AFTER AN UNHAPPY SURVEY of the tragic history of liberal democracy in
post-colonial Africa--a survey in which Ghana was certainly at the
forefront, two astute observers of the African political scene asked,
"If Western democracy . . . ended up looking like a sad cross
between paternalism and corruption, what are the alternatives? What
might an indigenous African form of democracy look like?" They
claimed that the answer had to be sought in the ideas and forms of
equality and participation found in the village council and similar
institutions of community governance. Thus, according to them, a
"greater reliance on modern variations of these forms might succeed
where Western forms of democracy had failed."
Ideas similar to these helped inspire the 31st of December, 1981,
Revolution in Ghana. The revolution set in motion a process of national
democratic transformation linked to the unfulfilled democratic ideals
and aspirations of the June 4, 1979, popular uprising led by Jerry John
Rawlings, chairman of what became the Provisional National Defence
Council (PNDC) after 1981. The PNDC leadership insisted that the
revolution was not a carbon copy of any other revolution and that it was
aimed at resolving Ghana's socio-economic problems, using Ghana's
historical experiences and cultural traditions as a basis. Thus, the
PNDC leadership effectively challenged the notion that the options for
Ghana's evolving democratic institutions and popular grass-roots
structures were limited to different versions of Marxism-Leninism,
Westernstyle liberalism of the "left" or "right," or
military rule, which had been practiced before the Revolution and had
not worked.
Accordingly, four major, related themes of PNDC rule remained
relatively constant throughout the tumultuous transition to
constitutional democracy, a movement that had widespread popular
support. These were: a rejection of extreme ideological tendencies and
of multiparty politics, as practiced in Ghana since independence, which
had been divisive, corrupt, and elitist; decentralization, aimed at the
practical application of the ideas of mass participation going back to
early nationalist struggles against colonialism and at achieving a
fundamental restructuring of the machinery of government; establishment
of democratic structures and institutions at every level of society; and
national unity and commitment to the ideals of Pan-Africanism,
nonalignment, and noninterference in the internal affairs of other
countries.
What perhaps ultimately distinguished the PNDC period from others
were, on the negative side, the extent of political violence, repression
of political dissent, and widespread human rights violations, which
especially characterized the early period of PNDC rule. On the positive
side, the PNDC was noted for its extraordinary ability to put together a
capable team with the political will and resourcefulness to pull the
country out of its deepest economic crisis in living memory and to
return the country to democracy in the face of persistent
"counterrevolutionary" pressures, numerous coup attempts, and
moves to destabilize the regime.
The PNDC government lasted for eleven turbulent years and survived
presidential and parliamentary elections in 1992. In January 1993,
Rawlings effected a relatively peaceful transition from military ruler
to elected president of the Fourth Republic. His pledge of policy
continuity has ensured that in many significant respects the PNDC
remains in power, but there is an important difference. The present
government was elected under a new democratic constitution that
guarantees fundamental human rights, independence of the media, civil
liberties, and the rule of law.
Ghana - THE PROVISIONAL NATIONAL DEFENSE COUNCIL
Within thirty-five years of Ghana's becoming a sovereign state, the
country experienced, before its fourth return to multiparty democratic
government in January 1993, nine different types of government (three
civilian and six military), including a Westminster-style parliamentary
democracy, a socialist single-party republic, and several military
regimes following coups in 1966, 1972, 1979, and 1981.
The new national leadership of postcolonial Ghana inherited state
machinery that had evolved under British rule and that emphasized strong
centralization of power and top-down decision making. Kwame
Nkrumah--prime minister, 1957-60; president, 1960-66- -unsuccessfully
attempted to create a socialist economy in the early 1960s, but his
effort merely served to compound the inevitable problems and dangers of
administrative centralization and state intervention in the economy.
These problems, which survived Nkrumah, included political corruption,
self-enrichment, misuse of power, lack of public accountability, and
economic mismanagement, leading in turn to economic decline and
stagnation and to the rapid erosion of political legitimacy and
attendant coups d'�tat. Authoritarian or arbitrary styles of leadership
that limited genuine democratic participation and public debate on
policy as well as the lack of political vision of successive
postcolonial regimes (with the exception of Nkrumah's) contributed
greatly to political instability and to the rapid alternation of
civilian and military rule.
One of the changes in government came on June 4, 1979, when a handful
of junior officers seized power less than a month before scheduled
elections. An Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) was formed with
the overriding objectives of ridding Ghana of official corruption,
indiscipline in public life, and economic mismanagement before handing
over power to a civilian government. A relatively unknown
twenty-nine-year-old air force flight lieutenant, Jerry John Rawlings,
emerged as the leader of the AFRC. The so-called house-cleaning exercise
embarked upon by the AFRC was extended to a variety of civilian economic
malpractices such as hoarding, profiteering, and black-marketing.
Parliamentary elections were duly held on June 18, 1979, as planned.
A party of the Nkrumahist tradition, the People's National Party (PNP),
won a majority of the parliamentary seats, and its leader, Hilla Limann,
became president after a run-off election. On September 24, 1979, the
AFRC handed over government to the PNP. At this time, Rawlings warned
the PNP government that it was on probation and admonished the incoming
officials to put the interest of the people first.
The PNP administration was short-lived. On December 31, 1981,
Rawlings returned to office for the second time as head of the
Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC). He insisted that the 31st
December, 1981, Revolution was necessitated, among other factors, by the
failure of the PNP administration to provide effective leadership and by
the virtual collapse of the national economy and of state services. Upon
assuming power, Rawlings immediately declared a "holy war"
aimed at restructuring national political institutions, establishing
genuine democracy based on Ghanaian ideals and traditions, and
rehabilitating the economy.
Ghana - The Political Scene Under the PNDC
For democracy to function effectively in Ghana, it was necessary to
relate Western democratic processes to Ghanaian political traditions.
Peter Du Sautoy, a former district commissioner, recalled his attempt to
explain British democracy in the country before independence. His
audience understood the process of election, but he was asked how one
got rid of one's representative when he no longer seemed to be
representative. Du Sautoy explained that one waited until the next
election four or five years later. His Ghanaian audience felt that
"this was most undemocratic--from time immemorial they had been
able to get rid of their chiefs at any tim, when, after mature
consideration and discussion, they felt they no longer had confidence in
them."
This observation clearly defines one enduring aspect of the
relationship between politics and democracy as understood by the
ordinary Ghanaian. It also highlights the significance of indigenous
political ideology and attitudes that constitute the core elements of
the contemporary Ghanaian political tradition. This political tradition,
along with inherited colonial and Christian elements, informs and shapes
the institutional pattern of political life. Its basic principles
influence disputes and conflicts over the organization, distribution,
maintenance, exercise, and transfer of power, and the allocation of
economic resources in Ghanaian society.
The published speeches of Rawlings provide evidence of the effective
use of symbols and principles drawn from ancestral religious beliefs,
Christianity, and chieftaincy. Indeed, Rawlings insisted throughout PNDC
rule that the revolution's main and longterm goal was to create a more
just society in which the interests of the majority were not repressed
in favor of those of a tiny minority and in which the productivity of
all Ghanaians would increase. He saw participatory democracy as the best
guarantee of such a society.
The PNDC leadership could scarcely avoid the ideological tension and
strife generic to Ghanaian popular movements and massbased political
programs. Ironically, the ideological strife that haunted the PNDC
leadership was similar to that which wrecked the PNP. In 1980 Limann,
PNP leader and president of Ghana, had complained helplessly that the
PNP as a mass party spanned the whole range of political ideas. He
pointed out that party members included pragmatists, leftists,
rightists, and centrists, and he stressed that no national party with a
broad social base could escape this mix. The left wing of the PNP--for
example, the Kwame Nkrumah Revolutionary Guards--was Limann's severest
critic. Some of the leaders of the same left wing and similar
organizations joined the PNDC and attempted unsuccessfully in the early
years of the revolutionary period to transform what was clearly a
nationalist, popular revolution in the direction of Marxism-Leninism.
In the first year after the 31st December 1981 Revolution, the PNDC
regime established new political structures and legal institutions. The
new administration rebuilt or reformed much of the pre-existing local,
regional, and national administrative machinery of governance in
accordance with the avowed goals of the revolution. During the following
ten years, many of these new structures of governance and consultation
were modified in response to the demands of efficiency, social and
economic realities, and internal and external political pressures. A
number of these institutional and structural changes were incorporated
into the 1992 Constitution of the Fourth Republic.
One such institution was the National Commission for Democracy (NCD),
which evolved from the Electoral Commission of the Third Republic. In
1984 the NCD invited the public to submit proposals on the future form
of democratic government for the country. In addition, public meetings
were held to discuss how to realize true democracy in Ghana. As a result
of these and other efforts, the NCD published its "Blue Book"
on the creation of district political authority and on holding
elections. These efforts culminated in the district elections of 1988
and the subsequent establishment of 110 district assemblies. In July
1990, the NCD initiated more public debates on the future political
system of the country. This marked a significant step in the transition
to democracy, which ended with the presidential and parliamentary
elections in November and December 1992.
By the late 1980s, the PNDC comprised nine members, the most
important being Rawlings, the chairman. It was the highest legislative
and administrative body of the state. Below the PNDC was the Committee
of Secretaries (cabinet), made up of nineteen secretaries (ministers)
who met on a weekly basis under the chairmanship of a PNDC member. The
most prominent of the secretaries were those in charge of finance and
economic planning, foreign affairs, education and culture, local
government and rural development, agriculture, health, mobilization and
productivity, and chieftaincy affairs.
Ghana - Revolutionary Organs
To lay the foundation for true democracy in Ghana, the PNDC created a
controversial countrywide network of People's Defence Committees (PDCs)
and Workers' Defence Committees (WDCs), reorganized and renamed, in late
1984 as Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (CDRs). Established
in villages, urban communities, and workplaces, the CDRs were intended
to be organs of popular power and political initiative. Forces' Defence
Committees were established in the armed forces and the police service.
The most important aspect of the reorganization of the PDCs and the
WDCs from the standpoint of the political and socioeconomic functions of
the CDRs was the opening up of membership to all Ghanaians. This
decision reversed the earlier exclusion from PDC/WDC membership of elite
groups, such as chiefs and so-called exploiting classes. The change
returned the revolution to its original objective of involving all
Ghanaians in decision making and opened up possibilities for genuine
national reconciliation. According to official directives, the principal
functions of the CDRs were to ensure democratic participation in
decision making in all communities and workplaces; to guard against
corruption, abuse of power, sabotage, and social injustice; and to
promote sustained national productivity by focusing efforts on the
productive sectors of the economy.
The other mass organizations of the revolution were the National
Mobilisation Program, the 31st December Women's Movement, the Civil
Defence Organisation (the militia), the National Youth Organising
Commission, and the June Four Movement. The National Mobilisation
Program started as an emergency program to receive and resettle Ghanaian
returnees from Nigeria in 1983. It soon developed into a cooperative
movement engaged in a variety of economic and community development
projects throughout Ghana. The 31st December Women's Movement aimed to
bring about the political, social, and economic emancipation of Ghanaian
women, especially rural women.
The Civil Defence Organisation, popularly known as the militia, was
set up as a paramilitary institution to assist other state organizations
in national emergencies such as invasions, bush fires, and floods.
Members received special training in combat readiness to defend the
nation against internal and external aggression and economic sabotage.
The militia, in addition to combating crime in local communities,
engaged in voluntary social and economic activities to help promote
community development. In this effort, it was often assisted by the
National Youth Organising Commission, created in 1982 as part of the
PNDC's efforts to establish a youth movement to carry out the objectives
of the 31st December 1981 Revolution.
The June Four Movement was a militant mass revolutionary movement
dedicated to keeping alive the ideals of the June 4, 1979, uprising that
Rawlings had led. It sought to arouse the population at large to assist
in establishing so-called people's power within the avowed objectives of
the revolutionary process. On a practical level, it worked with the
militia and the National Youth Organising Commission in various
community development projects.
Participatory opportunities of the ordinary Ghanaian citizen were
significantly expanded through membership in revolutionary organs.
Before the establishment of the district assemblies in 1989, the PNDC
government was thus able to reach the rural population and to broaden
its base of support by direct consultation. This was achieved through
chiefs, the CDRs, and other national bodies such as the Democratic Youth
League of Ghana, which in 1988 claimed a nationwide membership of more
than 100,000. Other such groups included farmers' organizations, market
women's associations, trade union groups, students' organizations, and
religious and other bodies. The PNDC's political opposition, however,
hotly contested the democratic nature of such organs and saw them as
nothing but state-sponsored vigilantes engaged in intimidation and human
rights abuses.
