By Ewoenam Kpodo, GNA
Dzodze (VR), May 16, GNA – The United Cadres Front (UCF), has urged Ghanaians to revive the memory of May 15, 1979, warning that the day’s role in shaping the country’s political history is fading from public consciousness.
On May 15, 1979, Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings led a failed mutiny to “house-clean” Ghana’s armed forces. Arrested and facing execution, his defiant tribunal line – “My passion was to see justice done,” struck a chord, as Ghana was reeling from inflation, food shortages, and ‘kalabule’ corruption, with his words casting him as a voice for the dispossessed.
The failed coup set up the June 4, 1979 uprising. Junior officers freed Rawlings and installed him head of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). Under the slogan “Let the blood flow, action, action!” the AFRC executed eight senior officers. Exhausted by graft, many Ghanaians saw it as retribution, even calling Rawlings “Junior Jesus.”
After three months, he handed power to elected President Dr Hilla Limann of People’s National Party on September 24, 1979. By December 1981, Limann’s government unraveled amid internal divisions and worsening economic conditions.
Rawlings and a new cadre of radicals seized the moment on December 31, ousting Limann. He formed the Provisional National Defence Council, later founding the NDC and becoming president under Ghana’s 1992 democratic constitution.
At a commemoration event in Ketu North, speakers said the failed mutiny was the first trigger in a chain of events that produced the Fourth Republic, stressing that May 15 was more than a botched coup – it captured the frustration of junior officers and civilians over soaring inflation, food shortages, greed and corruption under successive military regimes.
The event, organised by UCF, the primary umbrella organisation and political vanguard for the veteran and youth cadres of the ruling NDC dedicated to upholding the revolutionary values of probity, accountability, transparency and social justice, brought together national, regional and constituency executives as well as members of the Front.
Mr Marbel Allende, acting Volta Regional Vice-Chairman, UCF advised especially young cadres to live and defend the moral foundation of the NDC, citing himself and other veteran cadres who did not act from comfort or privilege but out of loyalty to the cause of national transformation.
He said cadreship called for discipline, commitment, integrity, patriotism, volunteerism and communal spirit charging, “Let’s get back to the tenets of the 1979 revolution.
Mr Shine Gaveh, National Chairman, UCF called on leadership of NDC to desist from sidelining cadres while asking cadres to get themselves involved with activities of the party especially the upcoming “NDC Month” in June saying, “As cadres, you belong to the party so get yourself involved. We are collaborators.”
Mr Moses Azaglo, Ketu North Chairman, UCF who declared May 15, 1979 as “The Fundamental root of the NDC” said Mr Rawlings “the Saviour sent to save Ghana” escaped death due to the working of “the Holy Spirit and for that matter, the spirit of Ghana who wanted Ghana to survive.”
Prof Linus Foli, UCF national committee member told Ghana News Agency that understanding the 1979 actions and the subsequent Fourth Republic under Rawlings and the NDC was vital for shaping the country’s future for “If we forget where we are coming from, we cannot chart where we are going,”
He explained Ketu North’s choice for the event highlighting it as a hub of the revolution’s early support, noting that the first batch of cadres trained at the Afienya Leadership Youth Training Centre came from the area.
GNA
Edited by Maxwell Awumah/Kenneth Odng Adade
Reporter: Ewoenam Kpodo, GNA
[email protected]
