Coups to the Fourth Republic

The quarter-century after 1966 was Ghana’s long instability. Soldiers toppled civilians and each other in grim rotation: the NLC (1966–69), Busia’s Progress Party (1969–72), Acheampong’s NRC (1972–78), Akuffo’s palace coup (1978–79). Each regime promised rescue; each ended in queues, debt and disillusion.

Then came Jerry Rawlings. The young flight lieutenant’s Armed Forces Revolutionary Council seized power in June 1979, executed three former heads of state, handed over to the elected Limann government — then struck again on 31 December 1981, judging civilian rule a failure. The PNDC years brought a harsh Economic Recovery Programme (1983) that tamed inflation, alongside district assemblies that decentralised power.

Under domestic and international pressure, Rawlings steered a return to constitutional rule: a referendum approved the 1992 constitution, and the Fourth Republic began on 7 January 1993. Rawlings won multiparty elections in 1992 and 1996; in 2001 John Kufuor’s NPP took power — Ghana’s first peaceful transfer between parties — and the pattern has held ever since: fiercely contested elections, accepted results, and a democracy West Africa looks to.