Ghana - Political Ferment Under the PNDC
As the country prepared to move toward constitutional rule, the major
concern of Ghanaians was how to ensure a relatively smooth and peaceful
democratic transition. This concern was shared by the opposition, the
activities of which were under constant surveillance by the national
security agencies, and by the ruling PNDC, under pressure to present a
clear, firm timetable and program for a return to constitutional
government.
The transition process had unsavory features that many Ghanaians
believed could lead to an outbreak of violence. Intense mutual suspicion
and antipathy existed between the PNDC leadership and the opposition
going back to the June 4, 1979, uprising and the draconian measures
taken by the AFRC. On one side, Rawlings and the PNDC saw the opposition
leaders not as individuals genuinely interested in real democracy but as
elitist, corrupt, and selfseeking "big men" who had vowed to
fight to the bitter end to reverse the gains of the revolution and to
restore the old system of corruption and exploitation.
On the other, the opposition viewed Rawlings and his Ewe ethnic
henchmen, notably Kojo Tsikata, his chief of security, as a bloodthirsty
group--with the worst human rights record in postcolonial Ghanaian
history--which was determined to retain power by any means. Many
opposition leaders could not forgive Rawlings for the loss of lives,
power, and property, and for the incarcerations inflicted on friends and
relatives, if not on themselves, by the PNDC regime. The once
respectable professional elite of comfortable lawyers, doctors,
university professors, businessmen, and politicians in exile abroad
could not hide their outrage at Ghana's being ruled by, to them, a
young, inexperienced, half-educated military upstart.
It is against this background of intense mutual hostility and
distrust and vicious political rivalry that the evolution of the
democratic transition between 1988 and the inauguration of the Fourth
Republic in January 1993 should be assessed and understood. This long
transition process was characterized by two related struggles: the
struggle for economic recovery from decades of economic decline and for
better living standards for the average Ghanaian; and the struggle for
"true democracy," the meaning of which was hotly debated and
gradually shifted over time, especially after 1988. These national
struggles led to the reconstitution of old political alliances and to
the emergence of new political groupings.
That it took the PNDC more than ten years to lift the ban imposed on
political parties at the inception of PNDC rule not only demonstrated
the PNDC's control over the pace and direction of political change but
also confirmed the shallowness of the political soil in which the party
system was rooted. Party activity had been banned under all the military
governments that had dominated nearly twenty out of the thirty-five
years of Ghana's postcolonial existence. Even during periods of civilian
administration, party organization had been largely urban centered and
rudimentary. It had depended far more on personal alliances and on
ethnic and local ties, not to mention patron-client relationships, than
on nationally institutionalized structures. Party politics had tended to
generate corruption and factionalism. The party system, therefore, never
had any real hold on the consciousness of the average Ghanaian,
especially the rural Ghanaian.
All the same, three major electoral political traditions have emerged
in Ghana since the 1950s, namely, the Nkrumahist tradition, the
Danquah-Busiaist tradition, and the more recent Rawlingsist tradition.
These traditions are identified with their founders-- each a commanding
political figure--and are not necessarily mutually exclusive. In
political terms, the Nkrumahists are generally considered
"leftist" and "progressive," the DanquahBusiaists
more "rightist" and more "conservative," and the
Rawlingsists "populist" and "progressive." In
practice, however, the traditions are less distinguishable by
ideological orientation than by dominant personalities and ethnic
origins.
Against this background, the opposition call for multiparty democracy
had to overcome great odds, not least of which was the intense prejudice
of the chairman of the PNDC against political parties. Rawlings strongly
believed that party politics had hitherto produced two forms of abuse of
power--the "corrupt dictatorship" of the Kofi Abrefa Busia
regime (1969-72) and the "arrogant dictatorship" of the
Nkrumah (1957-66) and Limann (1979- 81) governments. Nonpartisan,
honest, and accountable government would provide an effective antidote
to these abuses, he argued. Indeed, Rawlings appeared to have an almost
fanatical belief that corruption was at the root of nearly all of
Ghana's problems and that, if only it could be stamped out, the country
would return to its former prosperity.
In reaction to Rawlings's position, opposition groups, such as the
London-based Ghana Democratic Movement and the Campaign for Democracy in
Ghana, and individuals within and outside Ghana committed to multiparty
democracy grew increasingly desperate as they focused on the single aim
of overthrowing the PNDC regime. Between 1983 and 1986, at least a dozen
coup plots were uncovered by an efficient and much-feared state security
system. At the same
time, vigorous debates occurred within the PNDC, radical organizations,
and trade unions over the direction of economic policy, the content and
form of true democracy, and the desirability of accepting International
Monetary Fund ( IMF) support for Ghana's Economic Recovery Program
(ERP).
Urban workers and students especially exhibited growing frustration
at their inability to influence policy or to express dissent through
readily available channels. Many urban workers felt the CDRs did not
effectively represent the opinions of workers in the way that the PDCs
and the WDCs had done before their reorganization. In general, public
criticism of government policy was discouraged. In the face of repeated
coup plots and destabilization attempts, which lasted throughout the
PNDC period, the regime was eager to retain tight control of the
political situation, and an independent press had difficulty surviving.
All the same, the PNDC was clearly aware of the urgent need for the
government to provide genuine democratic channels and institutions to
enable workers, students, professional bodies, and other interest groups
to express dissent and to provide constructive criticism of government
policy. There was, therefore, a concerted effort to transform the CDRs
and other revolutionary organs into real instruments of grass-roots
democracy. The implementation of the government decentralization program
and the establishment of district assemblies were likewise aimed at
furthering the process of genuine popular democratization.
Ghana - Interest Groups and National Politics
Among the politically active and influential organizations and
interest groups are the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the Ghana Bar
Association (GBA), the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG), the Catholic
Bishops Conference (CBC), the Ghana Journalists Association, the
National Union of Ghanaian Students (NUGS), the regional houses of
chiefs, and the National House of Chiefs. Because political parties in
Ghana have been weak and the national political system itself has been
unstable, the enduring nature of some of these firmly established
interest groups has often substituted for political stability. As a
result of their stabilizing and quasi-political institutional role,
interest groups such as the CBC, the CCG, and the GBA have exerted
enormous influence on national policy. The relationship between
incumbent governments and these powerful interest groups has never been
easy, however; the government has invariably tried to co-opt or to
control, if not to intimidate, the leadership of these urban-based
organizations.
Of all politically active organizations, the TUC has always had the
largest following, with a total membership in the early 1990s of more
than 500,000. This figure includes workers and salaried employees in the
public and the private sectors who are members of the seventeen unions
that are affiliated with the TUC. Since independence, successive
governments have made repeated attempts to control it. Rawlings enjoyed
the support of the TUC during the first two years of PNDC rule, but the
stringent austerity measures introduced in the ERP in 1983 led to
discontent among union members adversely affected by devaluation, wage
restraints, and lay-offs. By 1985 the original support enjoyed by the
PNDC in labor circles had all but disappeared. The PNDC worked hard to
regain union support, however, and the National Democratic Congress
government of the Fourth Republic has continued to woo the unions
through tripartite consultations involving itself, the TUC, and
employers.
From the inception to the end of PNDC rule in 1992, the CCG, the
CBCA, the GBA, NUGS, and the National House of Chiefs played prominent
roles in the transition to democracy. These organizations took the
provisional nature of the PNDC regime quite literally, calling for a
quick return to democratic national government. Although NUGS and the
GBA consistently demanded a return to multiparty democracy, the CCG, the
CBC, and the national and regional houses of chiefs favored a
nonpartisan national government. While the NUGS and GBA leadership used
methods that frequently provoked confrontation with the PNDC, the CBC
and the national and regional houses of chiefs preferred a more
conciliatory method of political change, emphasizing national unity.
The CCG, the CBC, and the national and regional houses of chiefs
function openly as independent national lobbies to promote common rather
than special interests. They insist on negotiation and mediation in the
management of national disputes, and they advocate policy alternatives
that stress the long-term needs of society. In the past, they have taken
bold initiatives to attain the abrogation of state measures and
legislation that violate human rights or that threaten law and order.
All three bodies share a commitment to democracy, the rule of law, and
the creation of political institutions that reflect Ghanaian cultural
traditions.
The GBA, like the other professional associations in Ghana, is
concerned, among other things, with maintaining the dignity of the legal
profession through a code of professional ethics and with promoting
further learning and research in the profession. The main objectives of
the GBA according to its constitution include the defense of freedom and
justice, the maintenance of judicial independence, and the protection of
human rights and fundamental freedoms as defined under the United
Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
These objectives, by definition, have inevitably pitted the GBA against
both military regimes and one-party governments, which on their part
have considered the GBA at best a necessary evil. NUGS and its national
executive, representing the more than 8,000 students of Ghana's three
universities in Accra-Legon, Kumasi, and Cape Coast are among the most
vocal and articulate pressure groups in Ghana. By reason of their higher
education, in a largely illiterate society, students have often been in
a position to agitate for far-reaching political, economic, and social
change. Indeed, students have been in the forefront of political
activism in Ghana since independence. NUGS was most vocal in its support
of Rawlings and the PNDC in 1982, but this changed as the PNDC adopted
policies that NUGS considered to be against the welfare of students in
particular and of Ghanaians in general.
The CCG, another vocal and influential interest group, was founded in
1929. The CCG's principal function is advisory; it acts through
consultation among its member churches. The CCG operates through several
committees, including education, social action (national affairs), and
literacy campaigns. The CCG is a member of the World Council of Churches
and other ecumenical bodies, and it is a strong advocate of human
rights.
The CBC, the highest local unifying authority of the Roman Catholic
Church in Ghana, dates to 1950, although the church itself has been in
Ghana since the fifteenth century. The CBC has established a Joint
Social Action Committee for cooperation between it and the CCG.
The National House of Chiefs and the ten regional houses of chiefs
represent more than 32,000 recognized traditional rulers who exercise
considerable influence throughout Ghana, especially in the countryside.
As trustees of communal lands and natural resources, chiefs are often
the pivot around which local socio-economic development revolves. The
1992 constitution, like all previous constitutions, guarantees the
institution of chieftaincy together with its traditional councils as
established by customary law and usage. To preserve their role as
symbols of national unity, however, chiefs are forbidden from active
participation in party politics.
Ghana - District Assembly Elections
The main political preoccupations of the PNDC and the Ghanaian public
in 1988 were the implementation of the government's decentralization
program and the elections to the new District Assemblies (DAs). In a
speech commemorating his fifth year in power in January 1987, Rawlings
had announced proposals for the decentralization of government. These
had included promises of elections for DAs and a national debate on the
ERP. The debate on the ERP never materialized, but debates on the
elections and the DAs did.
Among the radical changes introduced in local government elections
were provisions that no cash deposits were required of candidates for
district level elections and that illiteracy in English was no longer a
disqualification. To accommodate nonEnglish speakers in the DAs and to
make assembly debates accessible to the majority of constituents, local
languages could be used in the DAs. The elections were to be
nonpartisan: the ban on political parties was not lifted. Implementation
of the decentralization program and preparation for the district
elections did not completely silence the opposition nor did it remove
the sources of public discontent and disaffection toward the government
within some sections of the Ghanaian population.
In 1988 there was no indication of what political structures and
institutions would be established above the DAs at regional and national
levels. Nor was it clear whether creation of the DAs was intended to
broaden the civilian support base of the PNDC, thereby legitimizing and
perpetuating PNDC rule indefinitely. Some felt that the word
"provisional" in the regime's name sounded a bit hollow after
five years in power. Indeed, many read the proposed district elections
as a strategy similar to the union government proposal in 1978 that had
not been implemented because of its widespread unpopularity.
In February 1988, Adu Boahen, a retired history professor and later a
presidential candidate and Rawlings's main challenger, delivered three
lectures in which he severely criticized military rule in Ghana and the
PNDC regime in particular as the cause of political instability. He
affirmed that the AFRC led by Rawlings in 1979 was completely
unnecessary. He attacked the alleged domination of the PNDC regime and
of major national institutions by the Ewe and called for an interim
coalition government within a year and for a return to multiparty
democracy by 1992. The state-owned national media attacked Boahen's
criticism of the PNDC but did not report the original text of the
lectures.
