SETTING THE RECORDS STRAIGHT-1966 OVERTHROW OF NKRUMAH
“A NATIONAL DISASTER”
Akyereko Frimpong Emmanuel
Member
In our last meeting we agreed to work towards uncovering the truth about the justification of the Feb. 24, 1966 topple of the Nkrumah led CPP administration. Before I proceed I will like state emphatically that, I was greatly shocked as to the facts and revelations I uncovered while working on this intellectual project. There is a can of worms about this whole national dilemma.
Let me bring to attention that the Feb. 24 putsch was never supported by the masses but was an act orchestrated by the CIA and its foreign intelligence allies aided by national quislings and traitors.
Now the facts and revelations unfold, let’s get ready for more amazing facts.
Again I will like to state on authority from materials I have laid hands on that the Feb. 24 coup d’état never had the backing of Ghanaians but few power intoxicated greeds who had formed the core component and exponent of the Danquah Busia Anti-Nkrumah propaganda machinery. Indeed the argument has been provoked and I accept the fact that Dr. Nkrumah had suggested a one party system of government. This can be evident in a speech delivered by the foremost Pan-Africanist and undoubtedly the greatest African in history.
“In a socialist state, government represents the people and the masses, In a capitalist state, government represents the exploitative class.”
Dr. Nkrumah had declared on two years before his overthrow,
“Even a system based on a democratic constitution may need some backing up in the period following independence by emergency measures of some totalitarian kind.”
From this juncture we can assert that Dr. Nkrumah had taken a stance on the type of political ideology we wanted the national to be governed through. But this will need the endorsement of the people. In an article quoted from the Statesman a pro-Danquah Busia newspaper in 2007, revealed that Dr. Nkrumah’s push for one part system of government was not achieved by coercive means. In fact Dr. Nkrumah won an overwhelming majority in a referendum organized in 1964 to determine whether the country at that should go under pluralism (multi-party system of rule) or a one party state. According to statistics, 99% of the Ghanaian population voted yes in support of the one party state ideology including the Ashanti region which formed the bedrock of opposition. For the records, the figures stood like this. 2,773,920 voted YES as against 2,452 who voted NO.
If Anti-Nkrumahist elements in the system still claim that Nkrumah was overthrown because he had become a dictator, then they are deceiving themselves and also trying to swindle people to believe that is true. That argument is ipso facto wrong. Two years before the coup, Nkrumah had returned the country to multi-party system of government opposition parties had been created. That argument is defeated on these grounds; there were no traces of one-man show before his overthrow. I pray that as intellectuals we accept this fact and allow it to remain as such.
I will counter the assertion of the Danquah Busia facets about the involvement of the Central Intelligence Agents (CIA) and its Western allies such as the Britain and France in the putsch from the disclosures made by top CIA agents who had enlightened the world by the criminal intentions of the United States of America towards other nations who do not tow their line.
I will dwell on the accounts of three prominent former CIA agents, namely John Stockwell, the CIA agent in the Ivory Coast during the period of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, William P. Mahoney-the USA ambassador to Ghana between the periods of 1964-1968 and lastly Robert W. Komer a national security staffer and CIA analyst for 15 solid years. These three personalities’ role in the coup d’état plot and its execution were exposed in a series of telegrams and memoir such as John Stockwell’s firsthand testimony in his “In Search for The Enemies: A CIA Story. The United States had come to the realisation the treat Dr. Nkrumah posed to their selfish aggrandisement of wealth from Africa. Let’s revisit a quote in a letter to the man who replaced Nkrumah on March 12, 1966 by Robert Komer who had worked as a CIA analyst for 15 years.
