When Was Ghana Army Formed
History
The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) were formed in 1957. Major General Stephen Otu is appointed GAF Chief of Defence Staff in September 1961. From 1966, the GAF was extensively involved in politics, mounting several coups. Kwame Nkrumah had become Ghana’s first Prime Minister when the country became independent in 1957. As Nkrumah’s rule wore on, he began to take actions which disquieted the leadership of the armed forces, including the creation and expansion of the President’s Own Guard Regiment (POGR).[9]
As a result, on February 24, 1966, a small number of Army military personnel and senior police officials, led by Colonel Emmanuel Kotoka, (commander of the Second Army Brigade at Kumasi), Major Akwasi Afrifa, (staff officer in charge of army training and operations), Lieutenant General (retired) Joseph Ankrah, and J.W.K. Harlley, (the police inspector general), successfully launched “Operation Cold Chop”, the 1966 Ghanaian coup d’état, against the Nkrumah regime.[10] The group formed the National Liberation Council, which ruled Ghana from 1966 to 1969.
The GAF’s second coup took place in 1972, after the reinstated civilian government cut military privileges and started changing the leadership of the army’s combat units. Lieutenant Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong (temporary commander of the First Brigade around Accra) led the bloodless 1972 Ghanaian coup d’état that ended the Second Republic in January 1972.[11] Thus the National Redemption Council was formed. Acheampong became head of state, and the NRC ruled from 1972 to 1975.
On October 9, 1975, the NRC was replaced by the Supreme Military Council (SMC).[12] Council members were Colonel Acheampong, (chairman, who was also promoted straight from Colonel to General), Lt. Gen. Fred Akuffo, (the Chief of Defence Staff), and the army, navy, air force and Border Guard Unit commanders.
In July 1978, in a sudden move, the other SMC officers forced Acheampong to resign, replacing him with Lt. Gen. Akuffo. The SMC apparently acted in response to continuing pressure to find a solution to the country’s economic dilemma; inflation was estimated to be as high as 300% that year. The council was also motivated by Acheampong’s failure to dampen rising political pressure for changes. Akuffo, the new SMC chairman, promised publicly to hand over political power to a new government to be elected by 1 July 1979.[13]
The decree lifting the ban on party politics went into effect on 1 January 1979, as planned. However in June, just before the scheduled resumption of civilian rule, a group of young armed forces officers, led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, mounted the 1979 Ghanaian coup d’état. They put in place the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, which governed until September 1979. However, in 1981, Rawlings deposed the new civilian government again, in the 1981 Ghanaian coup d’état.[14] This time Rawlings established the Provisional National Defence Council. The PNDC remained in government until January 7, 1993. In the last years of the PNDC, Jerry Rawlings assumed civilian status; he was elected as a civilian President in 1993 and continued as President until 2001.
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