For the DA elections, the country was divided into three zones by
region. Zone one consisted of Western Region, Central Region, Ashanti
Region, and Eastern Region; zone two, of Upper East Region, Upper West
Region, and Northern Region; zone three, of Greater Accra Region, Volta
Region, and Brong-Ahafo Region. The first round of the nonpartisan
elections took place on December 6, 1988, in zone one of the country,
with polling in zones two and three following on January 31 and February
28, 1989, respectively. District election committees disqualified several
candidates in a number of districts for various offenses, including
nonpayment of taxes, refusal to participate in communal labor, and
shirking other civic responsibilities. With an estimated average turnout
rate of about 60 percent of registered voters (some rural districts had
a 90 percent turnout), the highest for any election in two decades, most
Ghanaians saw this first step toward the establishment of national
democratic institutions as quite successful. The opposition, although
critical of the composition of the DAs, accepted the assemblies in
principle.
The DAs gave new momentum to the exercise of grass-roots democracy as
well as to local determination of and implementation of development
projects. The principle of nonpartisan, decentralized political
structure proved popular. By-laws passed by the DAs had to be deposited
with the PNDC secretariat immediately after their passage. If within
twenty-one days the PNDC raised no objection to them, they automatically
became law.
Some elected representatives, a majority of whom were farmers and
school teachers, resented the fact that PNDC appointees, mostly chiefs
and professionals who constituted one-third of the memberships of the
DAs, often sought to dominate the proceedings. Also, most of the
districts and their people were poor, and the DAs' quick resort to taxes
and numerous levies to raise much needed revenue proved burdensome and
unpopular. In some parts of country, for example Cape Coast and Accra,
there were protests and tax revolts. In August 1989, regional
coordinating councils were formed in all ten regions to streamline the
work of the DAs and to coordinate district policies and projects. The
PNDC made it clear that DAs had no power to collect or to levy income
taxes.
Ghana - Charting the Political Transition
The inauguration of the DAs removed some of the political pressures
on the PNDC, but political ferment continued in some sectors of the
population. So, too, did the arrest and detention of leading opponents
of the PNDC regime. The most publicized of the latter was the arrest and
detention in September 1989 of Major Courage Quarshigah, ex-commandant
of the Ghana Military Academy and a former close ally of Rawlings. He
was accused of leading an attempted coup and of an alleged plot to
assassinate Rawlings.
A new phase of the political struggle of the opposition against the
PNDC opened in January 1990 when the GBA called on the PNDC to initiate
immediately a referendum that would permit the Ghanaian people to
determine openly the form of constitutional government they wished for
themselves. In his end- of-year message in 1989, Rawlings had promised
that the government would strengthen participatory democracy at the
grass-roots level. He also proposed that the NCD initiate nationwide
consultations with various groups to determine the country's economic
and political future. These consultations consisted of a series of
seminars, in all ten regional capitals, that ran from July 5 to November
9, 1990, at which the public was invited to express its views.
Meanwhile, the CBC issued a communiqu� calling for a national debate
on Ghana's political future. On July 24, the Kwame Nkrumah Revolutionary
Guards (KNRG) issued a statement calling for a return to multiparty
democracy, for the lifting of the ban on political parties, and for the
creation of a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution to be
approved by a national referendum. On August 1, the KNRG, other
opposition organizations, and some prominent Ghanaians formed the
Movement for Freedom and Justice (MFJ). Adu Boahen was named interim
chairman. The MFJ identified the restoration of multiparty democracy and
the rule of law in Ghana as its main objectives. Its leaders immediately
complained about harassment by the security agencies and about denial of
permits to hold public rallies by the police.
Debate about the country's political future dominated 1991. In his
broadcast to the nation on New Year's Day, Rawlings outlined steps
toward the next stages in the country's political evolution, which
included issuance of an NCD report on what form of democracy Ghanaians
preferred. The PNDC made it clear that it did not favor multiparty
democracy, although its spokesmen indicated that the PNDC had an open
mind on the matter. The MFJ immediately called for a constituent
assembly, where all parties, including the PNDC, would submit proposals
for Ghana's constitutional future. Meanwhile, the PNDC unveiled a statue
of J.B. Danquah, Nkrumah's political opponent, after an announcement in
1990 that it would build a statue and a memorial park for Nkrumah. This
was a clear attempt to placate and to woo both the Ghanaian
"political right" and Nkrumahists of the "left"
simultaneously.
In late March, the NCD presented its findings on "true
democracy" to the PNDC. After receiving the NCD report, the PNDC
announced in May that it accepted the principle of a multiparty system.
In its response to the NCD report, the PNDC pledged to set up a
committee of constitutional experts that would formulate the draft
constitutional proposals to be placed before a national consultative
assembly. The committee came into being in May. A 258- member National
Consultative Assembly was elected in June with the task of preparing a
draft constitution for submission to the PNDC not later than December
31, 1991. The PNDC was then to submit the draft constitution to a
national referendum, after which, if approved, it was to enter into
force on a date set by the PNDC.
In August Rawlings announced that presidential and parliamentary
elections would be held before the end of 1992 and that international
observers would be allowed. By the end of 1991, however, the PNDC had
not announced when the ban on political parties would be lifted,
although many individuals and organizations, such as the Kwame Nkrumah
Welfare Society, the Friends of Busia and Danquah, and the Eagle Club,
had formed or reemerged and were active as parties in all but name.
Despite persistent acrimony surrounding the management and control of
the transition process, the PNDC appointed an independent Interim
National Electoral Commission in February 1992. The commission was
responsible for the register of voters, the conduct of fair elections,
and the review of boundaries of administrative and electoral areas.
In a nationwide radio and television broadcast on March 5 marking the
thirty-fifth anniversary of Ghana's independence, Rawlings officially
announced the following timetable for the return to constitutional
government: presentation of the draft constitution to the PNDC by the
end of March 1992; a referendum on the draft constitution on April 28,
1992; lifting of the ban on political parties on May 18, 1992;
presidential elections on November 3, 1992; parliamentary elections on
December 8, 1992; and the inauguration of the Fourth Republic on January
7, 1993.
The PNDC saw the constitutional referendum as an essential exercise
that would educate ordinary Ghanaians about the draft constitution and
that would create a national consensus. The PNDC opposition urged its
supporters and all Ghanaians to support the draft constitution by voting
for it. In the April 1992 national referendum, the draft constitution
was overwhelmingly approved by about 92 percent of voters. Although the
turnout was lower than expected (43.7 percent of registered voters), it
was higher than that of the 1978 referendum (40.3 percent) and that of
the 1979 parliamentary elections (35.2 percent). The new constitution
provided that a referendum should have a turnout of at least 35 percent,
with at least 70 percent in favor, in order to be valid.
After lifting of the ban on party politics in May, several rival
splinter groups or offshoots of earlier organizations, notably the
so-called Nkrumahists and Danquah-Busiaists, as well as new groups, lost
no time in declaring their intention to register as political parties
and to campaign for public support. In June the Washington-based
International Foundation for Electoral Systems, which had sent a team to
Ghana to observe the April referendum, issued a report recommending
re-registration of voters as quickly as possible if Ghana were to have
truly competitive presidential and parliamentary elections. The
foundation claimed that the total number of registered voters--8.4
million--was improbable. Given an estimated national population of about
16 million--of whom about half were under age fifteen--the Foundation
concluded that with a voting age of eighteen, the total registrable
population ought not to be above 7.75 million.
This discovery fueled a persistent opposition demand to reopen the
voters' register, but constraints of time, technology, and money made
such an effort impossible. Instead, the Interim National Electoral
Commission embarked on a "voters' register cleansing." Only
about 180,000 names were removed from the referendum register, however,
leaving the total registered voters at 8.23 million, a statistical
impossibility, the opposition insisted. Estimates put the actual number
of registered voters at about 6.2 million, making the 3.69 million
turn-out at the referendum an adjusted 59.5 percent.
Ghana - Presidential Elections
Despite protests and demands for a new voters' register, which had
not been met when nominations for presidential candidates for the
November 3 elections closed on September 29, 1992, five presidential
candidates representing five political parties filed their nomination
papers. Apart from Rawlings, who after months of uncertainty decided to
run as a candidate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the other
four presidential candidates were Adu Boahen of the New Patriotic Party
(NPP); Hilla Limann, former president of Ghana, of the People's National
Convention (PNC); Kwabena Darko, a multimillionaire businessman, of the
National Independence Party (NIP); and Lieutenant General (retired)
Emmanuel Erskine, of the People's Heritage Party (PHP). The PNC, the
NIP, and the PHP were all Nkrumahists. A much discussed alliance among
these fractious and disorganized parties did not materialize, even
though just before the elections there was talk of a possible grand
anti-Rawlings coalition.
The real issue of the 1992 presidential election was whether Rawlings
would succeed in holding on to power as a democratically elected head of
state after nearly eleven years as an unelected one. The slogan of the
NDC was "continuity," meaning the continuity of PNDC policies.
In fact, to many Ghanaians, the NDC party was the same as the PNDC
without the initial "P." The opposition, by contrast, could
not articulate a clear, consistent, and convincing alternative program.
The most serious challenge to Rawlings came from Boahen, who had
significant support among the urban middle classes and among his ethnic
kin in Ashanti Region. The inevitable split of the Nkrumahist vote
weakened the chances of each of the three Nkrumahist candidates. Darko
was hardly known outside Kumasi and Accra, and Limann was popularly seen
as a weak and dull leader. Erskine was hardly a household word, even in
Central Region where he came from. The presidential election was not
fought over ideology or clearly presented political programs, but rather
over personalities, over Rawlings's human rights record, and over
allegations that he had been in power for too long.
After elections in 200 constituencies (sixty new electoral
constituencies had been added to the old 140) on November 3, 1992,
Rawlings won a convincing majority over all his opponents combined. The
margin of victory surprised not only Rawlings, but his political rivals
as well. The hoped-for run-off election did not materialize because
Rawlings had gained an outright majority of almost 60 percent of the
nearly 4 million votes cast.
Rawlings won resoundingly in regions where his opponents, especially
Boahen, had been expected to carry the day. Boahen received 30.4 percent
of the total votes; Limann, 6.7 percent; Darko, 2.8 percent; Erskine,
1.7 percent; and Rawlings, 58.3 percent. Rawlings even won 62 percent of
the vote in Brong-Ahafo Region, which was considered a stronghold of the
Danquah-Busia political tradition. He also won in the Greater Accra
Region, where NUGS, the GBA, the TUC, and the middle-class opposition
had been unsparing in their anti-PNDC attacks. Boahen received a
majority vote in his NPP heartland, Ashanti Region, and in the Eastern
Region where he was born.
A public opinion poll conducted in late 1990 and early 1991 in Accra,
Kumasi, and Sekondi-Takoradi indicated some of the reasons for
Rawlings's victory. The poll suggested that, in spite of the PNDC's
record of human rights abuses and the negative impact of the ERP, the
PNDC was more popular in urban areas than had been thought. The PNDC was
perceived as having done much to rehabilitate the country's
infrastructure, to instill national pride, and to improve the efficiency
and honesty of government spending. Although many of the respondents
felt that their standard of living had worsened since the PNDC came to
power and since the implementation of the Structural Adjustment Program,
a significant number also indicated that they and the country would have
been worse off without the ERP. Although many considered the PNDC too
authoritarian, Rawlings personally continued to be very popular and
received much of the credit for the PNDC's successes, while the PNDC as
a whole was blamed for its more negative characteristics.
The shock of the NPP's electoral defeat led immediately to
disturbances in some regional capitals. A curfew was imposed in Kumasi,
but in most of the country, the results were accepted without incident.
The opposition parties, however, immediately protested, crying fraud as
well as rigging of the ballot and asking the interim electoral
commission not to declare a winner until allegations of irregularities
had been investigated. On November 10, however, the commission formally
declared Rawlings the winner.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties had announced their intention to
boycott the parliamentary elections rescheduled from December 8 to
December 29, following an appeal to the interim electoral commission.
Efforts to get the opposition to reconsider its boycott proved
unsuccessful, even after the National House of Chiefs announced in late
November that it felt the presidential election had been fair and free.
Many European ambassadors in Accra likewise announced that they had no
difficulty recognizing Rawlings's victory. International election
monitoring teams from the Organization of African Unity, the
Commonwealth of Nations, and the Carter Center in the United States also
endorsed the results of the presidential election, although with
reservations in some cases.
