President John Mahama has stated that the 1966 coup which saw the overthrow of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as Ghana’s president was orchestrated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Referencing history, President Mahama noted that the selfish actions of the CIA plunged Ghana into decades of economic instability.
He intimated that the CIA decision also resulted in the death of Ghana’s vision of industrialization.
Speaking at the 68th Independence celebrations, President Mahama said, “Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah the founder of our nation envisioned an industrialized self-reliant Ghana, whose citizens have the highest standard of economic life and the greatest sense of self esteem rooted in patriotism and pan African unity.”
“But on February 24 1966, a joint military and police coup d’état shattered that dream, plunging Ghana into decades of instability and military takeovers. The verdict of history is now loud and clear. Declassified documents from the United States archives reveal that this was a coup inspired and engineered by the CIA.”
On February 24, 1966, the government of Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown in a military coup d’état.
Leaders of the established coup, including army officers Colonel E.K. Kotoka, Major A. A. Afrifa, Lieutenant General (retired) J. A. Ankrah, and Police Inspector General J.W.K. Harlley, justified their takeover by charging that the CPP administration was abusive and corrupt.
They were equally disturbed by Kwame Nkrumah’s aggressive involvement in African politics and by his belief that Ghanaian troops could be sent anywhere in Africa to fight so-called liberation wars, even though they never did so.
Above all, they pointed to the absence of democratic practices in the nation—a situation they claimed had affected the morale of the armed forces.
According to General Kotoka, the military coup of 1966 was a nationalist one because it liberated the nation from Nkrumah’s dictatorship—a declaration that was supported by Alex Quaison Sackey, Nkrumah’s former minister of foreign affairs.
Documents released in November 1999 in Foreign Relations of the United States, the United States Government’s ongoing official history of American foreign policy, revealed that the United States government was aware of plans to overthrown Nkrumah’s government. This was corroborated by a former CIA case officer, Robert Stockwell, in his memoir, In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story.
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‘Declassified U.S. archives reveal that the 1966 coup was inspired and engineered by the CIA.’ – President Mahama during his address at Ghana’s 68th Independence Anniversary Celebration.
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