Convention People's Party Research Articles

Divide et Impera: Civilian Control of the Military in Ghana's Second and Third Republics

Anearlier contribution to thisJournaladdressed itself to the question of how Kwame Nkrumah tried to subordinate his military forces to the civil authority of the Convention People's Party during the Ghanaian First Republic, 1960–6.1It was argued that the pattern of objective control inherited from the British colonial authorities was cast aside in favour of an entirely new subjective mechanism: ‘This involved the orchestration of a programme of military diversification in which new security organisations were formed and existing ones split up’.2Thisarticle will continue that theme by examining how civilian politicians attempted to confront the same dilemma in the Second and Third Republics during 1969–72 and 1979–81, respectively.

Language and Literacy in West Africa

Adult education, of which literacy is a central component, is considered as a critical factor in personal and national development (UNESCO 1972:13–16). West African nations, like most other african states, have been aware of the importance of adult education in development in general and in literacy education in particular for several decades now. This awareness is reflected in the articulation of educational and social welfare objectives set up by various governments since the advent of political independence in the late 1950s. For example, the Convention People's Party of the late Dr. Nkwame Nkrumah, former President of Ghana, included in its election manifesto in 1951 a pledge to eradicate illiteracy in the country. A resolution to this effect was adopted by the National Assembly in August of that year (Oyedeji, Omolewa, and Asiedu 1982:12). A similar pledge was expressed, and it formed the core around which long-range educational objectives were articulated by the first conference of Ministers of Education of African States held at Addis Ababa in May 1961.

Ghana Observed: Essays on the Politics of a West African Republic

Both before and after its independence in I957, Ghana exerted an influence out of all proportion to its size and population. Not only was it the first subSaharan state to achieve independence, but its first President was a flamboyant and outspoken activist who attempted to implement controversial policies both within Ghana and on the African and world stages. Now, two decades later, Ghana is still trying to recover from the excesses of those years. Although still influential, the country is no longer prominent in international affairs, nor a major force even in African politics, but is rather and is seen to be a 'small West African Republic'. Ghana no longer holds the same fascination for the outside world; the economy has not changed significantly in nearly 15 years, and stagnation seems to characterise the political situation as well. The Ghanaphiles of the I95os and early I96os gave way to the Tanzanophiles in the late I96os and early 1970S, and even Ghana's friends begin to despair that it can soon find a way out of the morass of past failures. Certainly one cannot emerge very optimistic from a reading of recent works on Ghanaian politics. Dennis Austin's long acquaintance with Ghana gives him unequalled qualifications for the role as doyen of observers of the local political scene. He first arrived there in I949, during the early stages of the tumultuous nationalist period, and left after spending ten years as an extra-mural tutor for the University College. This position offered him the unique opportunity to know intimately not only Legon and Accra, but also Ashanti and the North, where he taught and travelled extensively. He returned to Ghana on visits in 1969 and 1975. If the breadth of his knowledge and experience was revealed most thoroughly in Politics in Ghana, 1946-1960 (first published in 1964), it is also reflected in Ghana Observed, his collection of essays which have appeared in various journals between 1957 and I975. Included also are two previously unpublished works: a seminar paper on 'The Convention People's Party in 1958', and a study of the 1969 election in the Paga-Chiana constituency of the Upper Region, entitled 'A Northern Contest'. The essays span a quarter of a century and examine the six different political regimes which Ghanaians have witnessed. Included are assessments of national parties, both government and opposition, Ghanaian politics in general at various times (1958, I964, 1969, I972), local politics and elections, and the two military coups. The final essay, published in 1975, is a personal account of the complex 344 PAUL LADOUCEUR

Businessmen in politics: Party struggle in Ghana,’ 1949–57

Ghanaian political parties appear to have shown strong ideological dissimilarities. Yet it can be shown that their memberships display marked regularities. This article concentrates on a highly important section of such members, namely small businessmen. Although they appear to have common interests the case is that there are real distinctions of explanatory import to be made within such a category. The first distinction is that between the established business interest which lay behind the United Gold Coast Convention and the aspirant business interest which supported its radical rival The Convention People's Party. The rapid rate of capital accumulation leads to a second distinction, namely that of an excluded, regional business interest which lay behind the strong challenge to the CPP government in the shape of the National Liberation Movement.