Ghana - Parliamentary Elections
The PNDC indicated that it intended to proceed with parliamentary
elections with or without the opposition parties. In a gesture to its
opponents, however, the PNDC extended the deadline for all parties to
register independent candidates, but opposition party officials
threatened to deal severely with any party member who ran as an
independent candidate. Amid sporadic political violence--some of it
linked to the opposition, arrests of members of opposition groups by
state security officers, and accusations of PNDC intimidation and
harassment by the four opposition parties boycotting the elections,
parliamentary elections were held on December 29, 1992, without
participation of the opposition parties.
Ironically, in boycotting the parliamentary elections, the opposition
offered the PNDC the continuity it had been vigorously campaigning for
and undermined any possibility of multiparty parliamentary democracy in
the first term of the Fourth Republic. At the close of nominations for
the elections on December 1, the NDC was unopposed in fifteen of the 200
constituencies. Only five candidates from the four main opposition
parties had registered. According to the Interim National Electoral
Commission, of the 7.3 million registered voters, more than 2 million
voted on election day. The supporters of the four opposition parties
stayed away, as did many NDC supporters, who felt that an NDC landslide
victory was a foregone conclusion. The number of registered voters
excluded twenty-three constituencies where the candidates were elected
unopposed, so that the turnout represented 29 percent of voters in 177
constituencies. The NDC swept the board, winning 189 of the 200
parliamentary seats, including the twenty-three who were elected
unopposed. Two other parties allied with the NDC in what was called the
Progressive Alliance--the National Convention Party and the Every
Ghanaian Living Everywhere Party--won eight seats and one seat,
respectively. The remaining two seats were captured by two independent
women candidates, part of a group of sixteen women elected to
parliament, the largest number ever in Ghana.
In the presidential election, almost 4 million out of nearly 8.3
million registered voters had cast their votes in all 200 constituencies
combined, for a turnout of 48 percent. The total votes cast in the
parliamentary elections represented 51.5 percent of the votes cast in
the presidential election. The opposition parties were quick to ascribe
the low turnout to the effectiveness of their boycott. But the low
turnout was also explained in part by the absence of real issues and the
fact that many people chose to stay at home to enjoy their Christmas
holidays.
Rawlings and the NDC won the elections because the opposition was
divided for the most part and failed to present a credible alternative
to the PNDC. The programs on which the opposition campaigned did not
differ substantially from those the PNDC had been implementing since
1983. The opposition parties, for example, advocated a free enterprise
economy, political decentralization, rural development, and liberal
democracy, measures already on the PNDC agenda.
When internal and external pressures in line with political reforms
occurring elsewhere on the continent persuaded Rawlings to return to
multiparty democracy at the national level, he could do so without taint
of corruption. Despite a record flawed by widespread human rights abuses
in the early years of the Revolution, he had demonstrated genuine
concern for the well-being of the people of Ghana.
Rawlings also won because, as head of state for more than a decade,
his name had become a household word, and he was able to exploit the
advantages of incumbency. He had won favor with a wide range of interest
groups, influential chiefs, and local leaders. Rawlings had behind him a
well-established nationwide network of CDRs, the 31st December Women's
Movement, other so-called revolutionary organs, and dedicated district
secretaries and chiefs for the propagation of his message. All these
bodies and groups had been active long before the fractious political
parties, the rival leaders of which were hardly known beyond the major
cities, had struggled into existence. Finally, Rawlings won because of
widespread belief in his personal sincerity and integrity.
Ghana - THE FOURTH REPUBLIC
The 1992 Constitution
The 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana that came into effect
on January 7, 1993, provides the basic charter for the country's fourth
attempt at republican democratic government since independence in 1957.
It declares Ghana to be a unitary republic with sovereignty residing in
the Ghanaian people. Drawn up with the intent of preventing future
coups, dictatorial government, and oneparty states, it is designed to
foster tolerance and the concept of power-sharing. The document reflects
the lessons drawn from the abrogated constitutions of 1957, 1960, 1969,
and 1979, and it incorporates provisions and institutions drawn from
British and United States constitutional models.
The 1992 constitution, as the supreme law of the land, provides for
the sharing of powers among a president, a parliament, a cabinet, a
Council of State, and an independent judiciary. Through its system of
checks and balances, it avoids bestowing preponderant power on any
specific branch of government. Executive authority is shared by the
president, the twenty-five member Council of State, and numerous
advisory bodies, including the National Security Council. The president
is head of state, head of government, and commander in chief of the
armed forces of Ghana. He also appoints the vice president.
Legislative functions are vested in the National Parliament, which
consists of a unicameral 200-member body plus the president. To become
law, legislation must have the assent of the president, who has a
qualified veto over all bills except those to which a vote of urgency is
attached. Members of parliament are popularly elected by universal adult
suffrage for terms of four years, except in war time, when terms may be
extended for not more than twelve months at a time beyond the four
years.
The structure and the power of the judiciary are independent of all
other branches of government. The Supreme Court has broad powers of
judicial review; it rules on the constitutionality of any legislative or
executive action at the request of any aggrieved citizen. The hierarchy
of courts derives largely from British juridical forms. The hierarchy,
called the Superior Court of Judicature, is composed of the Supreme
Court of Ghana, the Court of Appeal (Appellate Court), the High Court of
Justice, regional tribunals, and such lower courts or tribunals as
parliament may establish. The courts have jurisdiction over all civil
and criminal matters.
The legal system is based on the constitution, Ghanaian common law,
statutory enactments of parliament, and assimilated rules of customary
(traditional) law. The 1992 constitution, like previous constitutions,
guarantees the institution of chieftaincy together with its traditional
councils as established by customary law and usage. The National House
of Chiefs, without executive or legislative power, advises on all
matters affecting the country's chieftaincy and customary law.
The 1992 constitution contains the most explicit and comprehensive
provisions in Ghana's postcolonial constitutional history regarding the
system of local government as a decentralized form of national
administration. These provisions were inspired to a large extent by
current law and by the practice of local government under the PNDC.
Another constitutional innovation is the enshrinement of fundamental
human rights and freedoms enforceable by the courts. These rights
include cultural rights, women's rights, children's rights, the rights
of disabled persons, and the rights of the ill. The constitution also
guarantees the freedom and independence of the media and makes any form
of censorship unconstitutional. In addition, the constitution protects
each Ghanaian's right to be represented by legitimately elected public
officials by providing for partisan national elections and nonpartisan
district elections.
Every citizen of Ghana eighteen years of age or above and of sound
mind has the right to vote. The right to form political parties is
guaranteed, an especially important provision in light of the checkered
history of political parties in postcolonial Ghana. Political parties
must have a national character and membership and are not to be based on
ethnic, religious, regional or other sectional divisions.
Finally, highly controversial provisions of the constitution
indemnify members and appointees of the PNDC from liability for any
official act or omission during the eleven years of PNDC rule. These
provisions seem designed to prevent the real possibility of retribution,
should a new government hostile to the PNDC replace it, and to foster a
climate of peace and reconciliation.
Ghana - The Judiciary
Since independence in 1957, the courts system, headed by the chief
justice, has demonstrated extraordinary independence and resilience. The
structure and jurisdiction of the courts were defined by the Courts Act
of 1971, which established the Supreme Court of Ghana (or simply the
Supreme Court), the Court of Appeal (Appellate Court) with two
divisions--ordinary bench and full bench, and the High Court of Justice
(or simply the High Court), a court with both appellate and original
jurisdiction. The act also established the so-called inferior and
traditional courts, which, along with the above courts, constituted the
judiciary of Ghana according to the 1960, 1979, and 1992 constitutions.
Until mid-1993, the inferior courts in descending order of importance
were the circuit courts, the district courts (magistrate courts) grades
I and II, and juvenile courts. Such courts existed mostly in cities and
large urban centers. In mid-1993, however, Parliament created a new
system of lower courts, consisting of circuit tribunals and community
tribunals in place of the former circuit courts and district
(magistrate) courts. The traditional courts are the
National House of Chiefs, the regional houses of chiefs, and traditional
councils. The traditional courts are constituted by the judicial
committees of the various houses and councils. All courts, both superior
and inferior, with the exception of the traditional courts, are vested
with jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters. The traditional courts
have exclusive power to adjudicate any cause or matter affecting
chieftaincy as defined by the Chieftaincy Act of 1971.
Judicial appointments are made by the chief justice on the advice of
the independent Judicial Council of Ghana and are subject to government
approval. The PNDC Establishment Proclamation abolished the Judicial
Council, but it was reestablished by the 1992 constitution.
Ghana also has quasi-judicial agencies and institutions. Examples of
these are the Reconciliation Committee of the Department of Social
Welfare and Community Development, provision for private hearings at
home, and the use of various spiritual agencies, such as shrines,
churches, Muslim mallams, and specialists in the manipulation of
supernatural powers to whom many ordinary people resort.
Noteworthy for both the colonial and the postcolonial periods up to
the present are the special courts, public tribunals, politico-military
bodies such as asaf
companies, and vigilante groups. These bodies exercise
quasijudicial , extra-judicial, and law enforcement functions that often
complement, and in some cases attempt to supplant, the functions of the
regular or traditional courts.
Of these special courts, the former public tribunals deserve special
mention. With the initiation of the 31st December 1981 Revolution, the
PNDC established a number of judicial institutions intended to check
abuse and corruption within the regular courts. These special courts,
called people's courts or public tribunals, were established in August
1982 as a separate system for administering justice alongside the
country's regular courts. Their purpose was to regulate the
administration of justice to prevent frivolous abuse of court powers and
to obtain the truth by concentrating on the facts of the case rather
than on questions of law.
The public tribunals, which consisted of the National Public
Tribunal, regional public tribunals, and district and community public
tribunals, were an attempt to "democratize" the administration
of justice by making it possible for the public at large to participate
actively in judicial decision making. They were also meant to correct
perceived deficiencies of the regular courts, to enhance the general
accessibility of law to the common people, to promote social justice,
and to provide institutional safeguards that would secure public
accountability. The right of appeal against the verdict of the tribunals
was not originally provided for until public outcry led to the
introduction of appeals procedures in 1984.
Under the PNDC, the public tribunals exercised only criminal
jurisdiction. They dealt with three categories of offenses against the
state: criminal offenses referred to them by the PNDC government,
certain offenses under the country's Criminal Code, and offenses listed
in the Public Tribunals Law of 1984. Proceedings of the tribunals were
generally public and swift; sentences were frequently harsh and included
death by firing squad. Under the Public Tribunals Law of 1984, without
prejudice to the appellate system set out in the law itself, no court or
other tribunal could question any decision, order, or proceeding of a
public tribunal.
The creation of public tribunals and the PNDC's violent attack on
lawyers set the PNDC on a collision course with the Ghana Bar
Association, which forbade its members to sit on public tribunals. Many
of the rulings of the public tribunals were cited by Amnesty
International and other human rights organizations as violations of such
rights as freedom of the press and habeas corpus. Under the Fourth
Republic, the public tribunals were incorporated into the existing court
hierarchy.
Ghana - The Civil Service
The Ghanaian government owns the only two major daily newspapers, the
Daily Graphi (known as the People's Daily Graphi under
the PNDC) and the Ghanaian Time with 1994 daily circulations of
80,00-100,000 and 60,000-70,000, respectively (circulation varies
according to the availability of newsprint). The other daily, The
Pionee, established in 1930, is an independent paper with a
circulation of about 30,000. There are also a number of weekly
newspapers with substantial circulations, including the independents,
the ChristianMessenge and the Standar, and the
state-owned Sunday irro and Weekly Spectato, the
latter two with 1994 circulations of 85,000 and about 90,000,
respectively. A number of state-owned and independent periodicals appear
in English and in African languages.
The 1979 constitution, which the PNDC suspended after taking power,
was the first to give special attention to Ghana's mass media. It
prohibited press licensing, outlawed censorship, and guaranteed freedom
of expression and equal access to the stateowned media. The constitution
also provided for the establishment of an independent press commission,
the responsibilities of which included appointing chief executives and
boards of directors for the state-owned media, preserving press freedom,
and maintaining the highest professional standards.
Under the PNDC, self-censorship was the rule in the media. The
government considered it the responsibility of the state-owned media, if
not the media in general, to project a good image of the government and
to defend government programs and policies. To ensure compliance with
this policy, the PNDC hired and dismissed editorial staff and other
media personnel of government-owned publications. The Ghana Journalists
Association, which acted as a pressure group for the advancement of the
professional interests of journalists, had little real influence. The
Newspaper Licensing Law, reintroduced by the PNDC in 1983, discouraged
or inhibited the establishment and the freedom of private media.
