevalence of inequalities. They, and their concomitant dependencies, became a major axis around which political activities and conflicts revolved. Material inequalities were compounded by spatial, political, and social ones, resulting in the emergence of exacerbated divisions in a society which, while pluralistic, had in the past exhibited a fair degree of tolerance for differences.

The politicization of virtually all major segments of the Ghanaian population followed the unfolding of these significant cleavages. Groups, such as religious associations, local collectivities, ethnic communities, regional agglomerations, farmers, and workers, burst onto the political stage with renewed vigor. So, too, did occupational and professional groupings, students, the military, and other class-linked organizations. Redesigned patronage and factional networks further augmented the political engagement of society, underscoring the centrality of participation and representation as a key facet of Ghanaian politics. At the same time, however, the underlying quest for justice that had informed much of the political vibrancy of the country was tempered in the face of a decade in which civil liberties were trampled upon at will. Even the sense that Ghanaian politics contained the elemental virtue of not running to extremes² could not hold up against the turbulence and violence that marked political occurrences at this juncture.

At first glance it would seem that the contrasts between the political issues of 1979 and 1957 were so stark as to defy categorization. Whereas ideology, one-partyism, integration, development, and charisma were central themes of the first years of independence, twenty years later their importance had visibly waned. If previously the state was seen as the moving force behind constructive change, the events of the past few years raised grave doubts as to the effectiveness and efficiency of the state power apparatus, its ability to control production and exchange, its relationship with the world economy, and the concentration of power which it could actually maintain. Indeed, the substantive comparisons suggested that the thrust of Ghanaian politics shifted from confronting problems related to tyranny to barring the manifestations of anarchy.

These variations in concerns and emphases should not, however, obscure the many commonalities with characteristics persisting from the past. The zero-sum nature of power relations; the personalization of politics; the search for probity; the stress on social interaction at the expense of substance; corruption, inefficiency, mismanagement mingled with the art of public criticism: these had become a constant on the Ghanaian political scene. Their impact, however, was perhaps no longer uniformly predictable. The ambiguities and confusions of yesteryear were compounded by the emergence of noticeable contradictions. The admixture of blurring of differences and a new dialectic became associations increasingly reflective of the essential fiber of Ghanaian political existence. It is in this context that the critical change in the nature of the Ghanaian outlook can be isolated: from underlining the commitment to development and overcoming the exigencies of the environment, there dawned a growing realization that options for change were constricted and that the workings of politics should concentrate more squarely, though by no means exclusively, on devising appropriate means of coping with a steadily deteriorating situation.

The events and the major features of the politics of the second decade were accompanied by a tangible shift in mood as well. Ghana had emerged on the political scene in a wave of euphoria and optimism. The removal of the inequities of a colonial situation was heralded as the commencement of a new, forward-looking and humane era in Ghanaian history. The pessimism of the 1970s, however, altered the political tone. Ghanaians were clearly more resigned, cynical, submissive, and fatalistic about unlocking the secrets of the political kingdom. The promise of political independence, especially in material terms, palpably disintegrated before their eyes. From an attitude that it was possible to manage in situations of scarcity, many people were reconciling themselves to suffering. A general fatigue and pervasive disappointment permeated many segments of the society.

The harshness of the change in atmosphere between the initial phase of independence and the contemporary Ghanaian scene should not be overdrawn. The expectations of the halcyon days of decolonization were exaggerated in the extreme. “When one considers the pressure of population on natural resources, or the demand for rewards on the scarcity of political prizes, and the very little room open to the leaders for maneuver within the economy, the future is not a very welcoming prospect. Alas for the new states! If God wants to put his angels to a test, all he has to do is send them to govern a newly independent country.”³ In this context the pessimism of 1980 contained a realism absent in past attitudes. Indeed, a continued belief in the Ghanaian political genius coupled with a measured comprehension of the degree of its contextual limitations helped to account for both the bleakness of many assessments of the situation and the prevalence of a muted optimism regarding the future.⁴

The continuities and discontinuities, instabilities and uncertainties, ambiguities and contradictions, as well as the complexities and uniformities of recent Ghanaian politics, evoke a variegated image of realities which, though far from simple, deserve careful attention. They have not yet been dealt with systematically. Indeed, the coverage of Ghanaian politics in the 1970s has been, at best, sporadic. Some papers have appeared on specific aspects of political processes at this time,⁵ and certain facets of Ghana’s economic deterioration have been documented in various publications.⁶ But no effort has been made to update the more comprehensive volumes that covered earlier phases of Ghanaian political history.⁷ The purpose of this work is to take an initial step in the direction of providing a broader analysis of the various strands of Ghanaian politics for the turbulent period between 1969 and 1982.