The Convention People's Party of Ghana: Representational or Solidarity Party?

The Convention People's Party of Ghana: Representational or Solidarity Party?

The Convention People's Party of Ghana: Representational or Solidarity Party?

(1970). The Convention People's Party of Ghana: Representational or Solidarity Party? Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des etudes africaines: Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 173-194.

Chiefs and the Law in Ghana

On 24th February, 1966, with the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah and his régime by the Armed Forces with the cooperation of the Police Service of Ghana, Ghana entered a new phase in her national development. By a Proclamation of 22nd February, 1966, the new military régime (the National Liberation Council [N.L.C.]) suspended the Constitution and its subsequent amendments, dissolved the National Assembly and banned the Convention People's Party, i.e., the former ruling party. It also confirmed the tenure of judicial and other public offices; and, until changes were made, the courts and existing laws were to continue in existence.2 The N.L.C. was declared to be the government of Ghana, pending the promulgation of a new Constitution and the formation of a new government under such Constitution,3 with full power to legislate by Decree.4

Opposition in Ghana: 1947–67

How simple the Ghana picture now seems! First, the opposition of nationalist demands to colonial rule; later, the opposition of local movements to the national government, then the internal opposition of sectional groups within the single party until the military intervened to turn everything awry. The story has a familiar ring to it. Anti-colonialism, one can argue, was mistaken for nationalism; but as soon as it became clear that the British were preparing to withdraw, politics became a destructive conflict between the would-be nationalist movement and tribal interests. In terms of this argument the overthrow of the Nkrumah regime has to be seen as simply one more example of the weakness of the structure of control in the newly independent states. Frailty, thy name is African nationalism ! The African colonies became self-governing before it was clear that a single ‘self’ existed; they are states before they are nations, and lack that ‘self-aware unity’ which is needed as the basis for a stable political system. Ghanaian history under Nkrumah (one concludes) is the history of every African ex-colony, the only difference being that the rise and fall of first the opposition and then the Convention People's Party in Accra occurred a little earlier in time than comparable events in other capitals.

Nkrumahism: past and future of an ideology

On the morning of 12 February 1951 Kwame Nkrumah was freed from James Fort Prison in Accra. On the 14th he was invited by the Governor of the Gold Coast to form a government. He and his party, the Convention People's Party (CPP), remained in office through the transition to political independence on 6 March 1957, when the Gold Coast changed its name to Ghana, until the military revolution of 24 February 1966. This event formed the fifth of a series of army coups in Negro Africa which had begun on 25 November 1965 in the Congo, and it is probably the most important. Not only had Nkrumah held power for fifteen years, he was, for all the small size of his country, almost certainly the most influential politician south of the Sahara, and for what it was worth the only serious non-Muslim ideologist of the whole continent. Ghana had led the movement to African independence. So far as there was a common political creed its items and aspirations were Nkrumah's and the aspirations, however ineffective, to African unity, were based on his Pan-Africanism and not on the potentially alternative concept of négritude which had spread from the West Indies into French Africa's attitudes and politics.