The state-owned media and some of the privately owned local
newspapers attacked Ghanaian journalists who worked or wrote for the
foreign press, accusing them of supporting or collaborating with
organizations opposed to the PNDC. With the suspension of the 1979
constitution, such rights as freedom of the press, freedom of assembly,
and freedom of association were not guaranteed but were merely granted
at the discretion of the PNDC; however, numerous professional and civic
organizations and independent newspapers that were non-political were
allowed to exist and to operate freely.
The Committee of Experts (Constitution) Law of May 1991, which
established the Committee of Experts to draw up proposals for a draft
constitution, required that the proposals should assure the freedom and
the independence of the media. Accordingly, the 1992 constitution
guarantees fundamental human rights and civil liberties, including the
freedom and the independence of the media. To protect the independence
of the media, the National Media Commission was created in 1993 in
accordance with a constitutional provision. The commission, an
independent body, is charged with ensuring that all types of media,
private as well as state-owned, are free of government control and
interference. Under the Fourth Republic, the press has begun to enjoy a
significant degree of toleration and freedom of expression.
Ghana - Regional and Local Government
Before the changes in regional and local administration under the
PNDC, Ghana had a highly centralized government structure in which local
people and communities were little involved in decision making. Local
government services were poor and depended largely on funds and
personnel provided by the national government in Accra. Since the 31st
December 1981 Revolution, however, local government has increasingly
benefited from the decentralization of government ministries and from
the establishment of district assemblies in 1989.
Ghana is divided into ten administrative regions, each headed by a
regional secretary. The ten regions and their regional capitals are:
Greater Accra Region (Accra), Eastern Region (Koforidua), Central Region
(Cape Coast), Western Region (SekondiTakoradi ), Volta Region (Ho),
Ashanti Region (Kumasi), Brong-Ahafo Region (Sunyani), Northern Region
(Tamale), Upper East Region (Bolgatanga), and Upper West Region (Wa).
After taking power, the PNDC launched a decentralization plan in
December 1982 designed to restructure government machinery to promote
democracy and greater efficiency. The plan proposed a three-tier system
of local government to replace the four-tier system established in 1978.
This early decentralization plan, however, was not implemented.
Instead, interim management committees were organized to manage the
affairs of the district councils. PNDC district secretaries were
appointed chairmen of their respective district councils and were
responsible for day-to-day administration. Membership of the interim
management committees normally consisted of respected citizens of the
district, such as chiefs, headmasters, retired administrators, and
teachers. At the lowest levels, local government remained in the hands
of village, town, or area development committees; PDCs; and chiefs and
their traditional councils, who still wielded considerable influence in
most rural areas.
On July 1, 1987, the PNDC launched a three-tier system of local
government. The principal innovations of the new system included
creating 110 administrative districts to replace the sixty-five
districts that had existed before and changing the name District Council
to District Assembly. The District Assembly was to be the highest
political and administrative authority in each district, with
deliberative, executive, and legislative powers; it was responsible for
creation of the two lower-level tiers, town or area councils and unit
committees, within its jurisdiction.
The membership of the District Assembly included a district secretary
appointed by the PNDC. Two-thirds of the members were directly elected
by universal adult suffrage on a non-partisan basis; the other third
were appointed by the PNDC from the district in consultation with
traditional authorities and various associations. Appointed members held
office for a maximum of two consecutive terms, that is six years.
Elections to the District Assembly were to be held every three years
(the 1992 constitution provided for a four-year term and reduced the
number of appointed members from one-third to no more than thirty
percent of the total membership). The District Assembly was made
responsible for the overall development of the district.
A 1990 law ensured that people at the grass-roots level had the
opportunity to help make decisions that affected them regardless of
their education or socio-economic backgrounds, so long as they were
eighteen years or older and were customarily residents of the district.
Finally, in each of the ten regions, a Regional Coordinating Council was
established consisting of the regional secretary, the deputies of the
regional secretaries acting as exofficio members, all district
secretaries in the region, and all presiding members of the district
assemblies in the region. The 1992 constitution added at least two
chiefs to the membership of each council. The functions of the council
included the formulation and the coordination of programs through
consultation with district assemblies in the region. The council was
responsible for harmonizing these programs with national development
policies and priorities, and for monitoring, implementing, and
evaluating programs and projects within the region.
A local government law passed in 1991 created thirteen
submetropolitan district councils and fifty-eight town or area councils
under three metropolitan assemblies; 108 zonal councils under four
municipal assemblies; and thirty-four urban, 250 town, and 626 area
councils under 103 district assemblies. In addition, 16,000 unit
committees were established under metropolitan, municipal, and district
assemblies throughout the country. (District assemblies, of which there
are 110, are designated metropolitan and municipal assemblies in
metropolitan centers and major cities.) No Urban Council, Zonal Council,
or Town Council or Unit Committee has the power to levy any taxes
without the approval of the relevant assembly.
The functions of urban, zonal, and town councils include assuming the
functions of the former town and village development committees and
assisting any person authorized by the assembly to collect revenues due
the assembly. In addition, the councils organize annual congresses of
the people within their respective jurisdictions to discuss economic
development and to raise contributions to fund such development.
Membership in urban, zonal, or town councils and in unit committees
consists of both elected and appointed people from within the respective
jurisdiction.
Each of the ten regions is administered from the regional
headquarters or capital by a regional secretary, who is the regional
political and administrative head. The regional secretary is supported
by metropolitan and municipal secretaries and their metropolitan and
municipal assemblies as well as by district secretaries and the district
assemblies they head. At the regional headquarters, the regional
secretary is assisted by a Regional Consultative Council and a Regional
Coordinating Council, both chaired by the regional secretary. The number
of administrative districts within regions varies, the Ashanti Region
having the most--eighteen, and the Greater Accra Region and the Upper
West Region having the fewest--five. The establishment of a district
assembly in each region ensured that, with the local people in control
of their own affairs, no part of the country would be neglected.
Ghana - POLITICAL DYNAMICS UNDER THE FOURTH REPUBLIC
Launching the Fourth Republic
The coming into force of the new constitution with the inauguration
of the Fourth Republic and the installation of Jerry Rawlings as the
first popularly elected president of Ghana on January 7, 1993, opened a
new chapter in Ghana. In spite of the heat of partisan politics, the
country's political climate remained encouragingly peaceful on the
whole. There were clear indications that both the ruling National
Democratic Congress (NDC) and opposition parties and groups as well as
the general public were committed to making constitutional democracy
work.
The new government faced several challenges in early 1993. One of the
most serious, of course, was the problem of persistent and widespread
economic hardship. Another was the institutionalization of democratic
practice and constitutionalism in a de facto singleparty parliament that
resulted from the opposition boycott of parliamentary elections. In
boycotting the elections, the main opposition parties, who together
received about 40 percent of the total vote in the presidential
election, denied themselves not only potential cabinet appointments but
also any direct representation in parliament and any opportunity for
real power-sharing.
This was regrettable, because throughout Ghana's postindependence
history, the legislature has been the weakest of the three branches of
government. Without sitting in parliament, the opposition could hardly
constitute an effective shadow cabinet or function as a credible
government-in-waiting. The creation of a new voters' register and a
national individual identification system as called for by the
opposition, the need for which Rawlings publicly acknowledged, would
also help build a more effective and durable multiparty democracy. A
step in this direction came in early 1994 when the National Electoral
Commission, created in 1993, set up the Inter-Party Advisory Committee
to advise it on electoral issues. This gesture has helped dispel the
opposition's view that the electoral commission is a pro-government
body.
Since the 1992 elections, the opposition parties, notably the NPP led
by Adu Boahen, have sought to prove their commitment to
constitutionalism by organizing public rallies, peaceful demonstrations,
and press conferences. They have been aided by the emergence of a
vigorous private press and by state-controlled media that have sought to
report the views of opposition groups. The opposition also has chosen to
go to court against alleged breaches of the constitution rather than to
resort to confrontation and violence. Indeed, the NPP has urged its
supporters to familiarize themselves with their constitutional rights,
to criticize the government when it is wrong, and, whenever necessary,
to resort to the courts and not to violence.
Such tactics on the part of the opposition are consistent with the
principal concerns raised by Rawlings at the inauguration of the Fourth
Republic. In his presidential address, Rawlings called for consultation
and cooperation with all political groups in the country. He said that
the NDC government would continue to reach out to the opposition parties
that had boycotted the elections because it was the government's aim to
establish a culture of tolerance, consultation, and consensus-building
based on mutual respect.
In his address, Rawlings also indicated the basic orientation of his
government. He emphasized that the condition of the national economy
"must be the foundation of Ghana's democratic aspirations and
remained the government's greatest challenge." He noted that his
government was determined to continue the Economic Recovery Program
(ERP) and that the new constitutional order could not be divorced from
the changes brought about by the 31st December 1981 Revolution. In
addition, he remarked that he bore no personal grudge against any person
or any group (having in mind the pre- and postpresidential election
disturbances and violence) and invited others to adopt the same
attitude.
Rawlings assured the armed forces that they would remain actively
involved in all national endeavors and also indicated that Ghana's role
in world affairs would not change. The continuity in domestic, economic,
and foreign policy that Rawlings stressed is reflected in the
government's ministerial and other appointments. For example, at the end
of May 1993, twenty-one of thirty-five ministers had been secretaries
under the former PNDC government; many of them held the same portfolios
that they had previously held.
Despite some positive steps toward national reconciliation, part of
the opposition continued to be distrustful of the new administration. In
the view of these critics, the PNDC was still in power, and,
accordingly, they referred to the new administration as
"P/NDC" or "(P)NDC." Some members of the opposition
also saw the new parliament as merely a rubber-stamp of the ruling NDC
administration. The reappointment of numerous PNDC secretaries to the
new NDC administration as well as the NDC pledge of continuity in
economic and social policy confirmed the worst fears of the opposition.
The same could be said of a presidential order in January 1993 to the
effect that persons who had been in office as PNDC secretaries for
ministries, regions, or districts should continue in their offices to
avoid the breakdown of the machinery of government. As the opposition
was quick to point out, the presidential order technically violated the
constitution; however, given the extenuating circumstances created by
the postponement of the parliamentary elections, the order was probably
unavoidable.
Ghana - Developing Democratic Institutions
The growing importance of the legislative arm of the government in
national affairs was reflected in several developments. At the state
opening of parliament on April 29, 1993, President Rawlings gave an
address in which he emphasized that the contributions of all citizens
were necessary in order to achieve the national goals of economic
development and social justice. He reminded Ghanaians that the proper
forum for political debate under constitutional rule was parliament and
called upon the leaders of the parties making up his ruling Progressive
Alliance (the NDC, the National Convention Party (NCP), and the Every
Ghanaian Living Everywhere (EGLE) Party) to welcome serious dialogue
with the opposition outside parliament. Such a move would enable the
opposition parties that had boycotted the parliamentary elections to
contribute to national political debate. The NPP made its views on
national policy heard through invited participation in parliamentary
committees, thus attempting to influence debates and particular
legislation.
The executive and the legislative branches worked to ensure passage
of nine measures that would establish certain major state institutions
by the July 7, 1993, deadline stipulated in the constitution. The
institutions created were the National Commission on Civic Education,
the National Electoral Commission, the District Assemblies Common Fund,
the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, the Minerals
Commission, the Forestry Commission, the Fisheries Commission, the
National Council for Higher Education, and the National Media
Commission.
The Courts Act of July 6, 1993, incorporated the public tribunals
created under the PNDC into the established court system. It defined the
jurisdiction of regional tribunals and established lower courts--circuit
tribunals and community tribunals--to replace the circuit courts and the
district (magistrate) courts. It also established the National House of
Chiefs, the regional houses of chiefs, and traditional councils, and it
provided that parliament could create other tribunals as the need arose.
The tribunals are empowered to try criminal and civil cases. Throughout
1993 and 1994, however, the Judicial Council of Ghana, was working to
amend the Courts Act to allow the pre-existing circuit and district
courts to hear cases meant for circuit and community tribunals until
such time as the new tribunals become fully operational. The
establishment of the lower tribunals has been delayed because of lack of
staff and of suitable court buildings in all 110 districts, most of
which are poor and rural.
Parliament also passed the controversial Serious Fraud Office Bill.
This bill established a Serious Fraud Office as a specialized agency of
the state to monitor, to investigate, and on the authority of the
attorney general, to prosecute fraud and serious economic crimes.
