The coup of 1979 was driven by a great rage on the part of the junior and non-commissioned officers. Rage at senior military officers who had enriched themselves at the expense of the nation and the prestige of the armed forces. There was the feeling that this enrichment had created a privileged class not only in the armed forces but also in the civilian population. Over the years, this rage will breed a resentment and with the coup, it erupted.
A desire to wipe out that privileged, from not only the armed forces but from the civilian population, became the raison d’être of the marauding bands of non-commissioned officers. They would call the acts of wiping out the privileged “House Cleaning”. The ruling AFRC regime did nothing to stop these atrocities then the leaders were busy exacting their own acts of retribution.
Rawlings had attempted a first coup on May 15, 1979, which was unsuccessful. He was arrested and was on trial when his compatriots attempted a second one on June 4th, 1979, which was successful.
On that and subsequent days, the bloodshed was significant and for Ghana, quite unusual.
For example, Col Enninful, the man who headed the court that was trying Rawlings for his May 15 coup attempt was killed, together with his family and even the pets and livestock at his home.
Then came the turn of 8 generals. They were executed later that month at Teshie.
Indigenous businessmen and women had their businesses confiscated on the premise that they acquired their businesses illegally and at the expense of the masses.
Foreign businesses were taken over and the owners expelled, leaving these businesses defunct.
Professionals who had been trained in the US or Britain and still maintained close ties were ridiculed and caricatured as being covert operatives or spies.
Owners of residential houses in Accra were subject to onerous tax investigations by people who probably had never paid taxes.
The molestation of traders was egregious. They were beaten, ridiculed and had their wares stolen.
Well-known bankers and financiers were marched through the streets with crude signs hanging around their necks.
In an effort to instill discipline in public service, civil servants were publicly humiliated for being late.
Traveling abroad became an exercise in futility.
With all these atrocities going on, the masses, led by students chanted, “Let the Blood Flow”.
They cheered as the generals were shot; when traders were humiliated and innocent men paraded through the streets.
There are no records available that the Ghana Bar Association protested against the human rights violations and abuses suffered under the Rawlings-led AFRC regime.
It was only after the generals were executed that the Christian Council and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference “expressed the hope that the AFRC’s house cleaning exercise would be pursued without recourse to acts of vengeance and violence”.
The Council of Muslims in Ghana commended the AFRC on the revolutionary courts.
The newspapers were no better.
The Daily Graphic wrote that the execution of the generals was a lesson to all Ghanaians.
The Ghanaian Times wanted the house-cleaning to go back to 1966.
The Christian Messenger and The Standard supported the executions.
In the report of the Reconciliation Commission, only two journalists were noted to have criticized the atrocities of the AFRC. They were both women – Elizabeth Ohene and Adjoa Yeboah-Afari. Only two women had the cajones to criticize Junior Jesus! Yaa Asantewaa would have been proud.
It was as if the Ghanaian had been afflicted with a bloodlust that extirpated any semblance of the notion of human decency, rights and that of due process.
And as we try to understand the madness of mob action and put in place measures to safeguard our sanity, let’s place on record that lynching and witchcraft, excessive religious fanaticism and complete misinterpretation of what the Christian Bible and the Koran represent, must be taken seriously, and the leaders of those faithful, must teach and interpret the right knowledge, lest we enter a “Boko Haram” infection unknown and unwelcome on our soil.
June 4 could easily have descended to that level, except for cool heads and civilized minds who eventually found their voice and some bravado.
By Nana Dadzie Ghansah