Politics and the Administration of Justice in Newly Independent Countries

THERE has recently been much disquietude in Ghana and elsewhere over the dismissal of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice was dismissed because the Special Court over which he presided to determine allegations of treason against five persons, three of whom were party officials of the ruling Convention People's Party, found these three persons not guilty and acquitted them. The official reason given for terminating his services was that, in a matter involving the safety of the state, he should have consulted the President of the Republic before handing down the Court's decision. The Attorney-General of Ghana (a political appointee) criticized the decision and accused the Court of discrimination. Upon release of the news of the Chief Justice's removal from office, the President of the International Commission of Jurists cabled an appeal to President Nkrumah to revoke his action. The Secretary-General of the Commission, after likewise personally pleading with Dr. Nkrumah to review his decision, issued a statement in which he said that: is hard to conceive of a more grievous blow to the administration of justice in any jurisdiction.' The purpose of this paper is to consider the recent changes in the system of appointing and removing judges and other senior legal personnel in some Commonwealth countries which have recently become independent or are about to do so. The general tendency to give ministers a say in legal and judicial appointments will be examined, as also the apprehension of inhabitants in some territories. Although all the countries derive their institutions from Britain and are endeavouring in this particular manner to copy the English legal institutions, the paper will attempt to show that local circumstances dictate that hardly an two territories follow the same pattern in the appointment and dismissal of senior judicial and legal staff. One of the proud boasts of persons trained in the western legal tradition has been that our judges are independent of, and immune from, political interference. In England, and in all Commonwealth countries, a judge's salary is charged on the Consolidated Fund and cannot be reduced while he remains in office. A judge in England can only be dismissed if each House of Parliament passes an address petitioning for his dismissal; and, although this provision has been on the statute books for over two hundred years, it has never been invoked. It is also of interest to note that in England most judges are appointed

Colony and Metropolis: Some Aspects of British Rule in Gold Coast and Their Implications for an Understanding of Ghana Today

Ghana is very small, in size, population, and economic and strategic significance. In the history of colonialism the Gold Coast was never remarkable for violent conflict, for spectacular instances of exploitation, for conflict over land or labor, or even as the subject of acute controversy there, in Britain, or elsewhere. Its independence was achieved relatively early, peacefully, over no vigorous opposition. The independence movement was markedly free of violence, extremism, or even sharp ideological conflict. Economically the peoples of the Gold Coast had a higher real income than in comparable areas of the colonial and tropical world and a greater degree of economic security. There were no giant plantation or mining activities which elsewhere have served as a focus of infection for rebellion. Its lands were not alienated; its people were not violently disrupted (at least since the end of the slave trade); and its education and civil and social services were generally superior to those in other parts of Africa. There were problems of political unification facing the new independent government, but the transition to independence was, again in relative terms, orderly, smooth, and well-prepared. There was practically no specifically racial or religious animosity or conflict. The mass bases for radical political movements—an uprooted wage-earning proletariat and/or a land-hungry or rack-rented peasantry did not exist. There was no feudal aristocracy, warrior caste, compradore or white settler group. The Convention People's Party had no political obligations abroad. By African standards, forced labor, the pass system, the color bar, and arbitrary military rule were conspicuously absent.

The Working Committee of the United Gold Coast Convention

When I was in Ghana last year, Dr Danquah very kindly allowed me to read and make notes on an early Minute Book belonging to the Working Committee of the United Gold Coast Convention. I thought it was very interesting, for it covered the years 1947–51 when discontent with colonial rule came to a head, and produced first the U.G.C.C.—as it is easier to call it—and then its radical offspring, the Convention People's Party. The Minute Book was carefully, clearly written; it runs parallel to the early part of Nkrumah's Autobiography (ch. 5 to 12)—itself a valuable source of information—and it confirms, adds to and occasionally corrects the account given by Nkrumah of these interesting years when the colonial administration was beginning to retreat and the nationalists to advance. Moreover, in its beginning lay its end: the two chief protagonists in 1947 were Dr J. B. Danquah and Dr Kwame Nkrumah; and, thirteen years later, they were still opposed, as rival candidates for the presidency of the new republic.

The Erosion of Democracy

1958 was the year of collapse for democratic constitutionalism in the new countries. Although some, following the example of Latin America, had already abandoned their brave new experiments, hopes were still high for the rest. The major defectors from the democratic ranks in 1958 were Pakistan, Burma, and the Sudan, in all three of which the military took over, but other countries underwent similar experiences which emphasized the nature and extent of the crisis. In Indonesia the existing regime was pushed further toward an unstable combination of disintegration and authoritarian rule by the proclamation in Sumatra of a provisional revolutionary government, claiming to supplant the government headed by President Sukarno. In Thailand, Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat, who had replaced Field Marshal Pibul Song-gram, reasserted and tightened his dictatorial control. In the Middle East the United Arab Republic was established under the firm authoritarian rule of Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser; Iraq was taken over by General Abdul Karim Kassim; and Lebanon and Jordan were both threatened by upheavals. In Africa south of the Sahara the military had not yet come to prominence but Nkrumah and his Convention People's Party tightened their grip on Ghana; and Guinea, voting its independence from France, set up an explicit one-party system under the leadership of Sékou Touré.