According to the bill's proponents, complex fraud and economic crimes
were being committed that posed a direct threat to national security and
that were possibly linked to illegal drug trafficking, none of which
could be adequately investigated and prosecuted under existing law.
Critics of the bill, which included the Ghana Bar Association, saw it
as an attempt on the part of the ruling NDC to destroy the NPP, which
considered itself the party of business. They also viewed it as
containing provisions conflicting directly with constitutionally
guaranteed fundamental rights to liberty and property. Under the bill's
provisions, anyone can be investigated for fraud except the president,
in whose case the constitution provides elaborate procedures for
impeachment in case of abuse of power and trust.
Parliament's success can be attributed to the leaders of the
opposition and the ruling Progressive Alliance, who chose to settle
their differences through dialogue and constitutional means rather than
through confrontation. The same tendency to operate within the framework
of the new constitution applies to the judicial realm as well, where the
opposition, especially the NPP, declared itself the principal watchdog
and custodian of civil liberties and of the 1992 constitution. This task
is consistent with the leading role played by the opposition in the
demand for a return to constitutional rule during the PNDC era.
On July 22, 1993, a week after celebrating its first anniversary, the
NPP won three major and surprising victories in the Supreme Court. The
court, which the opposition believed to be under the control of the
executive, upheld two suits filed by the party that sought to nullify
certain existing laws and decrees that the NPP claimed conflicted with
the 1992 constitution. In the first suit, the court ordered the Ghana
Broadcasting Corporation to grant the NPP "fair and equal access to
its facilities within two weeks" to enable the party to articulate
its views on the 1993 budget in the same manner as the ruling NDC.
In the second judgment, the court ruled that certain sections of
Public Order Decree 1972 were inconsistent with the 1992 constitution,
which grants the individual the right to demonstrate or to take part in
a procession without necessarily obtaining a permit from the police. The
NPP had challenged as unconstitutional the arrest and subsequent
prosecution of some of its members for demonstrating against the 1993
budget on February 15, 1993. On that day the Accra police had assaulted
the demonstrators, severely injuring many of them. The verdict in the
NPP suit also applied to the shooting attack on university students by
commandos on March 22-23. The students were protesting the government's
refusal to meet their demand for an increase in student loans from
90,000 to 200,000 cedis because of a rise in the cost of living. A third suit, which
concerned police powers with respect to public assemblies, did not go
forward because the law had been repealed.
Two months later, the NPP scored another victory in the Supreme Court
when the party sought a declaration to stop the election of district
chief executives (DCEs) ahead of anticipated District Assembly
elections. The NPP noted that election of DCEs by sitting district
assemblies that had only a few months' remaining tenure in office would
infringe the letter and the intent of the constitution, which requires
that newly elected assemblies, not outgoing assemblies, elect DCEs. The
court granted the NPP's application for an interim injunction and
ordered the suspension of DCE elections until the court could examine
the constitutionality of the elections process. Candidates for election
as DCEs had been nominated by President Rawlings. Within a few days, an
announcement was made that Rawlings had only appointed acting district
secretaries, not DCEs, for all 110 district assemblies; the president's
appointees, however, appeared to be mostly the same individuals
nominated as DCEs. The opposition then took this matter to the Supreme
Court on a charge of unconstitutionality, but the court upheld
Rawlings's action in May 1994.
To crown the constitutional victories of the NPP, the Supreme Court
ruled at the end of 1993 that December 31, marking the 31st December
1981 Revolution, should no longer be celebrated as a public holiday. The
NPP had been particularly outraged when newly elected President Rawlings
declared that any interpretation of the 1992 constitution would be
subject to the spirit of the June 4, 1979, uprising and the 31st
December 1981 Revolution. For the opposition, these events had ushered
in the most repressive and bloody decade in the country's postcolonial
history, and they had no place in the new democratic constitutional
order.
The NPP, after documenting alleged irregularities of the November
1992 presidential elections, consolidated its position as the main
opposition party in the country. It presented itself as the
"constitutional" party, the objectives of which are to ensure
that constitutional rule is established in Ghana and that the private
sector becomes the engine of growth and development. Furthermore, at a
widely reported press conference in July 1993 marking the first
anniversary of the NPP, the party's chairman proclaimed his party's
readiness to "do business" with the NDC government.
Doing business with the government did not mean, as many NPP members
had feared, that some members of the NPP executive would take posts in
the NDC administration. It meant talking face-to-face with the
presidency, the legislature, and the judiciary as well as with
independent institutions of state. These dealings were intended to
enhance the constitutional rights of all Ghanaians and to ensure respect
for human rights and proper management of the economy.
The new NPP policy--that of promoting dialogue between the NPP and
the government, which began in November 1993--contributed to a reduction
of political tension in the country. Unlike some of its West African
neighbors that are haunted by political uncertainty and torn by war and
civil strife, Ghana continued to enjoy relative peace and political
stability. This was true despite the flare-up of interethnic violence
and killing in the northern region between the Konkomba and the Nanumba
in early 1994, leading to the declaration of a brief state of emergency
in the region.
The minor opposition parties of the Nkrumahist tradition, which had
boycotted dialogue with the NDC government, also managed after a long
period of internal bickering to put their houses in order in
anticipation of the 1996 presidential and parliamentary elections. The
parties subscribing to the ideals of Nkrumah's Convention People's
Party, with the exception of the People's National Convention led by
former president Limann, united to form the new People's Convention
Party, receiving a certificate of registration in January 1994.
One of the major concerns of the NPP and other opposition parties was
the existence in the Fourth Republic of paramilitary groups and
revolutionary organs, such as CDRs, which had not been disbanded. In
August 1993 all CDRs were put into a new organization known as the
Association of Committees for the Defence of the Revolution. This new
association was to continue mobilizing the populace for community
development and local initiatives within the framework of the 1992
Constitution.
The NPP persisted in its demands for a new voters' register and for
national identity cards to ensure free and fair elections in 1996. When
President Rawlings suggested that it was cheaper to revise the voters'
register than to issue national identity cards, the cost of which would
be prohibitive for the government, the NPP threatened to boycott the
1996 elections unless both electoral demands were met. The potential
boycott was seemingly averted in February 1994 when the United States
pledged to fund the printing of identity cards for voters in the 1996
elections.
The following August the chairman of the National Electoral
Commission promised that the commission would take appropriate steps to
ensure that the presidential and parliamentary elections in 1996 would
be free and fair. These steps were to include the training of some
80,000 party agents as observers. The National Electoral Commission
later indicated that identification cards would be issued to voters
during registration for a new and revised electoral roll in September
1995. The Commission also favored holding the elections on the same day
and felt that Ghanaians living abroad should have the right to vote.
Eventually the NDC government promised to ensure that the 1996 elections
would be free and fair and that international observers would be
allowed.
Meanwhile, on March 22, 1994, the first nonpartisan district level
elections to be conducted under the Fourth Republic were successfully
held in all but thirteen districts, mostly in the north, where polling
was postponed because of interethnic conflicts. About 10,880 candidates,
383 of them women, competed for 4,282 seats in 97 district, municipal,
and metropolitan assemblies. The new district assemblies were
inaugurated in June 1994, marking another step in the establishment of a
democratic system of local government.
By mid-1994, there was general agreement that the government's human
rights record had improved considerably. The improvement resulted in
part from the activities of the many human rights groups being
established in the country. The Ghana Committee on Human and People's
Rights, founded by a group of dedicated lawyers, trade unionists, and
journalists and inaugurated in January 1991, was perhaps the most
prominent of these. Another was the Commission on Human Rights and
Administrative Justice, a government body established in 1993 designed
to deal with human rights issues and violations.
Ghana - FOREIGN RELATIONS
Guiding Principles and Objectives
Ghana's foreign policy since independence has been characterized by a
commitment to the principles and ideals of nonalignment and
Pan-Africanism as first enunciated by Kwame Nkrumah in the early 1960s.
For Nkrumah, nonalignment meant complete independence from the policies
and alliances of both East and West and support for a worldwide union of
so-called nonaligned nations as a counter to both East and West power
blocs. PanAfricanism , by contrast, was a specifically African policy
that envisioned the liberation of African peoples from Western
colonialism and the eventual economic and political unity of the African
continent.
The PNDC, like most of its predecessors, made serious and consistent
attempts at the practical application of these ideals and principles,
and its successor, the NDC government, promises to follow in the PNDC's
footsteps. Under the NDC, Ghana remains committed to the principle of
nonalignment in world politics. Ghana is also opposed to interference in
the internal affairs of both small and large countries. This is a
departure from Nkrumah's foreign policy approach; Nkrumah was frequently
accused of subverting African regimes, such as Togo and C�te d'Ivoire,
which he considered ideologically conservative. The NDC government, like
the PNDC before it, believes in the principle of selfdetermination ,
including the right to political independence and the right of people to
pursue their economic and social development free from external
interference. Another feature of NDC rule carried over from the PNDC era
is faithfulness to what a leading scholar of Africa has called "one
of the most successful neoclassical economic reform efforts supported by
the IMF and the World Bank."
The broad objectives of Ghana's foreign policy thus include
maintaining friendly relations and cooperation with all countries that
desire such cooperation, irrespective of ideological considerations, on
the basis of mutual respect and noninterference in each other's internal
affairs. Africa and its liberation and unity are naturally the
cornerstones of Ghana's foreign policy. As a founding member of the
Organization of African Unity (OAU), NDC policy is to adhere faithfully
to the OAU Charter.
Another important principle of Ghana's foreign policy involves the
closest possible cooperation with neighboring countries with which the
people of Ghana share cultural history, ties of blood, and economics.
The results have included various bilateral trade and economic
agreements and permanent joint commissions involving Ghana and its
immediate neighbors, sometimes in the face of latent ideological and
political differences and mutual suspicion, as well as numerous
reciprocal state visits by high-ranking officials. These measures have
contributed significantly to subregional cooperation, development, and
the reduction of tension.
As an example of Ghana's interest in regional cooperation, the
country enthusiastically endorsed formation of the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS) in 1975. This organization was created
specifically to foster inter-regional economic and political
cooperation. It has served as a useful vehicle for contacts with
neighboring West African governments and for channeling increased
Ghanaian exports to regional markets. Since 1990 ECOWAS has been engaged
in a peacekeeping mission in Liberia to which Ghana has contributed a
large contingent of troops. Ghana has participated in other
international peacekeeping efforts as well, sending soldiers to
operations of the United Nations (UN) in Cambodia in 1992-93 and Rwanda
in 1993-94.
In August 1994, Rawlings became ECOWAS chairman, a post that had
eluded him since the PNDC came to power. He immediately undertook
several initiatives to reduce tensions and conflict in West Africa.
Notable among them was the Akosombo Accord of September 12, designed to
end civil war in Liberia.
Ghana - Relations with Immediate African Neighbors
The NDC government continues to work to improve and to strengthen
relations with all of its neighbors, especially Togo, C�te d'Ivoire,
Nigeria, and Burkina Faso (Burkina, formerly Upper Volta). In the early
days of PNDC rule, relations with Togo, C�te d'Ivoire, and Nigeria were
particularly cool and even antagonistic. By 1994 Ghana's relations with
its West African neighbors, especially C�te d'Ivoire and Togo, had
improved significantly.
Togo and C�te d'Ivoire
In the early 1980s, C�te d'Ivoire and Togo worried that "the
Rawlings' fever," the "revolution," might prove
contagious. Both countries were headed by long-lived conservative
governments faced with potentially dangerous internal and external
opposition. The strains in relations among Ghana, Togo, and C�te
d'Ivoire have a long history; in Togo's case, they go back to
pre-independence days.
After 1918, following the defeat of Germany, the League of Nations
divided the German colony of Togoland from north to south, a decision
that divided the Ewe people among the Gold Coast, British Togoland, and
French Togoland. After 1945, the UN took over the Togoland mandates.
During the 1950s, when the independence of Ghana was in sight, demands
grew for a separate Ewe state, an idea that Kwame Nkrumah, leader of the
Gold Coast independence movement, opposed. Following a UN plebiscite in
May 1956, in which a majority of the Ewe voted for union with Ghana,
British Togoland became part of the Gold Coast. After Togolese
independence in 1960, relations between Togo and Ghana deteriorated,
aggravated by political differences and incidents such as smuggling
across their common border. At times, relations have verged on open
aggression.