“The coup in Ghana” he crowed “is another example of a fortuitous windfall. Nkrumah was doing more to undermine our interest than any other black African. In reaction to his strongly pro-communist leanings, the military regime is almost pathetically pro-western”
They made sure they use every conceivable means and tactics to bring Nkrumah’s down to the ground. This had culminated in seven separate unsuccessful attempts on the life of Nkrumah. The United States whose sense of intolerance Nkrumah’s socialist orientation and pan-African activism knew no bound deliberately caused an economical paradox and rendered abject poverty on the lives of Ghanaians. The US and Britain according to William Mahoney the US ambassador to Ghana at the time had refused aid to the nation being very much aware that the communist duo of China and the Soviet Union were not in any good shape to provide a financial bailout to the country. At this point in history great hardship was unleashed on Ghanaians deliberately by the Britain who had adopted a hard noise attitude towards providing financial aid for the country and the US who had agendas on course. Mahoney who had won the heart of Nkrumah managed to swindle him into believing that the US would come into his aid anytime. So fellow intellects, from a humanistic point of view, it would not be out of place to say that, there was wild agitation through out the length and breadth of this country, and potential quislings and traitors were identified. The CIA were not alone. Dr. Nkrumah wrote in his book 'Dark Days in Ghana’ which was written in Conakry in 1969 three years after his overthrow.
"it has been one of the task of the CIA and other similar organizations" he noted "to discover these potential quislings and traitors in our midst and encourage them, by bribery and the promise of political power, to destroy the constitutional government of our countries" this was indeed the true state of affairs. The CIA had been working hand-in-hand with the Acting Commissioner of Police Harlley and General Otu and Ankrah. These were the front liners who had been coordinating the works of the CIA in Ghana. By their own selfish agendas, they waged several crusades through writings and used propagandist tactics against Nkrumah and capitalised on the worsening economic conditions created by the U.S and its Western allies and preached mischief about Nkrumah and the CPP to Ghanaians. One revealing account rendered from an unlikely source John Stockwell (a CIA insider) in Document 251,Topic one was the Coup d’état Plot, Ghana. This occurred in March 11, 1965. The CIA jubilated that popular opinions in the country at the time had strongly formed against Nkrumah and the economy of the country was in a precarious state.

What has become the argument for some egotistical members of the Danquah Busia tradition has been the introduction of the PDA (Preventive Detention Act) This law put people who criticised the Nkrumah led CPP administration with intent in jail without trail. It is again imperative that I bring to your notice, that I as a journalistic element condemn the detention which led to the death of J.B Danquah in 1963. The 586 people who suffered incarceration by 1963 put us at the wrong side of history and crude affront to free speech.
Before I proceed, I would like to juxtapose this happening to a recent trail and prosecution of an NPP activist Nana Adwakwa Baafi after making what I term as 'comment of naivety and cheap political talk' If Mr. Kwasi Pratt Jnr. condemn vehemently this act by the judicial system, then I believe it could be very hypocritical on his part to holify the PDA.
Now on the issue of the PDA, I will like to attack it on moral grounds and distance my argument a little bit away from politics. There is a biblical saying that I will never forget. "Remove the log on your eyes before trying to alert your neighbour of the petrels on his eyes."
After causing Nkrumah's downfall and seizing political power, Dr. Busia who had replace Dr. Nkrumah introduced a similar law with similar agendas- Protective Custody Act. If they claim the PDA was much inhuman and introduced a cruel form of human rulership, why then the introduction of PCA?
My brothers, I think it is about time our impact on the public perception about this barbaric act and its consequences were made clear and exposed the neo-colonialist elements and the exploitative class in our midst.
In 2007, Kwame Osei Prempeh, then deputy A-G made a remark about this coup in discussion that sparked controversies and agitations and anger from the Nkrumahist camp.
Quoting "The 1966 coup is responsible for the democratic status of Ghana today"
In the same year, Volta regional minister Kofi Dzamesi commended Kotoka of blessed memory for his involvement in the 1966 subversion of government which was ruling by majority consensus.
"It is evident that the coup brought an end to a dictatorial regime which could have exploded into worse situation as some countries in Africa are experiencing now"
Finally, I will take excerpts of former Asokwa MP maxwell Kofi Jumah's assertion about the putsch,
"Though Nkrumah was great leader, it was wise and very prudent that his government was overthrown" In exploring more of his view of this vitriolic episode, he continued " There was enough good reason for what happened to Ghana's first president, because prior to the 1966 coup d’état, prices of good had skyrocketed and the violation of human rights abuse were the order of the day.
Credence to the Statesman for 2007 publication, here are three different personalities in the Anti-Nkrumah camp, justifying Nkrumah's overthrow, I believe the well elaborated facts and evidence I have put across is enough to prove them disabuse your minds of this whole argument.