The Gold Coast Begins Self-Government

THE new political status of the people in Gold Coast, West Africa today is the result of continuing processes a social movement as it were with West Africans and Britishers as the major partners and participants. It can also be viewed as the results of the impact of a series of significant national and international forces and events. Some may see the political changes in the Gold Coast as moving away from and the discrediting of tribal life and the rule of the Chiefs. This, however, is only part of the picture. One can observe in most West African towns and cities many practices diffused into the culture directly from Western Civilization; yet at the same time most people in the area still adhere to a large part of the basically tribal histories, customs and traditions. Such dualism is evident in almost every phase of the life of the people during this period of transition, and will continue for a long time to come, due no doubt to a societal system of the socialization of individuals, who grow up in the deeply rooted culture, and come to internalize and cherish the great traditions of a fascinating civilization. The political roles of the Chiefs in the Gold Coast are matters for vigorous discussion. At a recent meeting of more than eight hundred delegates from the Ashanti Region of the United Ghana Farmer's Council, a resolution was adopted which asked the Asantehene (the King of Ashanti) and all paramount, divisional and sub-chiefs in Ashanti to refrain from party politics. It was thought that if the Asantehene and the other Chiefs participated in politics, this would prejudice their role as fathers and rulers of the whole people, thus endangering the prestige and culture heritage of Ashanti. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Prime Minister of the Gold Coast and Life Chairman of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) this point of view notwithstandingin his Accra address on June 13, 1955 stated the position of his Party as being against despotism, and in favor of Constitutional Chieftaincy. He stressed the view that Chieftaincy like any other governmental authority could not afford to remain static, but must adapt itself to the dynamic conditions of the changing times. The system of Indirect Rule employed by Great Britain to govern the Gold Coast was similar to that used in Nigeria and many other British colonies. This method was opposed by West Africans, and was not looked upon with much favor by progressive colonial governmental

The Gold Coast Development Programme

THE programme is the expression of the age-long will of the people: 1 the will to raise their standard of living-in health and housing; in food and water; in enlightenment and education; and to support this programme by improvements in agriculture and industry and trade. This will was strengthened with the birth of nationalism in the early nineteenth century and was a focal point in the aims of all important movements: the Fallti Confederation in the middle l9th century; the Gold Coast Aborigines Society in the late l9th century; the National Congress of British West Africa in the early 1920's, the Gold Coast Youth Conference in the 1930's; the United Gold Coast Convention and the Convention People's Party in the 1940's. This was the will of generations of peopIe extending over a century, expressed with such crystal clearness that when the opportunity came with the general elections in 1951, the Government was able at once to draw up a bold and ambitious programme for total development. Here was an opportunity which released the banked-up energies of the people to fulfil some of their dreams-not only of self-government, but of a fuller and better way of living. So vitally important was this step that the Prime Minister, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, created a Portfolio of Development and, for the last four years, has himself been responsible for Development until, a few months ago, he assigned this task to his second-in-command, the Minister of State, the Hon. Kojo Botsio. The programme itself is a formidable and impressive list of projects of almost every conceivable kindranging from water boreholes in the countiyside or rural areas to the development of a university college; from housing estates to free, universal primary education; from feeder roads to a new port and harbour. It plans for better rural and urball housing; free primary education, the development of a university college and technical institutes; the improvement of health with the expansion of medical services and a better scheme for the provision of food for the towns and water for the outlying villages. Communications are to be improved by telephones and underground cables; transport by the construction of new major roads and feeder roads, and the possibility of a railway to the Northern Territories is already envisaged. In agricultureJ the plan aims at modernising and diversifying crops; and, in industry, it aims at general expansion. The developments were to foreshadow a new age of progresof a golden