During the mid-1970s, Togolese President General Gnassingbe Eyadema
for a time revived the claim to a part or all of former British
Togoland. Two leading Ewe members from the Volta Region sent a petition
to the UN in 1974. By 1976 a Togoland Liberation Movement and a National
Liberation Movement for Western Togoland existed and were agitating for
separation from Ghana. The Eyadema government publicly backed their
demands, although it subsequently agreed to cooperate with the Ghanaian
government against the separatist movements and against smuggling. A
factor influencing Eyadema's cooperative attitude was doubtless Togo's
dependence upon electricity from Ghana's Akosombo Dam.
A consistent preoccupation of Ghana, Togo, and C�te d'Ivoire is that
of national security. The PNDC regime repeatedly accused both Togo and C�te
d'Ivoire of harboring armed Ghanaian dissidents who planned to overthrow
or to destabilize the PNDC. The PNDC also accused both countries of
encouraging the smuggling of Ghanaian products and currencies across
their borders, thus undermining Ghana's political and economic stability
at a time when Ghana was experiencing a deep economic crisis.
In June 1983, when the PNDC was barely eighteen months old, groups
opposed to the PNDC made a major attempt to overthrow it. Most of the
rebels reportedly came from Togo. In August 1985, Togo in turn accused
Ghana of complicity in a series of bomb explosions in Lom�, the
Togolese capital. In July 1988, an estimated 124 Ghanaians were expelled
from Togo. Nevertheless, relations subsequently improved significantly,
leading in 1991 to the reactivation of several bilateral agreements.
Greatly improved relations between Ghana and Togo, especially after
October 1990 when opposition pressure forced Eyadema to agree to a
transition to multiparty democracy, however, could hardly disguise the
persistence of old mutual fears of threats to internal security. For
instance, less than three weeks after Ghana's Fourth Republic was
inaugurated, an immense refugee problem was created in Ghana. Following
random attacks and killings of civilians in Lom� by Eyadema's army on
January 26, 1993, hundreds of thousands of terrorized Togolese began
fleeing into Ghana. At the end of January, Ghanaian troops were placed
on high alert on the GhanaTogo border, although Obed Asamoah, the
Ghanaian minister of foreign affairs, assured all concerned that there
was no conflict between Ghana and Togo.
Sporadic shooting incidents in the spring continued to produce a
regular flow of refugees into Ghana. By May, following Togo's partial
closure of the border, all persons living in Togo, including diplomats,
had to obtain a special permit from the Togolese interior ministry to
travel to Ghana by road. Travelers from Ghana were allowed into Togo but
were not permitted to return. By early June, half of Lom�'s 600,000
residents were estimated to have fled to neighboring Ghana and Benin.
At the beginning of 1994, relations between Ghana and Togo became
even worse. On January 6, a commando attack occurred in Lom�, which
Togolese authorities described as an attempt to overthrow Eyadema. The
Togolese government accused Ghana of direct or indirect involvement and
arrested Ghana's charg� d'affaires in Lom�. Togolese troops then
bombarded a border post, killing twelve Ghanaians. Camps for Togolese
refugees in Ghana also were reportedly bombarded. The Ghanaian
government announced that it would press Togo to compensate the families
of those killed. By mid-year, however, relations had improved markedly.
In August Togo supported the nomination of Rawlings for the post of
ECOWAS chairman. Thereafter, a joint commission was set up to examine
border problems, in mid-November a Ghanaian ambassador took up residence
in Togo for the first time since the early 1980s, and Togo was
considering the reopening of its border with Ghana.
Ghana-C�te d'Ivoire relations suffered from the same ups and downs
that characterized Ghana-Togo relations. In early 1984, the PNDC
government complained that C�te d'Ivoire was allowing Ghanaian
dissidents to use its territory as a base from which to carry out acts
of sabotage against Ghana. Ghana also accused C�te d'Ivoire of granting
asylum to political agitators wanted for crimes in Ghana. Relations
between Ghana and C�te d'Ivoire improved significantly, however, after
1988. In 1989, after fifteen years of no progress, the Ghana-C�te
d'Ivoire border redemarcation commission finally agreed on the
definition of the 640-kilometer border between the two countries. The
PNDC thereafter worked to improve the transportation and communication
links with both C�te d'Ivoire and Togo, despite problems with both
countries.
By 1992 Ghana's relations with C�te d'Ivoire were relatively good.
Hopes for lasting improvement in Ghana's relations with its western
neighbor, however, were quickly dashed following some ugly incidents in
late 1993 and early 1994. The incidents began on November 1, 1993, with
the return of sports fans to C�te d'Ivoire following a championship
soccer match in Kumasi, Ghana, that had resulted in the elimination of C�te
d'Ivoire from competition. Ghanaian immigrants in C�te d'Ivoire were
violently attacked, and as many as forty or more Ghanaians were killed.
Thereafter, scores of other Ghanaians lost their property as they
fled for their lives. Some 1,000 homes and businesses were looted. More
than 10,000 Ghanaians out of the approximately 1 million living in C�te
d'Ivoire were immediately evacuated by the Ghanaian government, and more
than 30,000 Ghanaians were reported to have sought refuge in the
Ghanaian and other friendly embassies. A twenty-member joint commission
(ten from each country) was established to investigate the attacks, to
recommend compensation for victims, and to find ways of avoiding similar
incidents in the future. In October 1994, the two nations resumed soccer
matches after a Togolese delegation helped smooth relations between
them.
Ghana - Burkina
With the coming to power of Thomas Sankara in Burkina in 1983,
relations between Ghana and Burkina became both warm and close. Indeed,
Rawlings and Sankara began discussions about uniting Ghana and Burkina
in the manner of the defunct Ghana-Guinea-Mali Union, which Nkrumah had
sought unsuccessfully to promote as a foundation for his dream of
unified continental government. Political and economic ties
between Ghana and Burkina, a poorer country, were strengthened through
joint commissions of cooperation and through border demarcation
committee meetings. Frequent high-level consultations and joint military
exercises, meant to discourage potential dissidents and to protect young
"revolutions" in each country, were fairly regular features of
Ghana-Burkina relations.
Ethnic ties between the people of far northern Ghana (notably the
Mossi) and Burkina, divided by artificial borders inherited from
colonial rule, grew stronger as easy border crossings and free exchange
of goods and services contributed to marked improvements in the material
and the social welfare of peoples on both sides of the border. The PNDC,
for example, established road, air, and telecommunications links between
Ghana and Burkina.
Ghana's warm relations with Burkina received a serious but temporary
setback with the assassination of Sankara in October 1987. His
successor, Blaise Campaore, was widely believed to have been responsible
for the assassination. As a result, relations between Ghana and Burkina
cooled. Rawlings and Campaore met briefly for the first time in early
1988 in Tamale, the capital of Ghana's Northern Region, to discuss
Ghana-Burkina relations.
The outbreak of civil war in Liberia in 1989 found the two countries
on opposite sides of the conflict. Ghana, at great financial and human
cost, immediately repatriated about 10,000 Ghanaians living in Liberia
and, beginning in mid-1990, contributed a contingent to a multi-national
peace-keeping force second in size only to one sent by Nigeria. From
1990 to 1993, Campaore's role in the Liberian conflict was at odds with
an ECOWAS peace initiative spearheaded by Ghana and Nigeria, because
Burkina was believed to be supplying arms to Charles Taylor's forces,
long regarded as the main obstacle to peace. In 1994 relations between
Burkina and Ghana showed signs of warming at a time when Campaore
appeared to be reassessing his policies in Liberia and toward Ghana and
Nigeria.
Ghana - Nigeria
Beginning with the independence of Ghana in 1957 under Kwame Nkrumah,
Pan-Africanism, as a movement uniting all peoples of the African
continent, was attempted in earnest. Pan-Africanism became identified
with Nkrumah more than with any other African leader. During the period
1950 to 1965, the aim was to achieve political, cultural, and economic
integration at the continental level.
Beginning in 1958 with formation of the Ghana-Guinea Union, followed
shortly by the Ghana-Guinea-Mali Union, Nkrumah relentlessly pursued his
goal of a Union of African States. Working with leaders of other
independent African countries, he convened a series of conferences to
promote the Pan-African cause. Finally, a summit conference met in Addis
Ababa in May 1963 to resolve the divisions, unite the leaders, and
establish a common Pan-African organization.
After many proposals and counterproposals at the Addis Ababa
conference, thirty African heads of states and governments signed the
historic Charter of African Unity, which established the Organization of
African Unity (OAU). The charter, however, fell far short of Nkrumah's
ideal of African continental government. At practically every meeting of
the OAU until his overthrow in 1966, Nkrumah continued to campaign
vigorously but unsuccessfully for the transformation of the OAU into a
continental government of a United States of Africa. Ironically, as
independent African states concentrated on domestic problems and
internal developments, they found themselves compelled to strengthen
ties with their former colonial rulers rather than with each other. In
Ghana's case, this meant closer relations with Britain, particularly
after the overthrow of Nkrumah.
In recognition of Nkrumah's stature in the Pan-Africanist cause, PNDC
chairman Rawlings in June 1985 dedicated the W.E.B. DuBois Memorial
Center for Pan-African Culture in Accra. The DuBois center was
established to serve as a Pan-African research center and library for
scholars and students of Pan-Africanism and to promote research and
scholarship in the tradition of the AfricanAmerican scholar, W.E.B.
DuBois.
The PNDC made a determined effort to revive Ghana's historical role
as a leader in the OAU and in the struggle against apartheid in South
Africa. The PNDC stepped up material and financial assistance and
diplomatic support to the OAU Liberation Committee, to the African
National Congress in South Africa, and to the South West Africa People's
Organization in South West Africa, now Namibia. In 1987 Ghana also
became a member of the permanent steering committee of the OAU, which
was charged with forging a common African position on the continent's
debt problem. The same year Ghana made a substantial financial
contribution of US$5 million to the African Fund set up by the
Non-Aligned Movement to assist African liberation movements and to
strengthen resistance to South African destabilization activities in
southern Africa. The PNDC also contributed US$1.3 million annually to
the OAU budget. Ghana contributed generously to the OAU's Liberation
Fund for Namibia as well as US$5 million to the African Fund for the
repatriation of Namibians to enable them to participate in
preindependence elections in February 1990.
The PNDC regime sought to strengthen ties with all African countries.
Good relations with the countries of eastern and southern Africa were
established in the spirit of south-south relations, Pan-Africanism, and
nonalignment. In addition to visiting many West African countries,
Rawlings traveled to Mozambique in October 1986 for the funeral of
Samora Machel. Ghana's contribution of US$250,000 toward famine relief
in Mozambique was a practical demonstration of commitment to the
principles of the OAU. In late January 1989, Rawlings paid a threeday
official visit to Uganda on the occasion of the third anniversary of the
government's victory in a long civil war. He also visited Tanzania and
Zimbabwe.
Ghana's political and diplomatic resurgence in Africa and in world
affairs under PNDC leadership was evident from the number of reciprocal
visits to promote bilateral ties and cooperation. Among those visiting
Ghana between 1987 and 1994 were Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda;
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni; former Tanzanian president Julius
Nyerere, who received Ghana's highest state award, the Order of the Star
of Ghana, in recognition of his life-long devotion to Pan-Africanism and
the nonaligned movement; Libyan Colonel Muammar al Qadhafi; and
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. In September 1994, President
Rawlings paid a ten-day visit to Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe,
signing bilateral agreements in the latter two countries for political
cooperation, trade, and industrial development. Ghanaian diplomats are
expected to arrive in Pretoria, the Republic of South Africa, in early
1995 to open Ghana's new High Commission.
Ghana - Britain and the Commonwealth
By historical tradition and choice, Ghana's political future has been
bound up with that of Britain and the Commonwealth of Nations. Indeed,
Nkrumah led the way for independent African states that were former
British colonies to join the Commonwealth.
The close bond between Ghana and Britain was evident in 1959 when
Queen Elizabeth II, the head of the Commonwealth of Nations, visited
Ghana and received a most friendly reception. At the 1964 Commonwealth
Conference, Nkrumah proposed the establishment of a permanent
Commonwealth secretariat, in order, as Nkrumah put it, "to make the
Commonwealth move in tune with the common aspirations of its
members." According to one observer, Nkrumah believed the
Commonwealth was an example of how a free association of independent
states should work. The Commonwealth provided a vehicle for the transfer
of technology and for economic and cultural cooperation. It also served
as a place for developing the most effective methods for ending
colonialism without revolution or violence and under conditions in which
a former colonial territory could retain a close association with the
former imperial power.