Ghanaian politics in this period furnish not only the subject matter, but also the challenge of this endeavor. The central, overarching feature of this J phase was one of recession: of economic impoyerishment and of reduction in political capabilities. This study attempts to come to terms with the manifestation and ramifications of the crises of poverty and instability. It is therefore interested in documenting the nature of Ghana’s political and economic malaise during the period and in explaining its underpinnings. It is also, and quite pointedly, preoccupied with tracing the responsive processes engendered by conditions of uncertainty. Only by delving into both the causes of and the responses to the situation of diminishing opportunities is it possible to begin to know, understand, and explain the complexities of the contemporary political scene in Ghana. The overriding issue of political and economic recession serves as a guide for this exploration into the Ghanaian political realm.

The aims of this undertaking are hence threefold. First, it seeks to make a contribution of an additive sort to the existing corpus of literature on Ghanaian political processes. Second, it is concerned with synthesizing the diffuse information available on the 1969–1982 period within a single framework. And third, it endeavors to essay a preliminary confrontation with the vital issue of the need to integrate the many significant findings on specific structures, processes, and relationships into a more workable empirical and conceptual whole. As such it may be viewed as an attempt to resuscitate, in a new way, the state studies that have lapsed from the African political studies scene.⁸

Ghana, and Ghanaians, do not stand alone in the struggle to come to grips with political and economic deflation. But Ghana does offer a paradigmatic example of the processes at work in such environments. This is particularly true because Ghana has in the past, and continues today to serve as a microcosm of politics and of problems of political analysis in Africa.

Initially Ghana was viewed as the case study by virtue of its birthright. Ghana was the first African state to gain independence, the first to initiate single-party rule, the first to experiment with a mobilizing ideology, the first to suffer the effects of rapid economic deterioration, among the first to succumb to a military intrusion in the political sphere, and the first to undergo a peaceful transition to civilian rule. (It has been suggested that to keep abreast of things Ghanaian was to stay one step ahead of events elsewhere.)⁹ Ghana presents, both substantively and analytically, a fascinating model of the complexities of political processes in contemporary Africa.

The fullness of the contents of Ghanaian politics serves as an example of similar topics in other countries on the continent. The nature of the themes of Ghanaian politics provides an especially rich array of focal issues. The process and direction of Ghanaian events is significant in helping point out key trends occurring elsewhere. The ways Ghanaians cope with the conditions of underdevelopment are important for unravelling the main forms of political behavior. Components at work in this polity, and their interactions, are symptomatic of similar dynamics in neighboring states. In other words, the contents of Ghanaian politics are indicative of a range of variations, new dimensions, patterns, regularities, and possible outcomes of political processes in other parts of Tropical Africa.

Ghana is also a case study in problems of political analysis. The questions raised in the Ghanaian context are, in many instances, applicable to allied situations as well. Thus, the search for organizing concepts for state-level analyses which pay attention to both local and external variables is common to many areas. To penetrate Ghanaian politics is, in many senses, to initiate a quest for layers of empirical, analytic, and theoretical understanding of political processes that have a bearing well beyond the confines of this West African state. In this light Ghana captures many of the essentials of comparative...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• LIST OF TABLES
• PREFACE
• 1. THE TEXTURE OF GHANAIAN POLITICS: AN OVERVIEW
• PART ONE. THE COMPONENTS OF POLITICS: AN ANATOMY OF POLITICAL STRUCTURES
• PART TWO. THE MEANINGS AND USES OF POLITICS: AN ANATOMY OF POLITICAL PROCESSES
• PART THREE. THE DYNAMICS OF POLITICS: AN ANATOMY OF POLITICAL INTERACTIONS
• PART FOUR. THE GHANAIAN POLITICAL CYCLE
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX