General
A 94-year-old retired engineer, Lawrence Frederick Asiamah Tenkorang has ranked Ghana's military coups in a candid oral history interview, describing the 1966 overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah as a "good coup" and branding the June 4, 1979 uprising as "the worst."
A 94-year-old retired engineer, Lawrence Frederick Asiamah Tenkorang has ranked Ghana's military coups in a candid oral history interview, describing the 1966 overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah as a "good coup" and branding the June 4, 1979 uprising as "the worst."
The retired engineer whose life spans the Gold Coast era through every political transition since independence, made the remarks in an interview with broadcaster Kafui Dey.
His verdict challenges the widely held view that all military takeovers are illegitimate.
"Most people say all coups are bad" Tenkorang said. "No coup is good but a coup that saves mankind from trouble is a good coup."
Asked whether he foresaw the 1966 coup that removed Nkrumah while he was abroad, Engineer Tenkorang said the signs were visible.
On the mood in Ghana at the time, he was emphatic.
"People were 100% happy," he said. "People jubilated when the coup happened.
Asked whether he personally celebrated, Tenkorang said: "Oh, I was a quiet man. What do I do? I keep quiet and watch because I knew what was going on."
He described the 1966 takeover as "a good coup," arguing that Nkrumah's administration had become oppressive.
Tenkorang distinguished the 1966 coup from later takeovers, which he termed "jealousy coups" driven by personal ambition rather than national interest.
"Jealousy coup because there was no administration," he said. "All the people who knew the practice of administration had all gone.“
He said such coups occurred when institutions had collapsed and opportunists exploited the vacuum.
The Retired Engineer however singled out the June 4, 1979 uprising led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings as the worst of Ghana's coups.
"JJ is the worst," he said.
He argued that Rawlings was not the right person to lead the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), suggesting Major Boakye Djan should have headed it.
"Rawlings was not the person to have headed. There was a qualified person," Tenkorang said.
He alleged that Rawlings was elevated because of his mixed-race heritage.
"They saw that Rawlings was a coloured person. The black man when he sees a white man is happy that's why they appointed Rawlings as their head. He wasn't a qualified person to lead them."
When the Kafui Dey noted that Rawlings had gained popular support after the May 15, 1979 uprising, when he took responsibility for his actions at a court martial in Burma Camp, Tenkorang dismissed it.
"That was all political," he said. "It was all political."
'Administration deficiency'
Asked why Ghana experienced coups in 1966, 1972, 1979 and 1981, Tenkorang pointed to a recurring theme.
"That is the art of what I told you," he said. "Administration deficiency."
He argued that when experienced western administrators were removed or sidelined, governance collapsed, creating conditions for further interventions.
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