Nkrumah again took the lead in forcing South Africa out of the
Commonwealth in 1961. In 1965 Ghana was forced to break diplomatic
relations with Britain in order to support the OAU resolution over
Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence and imposition of a
white minority government. Relations were restored the next year,
however, following the overthrown of Nkrumah.
Following the 31st December 1981 Revolution, Ghana lost its
membership in the Commonwealth Parliament Association, which promotes
interchange and understanding among parliamentarians of member states.
Ghana was readmitted to the Association in September 1993, the same year
it was also readmitted to the InterParliamentary Union, another
Commonwealth institution. With its readmission to these two bodies,
Ghana became an major player in Commonwealth affairs. In May 1994, Ghana
hosted a Commonwealth conference on local government that attracted
participants from several West African countries. At the end of the
year, Ghana remained the only West African Commonwealth country with an
elected government, the other three members--Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and
Gambia--all being under military rule. As a contribution towards
Ghanaian democracy, the Commonwealth, along with the OAU and the Carter
Center in the United States, provided international observer teams to
monitor Ghana's presidential election in November 1992.
Ghana's relations with Britain continued to be generally good under
the PNDC. British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth
Affairs, Mrs. Lynda Chalker, paid a successful official visit to Ghana
in early 1987 which resulted in enhanced British aid for Ghana' economic
reforms. Since the ERP began in 1983, Britain has given Ghana more than
�69 million as balance of payments support. Ghana has reportedly
garnered more aid from Britain than any African country except Zimbabwe.
Britain, along with other Western countries and international
development agencies, also provided much needed technical, logistical,
and financial support for the implementation of Ghana's governmental
decentralization effort, for the first District Assembly elections in
1988-89, as well as for the presidential and parliamentary elections in
1992.
Ghana - The United States
Ghana has in general enjoyed good relations with the United States
since independence, except for a period of strained relations during the
later years of the Nkrumah regime. Ghana was the first country to which
United States Peace Corps volunteers were sent in 1961. Ghana and the
United States are signatories to twenty agreements and treaties covering
such matters as agricultural commodities, aviation, defense, economic
and technical cooperation, education, extradition, postal matters,
telecommunications, and treaty obligations. The refusal of the United
States to join the International Cocoa Agreement, given Ghana's heavy
dependence on cocoa exports to earn hard currency, is the most serious
bilateral issue between the two countries.
Relations between the United States and Ghana were particularly rocky
in the early 1980s, apparently because of Ghana's relations with Libya.
The PNDC government restored diplomatic relations with Libya shortly
after coming to power. Libya came to the aid of Ghana soon afterward by
providing much-needed economic assistance. Libya also has extensive
financial holdings in Ghana. Rawlings has supported Libya's position
that two Libyans accused of bombing a Pan American Airlines flight over
Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 should be tried in a neutral country rather
than in Britain or the United States.
Relations between the United States and Ghana were further strained
by a series of diplomatic incidents in the mid-1980s. In July 1985, a
distant relative of Rawlings, Michael Soussoudis, was arrested in the
United States and charged with espionage. Despite Soussoudis's
conviction, he was exchanged the following December for several known
United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents in Accra, but not
before diplomats had been expelled in both Accra and Washington. In
March 1986, a Panamanian-registered ship carrying arms and a number of
mercenaries and United States veterans of the Vietnam War was seized off
the coast of Brazil. The PNDC charged that the arms and soldiers were
destined for Ghana and that they had been financed by a Ghanaian
dissident with links to the CIA. During their trial, several crew
members admitted that the charges were substantially true. Although they
were convicted and imprisoned, three subsequently escaped with what the
PNDC alleged was CIA assistance.
In spite of these incidents, relations between the United States and
Ghana had improved markedly by the late 1980s. Former United States
president Jimmy Carter visited Ghana in 1986 and again in 1988 and was
warmly received by the PNDC. His Global 2000 agricultural program, which
is quite popular with Ghanaian farmers, is helping promote good
relations with the United States. In 1989 the United States forgave
US$114 million of Ghana's foreign debt, part of a larger debt relief
effort by Western nations. The United States has strongly favored
Ghana's economic and political reform policies, and since the birth of
the Fourth Republic and Ghana's return to constitutional rule, has
offered assistance to help Ghana institutionalize and consolidate its
steps toward democratic governance. In FY 1994, United States
development aid totaled about $38 million; in addition, the United
States supplied more than $16 million in food aid.
Ghana - Other Countries
After 1981, PNDC foreign policy was designed to promote the country's
economic growth and well-being by establishing friendly relations and
cooperation with all countries irrespective of their economic and
political philosophies or ideological orientation. PNDC policy also
sought new markets for Ghana's exports, the expansion of existing
markets, and new investment opportunities.
Ghana's relations with Canada were quite good under the PNDC, as were
Ghana's relations with the European Community and its member countries.
In 1987, as part of its cancellation of the debts of several African
countries, Canada canceled a Ghanaian debt of US$77.6 million. In 1989
Germany canceled US$295 million of Ghana's foreign debt, and France
canceled US$26 million.
A number of Western countries, including France and Canada, continued
to cancel debts in 1991, reflecting the generally cordial relations
between Ghana and Western countries and the confidence the West had in
PNDC policies. In early July 1991, Rawlings paid a three-day official
visit to Paris, which symbolized the close ties that had developed
between the PNDC and the French government. Western countries have
continued to show keen interest in, and support for, the ERP and Ghana's
transition to democratic government.
In line with its commitment to the principles of nonalignment, the
PNDC sought to develop close relations with the socialist regimes in
Eastern Europe, Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North
Korea), and China. In the early days of PNDC rule, Rawlings made
official visits to China and Ethiopia, the latter then headed by a
Marxist-Leninist regime.
During these visits, various economic, trade, and cultural agreements
were concluded. Notable was the PNDC agreement with the German
Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) for the improvement of roads
in Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city, and for the Kumasi-Accra
highway. The GDR also supplied Ghana with new railroad coaches. Barter
trade with East European countries, especially the GDR, Romania, and
Bulgaria, also increased. The PNDC established a State Committee for
Economic Cooperation to ensure more effective cooperation with socialist
countries and showed keen interest in developing relations with the
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.
The PNDC policy of restructuring Ghana's education system, moving
from purely academic curricula to vocational and technical training,
benefited from Ghana's close ties with socialist countries, notably
Cuba. By 1985 Cuba was training some 1,000 Ghanaian school children and
middle-level technicians. Cuba also offered Ghanaians training in
political leadership for "revolutionary organs" and national
security. Hundreds of Ghanaian youths left for various socialist
countries to pursue professional and technical courses. The Soviet
Union, China, and other socialist countries awarded scholarships to
Ghanaians for both academic and technical courses. In addition,
short-term training was offered for Ghana's Committees for the Defence
of the Revolution. Bulgaria provided training in political organization
and leadership, and the Soviet Union furnished education in medicine,
veterinary sciences, and engineering.
The PNDC believed that Cuba provided a fruitful field for cooperation
in areas other than education. The PNDC agreed to a joint commission for
economic cooperation and signed a number of scientific and technical
agreements with Cuba ranging from cultural exchanges to cooperation in
such fields as health, agriculture, and education. Cuba trained Ghana's
national militia, gave advice in the creation of mass organizations such
as the CDRs, and provided military advisers and medical and security
officers for the PNDC leadership. The two countries also signed
agreements for the renovation of Ghana's sugar industry and for three
factories to produce construction materials. In 1985 Ghana and Cuba
signed their first barter agreement, followed by new trade protocols in
1987 and 1988. Cuban medical brigades worked in Tamale in the Northern
Region, one of the poorest areas in Ghana. Cubans coached Ghanaian
boxers and athletes and taught Spanish in Ghanaian schools.
Ghana's relations with Cuba continue to be strong despite Ghana's
return to multiparty democracy and the severe economic crisis in Cuba in
1993 and 1994. A joint commission for cooperation between the two
countries meets biennially in the alternate venues of Accra and Havana.
Cuba is helping to create a faculty of medical sciences in Ghana's new
University of Development Studies at Tamale. At the end of 1994, thirty-three medical
specialists were working in Ghanaian hospitals. A bilateral exchange of
technology and experts in mining and agriculture was also underway. Cuba
is training 600 Ghanaians, mostly in technical disciplines, including
engineering, architecture, and medicine. The two countries are engaged
in successful business ventures, too, including a first class tourist
resort at Ada in the Greater Accra Region and a Ghana-Cuba construction
company.
Economic relations between Ghana and Japan are quite cordial, having
improved considerably under the PNDC. Japan offered Ghana about US$680
million toward the rehabilitation of its telephone and television
services. Following the visit to Japan of a Ghanaian delegation in early
1987, Japan pledged a total of US$70 million toward Ghana's economic
development. In early 1994, Japan offered a further US$16.6 million to
modernize rail transport and to improve water supply. In October 1994,
Ghana joined in urging the UN Security Council to admit Japan and
Germany, two countries that in 1993 and 1994 were among Ghana's largest
aid donors, in recognition of the international political and economic
stature of both countries.
Ghana's relations with the Arab countries were also generally good
during the PNDC period, and they remained so under the new NDC
administration. Considerable economic assistance flowed into Ghana from
the Arab world. Ghana signed loan agreements with the Saudi Arabian Fund
for Development for various development projects in Ghana, including the
promotion of Islamic education. In early January 1994, loan agreements
totaling US$16.5 million from the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic
Development were signed to fund a thermal power plant at Takoradi.
Following the peace accord between Israel and the Palestine
Liberation Organization in September 1993, Ghana reestablished
diplomatic relations with Israel in August 1994. Diplomatic relations
between the two countries had been broken in 1973 in support of member
Arab states of the OAU who were at war with Israel. In urging resumption
of diplomatic ties, parliament noted that Ghana stood to gain access to
Israeli technology, notably in water engineering and irrigation,
sewerage construction, and agriculture.
Finally, in June 1994, a new Ghanaian ambassador presented his
credentials to Russian President Boris Yeltsin in Moscow. At the time,
the Ghanaian government expressed its hope that democratic restructuring
in both Ghana and Russia and the advent of a market economy in Russia
would lead to new and diversified bilateral trade and economic
cooperation.
Ghana - International Organizations
Ghana belongs to sixteen UN organizations and twenty-four other
international organizations, including the Commonwealth. Nkrumah saw the
UN as the most effective forum for small, poor countries such as Ghana
to exert some influence in a world dominated by more powerful nations.
As it had with the Commonwealth, Ghana, a leader among countries of the
developing world, sought to enlarge the UN role in economic development
and to make it an effective force for world peace. Ghana was also a
leader of the African countries that lobbied to advance the cause of
freedom in Africa. Nkrumah made the UN Charter a plank of Ghana's
foreign policy and helped to make the UN a forum for nonalignment as he
maneuvered with other Afro-Asian leaders between East and West. Among
Ghanaians who have achieved world prominence in the UN is Kenneth
Dadzie, who from 1986 to 1994 was Secretary General of the UN Conference
on Trade and Development.
The PNDC preserved Ghana's commitment to the ideals and objectives of
the UN. In recognition of Ghana's strong commitment to African causes
and its active involvement in the General Assembly, Ghana became one of
the African countries elected to a non-permanent seat in the UN Security
Council during 1986-87. Ghana has also contributed troops to UN
peacekeeping operations around the world, including Iraq-Kuwait (1991),
Cambodia (1992-93), and Rwanda (1993-94).
The PNDC also maintained Ghana's active membership in the NonAligned
Movement. Indeed, the 1991 diplomatic highlight of the PNDC government
was its successful hosting, in Accra in early September, of the tenth
ministerial conference of the Non-Aligned Movement. The meeting
attracted one of the largest contingents of foreign ministers of all
recent African conferences.
Ghana also hosted a well-attended conference of nongovernmental
organizations in Accra in late August 1991 as a prelude to the
nonaligned conference. The conference concerned itself with economic
development, peace, and a just world order.
In honor of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president and a founding
member of the Non-Aligned Movement and of Pan-Africanism, the PNDC
commissioned the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and the Nkrumah Mausoleum
in Accra on July 1, 1992. The remains of the late president were brought
from Nkroful, his birthplace, and reinterred in a moving public
ceremony. The park and the mausoleum fulfilled a pledge made by the PNDC
in 1990 to commemorate Nkrumah's contributions to Ghana and to Africa by
means of an appropriate memorial.
