Fred Akuffo

Frederick William Kwasi Akuffo , called Fred Akuffo (born March 21, 1937 in Akropong, † June 26, 1979 in Accra ) was head of state of Ghana from 1978 to 1979 .

soldier

After attending school, he joined the Ghana's army in 1957 and attended the Sandhurst Military Academy from 1958 to 1960 . In 1961 he was part of Ghana's contingent during the United Nations operation in Congo . He rose in the military hierarchy and in the meantime attended training courses in Great Britain and India . In 1975 he became a member of the Junta Supreme Military Council, which had ruled since 1972 under the leadership of Ignatius Kutu Acheampong .

head of state

Akuffo was chief of staff when Acheampong was overthrown by his colleagues on June 5, 1978 in a palace revolt. He succeeded him as chairman of the junta and thus head of state of Ghana. Unlike his predecessor, Akuffo was ready to work with the International Monetary Fund . Measures included a drastic devaluation of the cedi , overturned by the last civilian government in 1972, and a sharp reduction in the budget deficit. Immediately after coming to power, he ordered the release of most of the political prisoners and promised to effectively combat the corruption that the military government has hitherto been accused of. A new constitution and elections were promised in June 1979. While international aid for Ghana was resumed, the country's economic situation initially deteriorated further and Akuffo's government was confronted with strikes and demonstrations.

Fall

A first coup attempt by Jerry Rawlings against him failed in May 1979. After the successful coup by Rawlings on June 4, 1979 , Akuffo, the two other ex-heads of state Afrifa and Acheampong and five other high-ranking officers were shot dead . There are different dates about the exact date of death (June 26 or 30, 1979).

In April 2001, President John Agyekum Kufuor ordered the bodies of those shot to be exhumed so that the families could have an orderly burial.

literature

• Frederick WK Akuffo , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 35/1979 of August 20, 1979, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

• Short biography at Ghana.com ( Memento from February 3, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
• Short biography at el Correponsal (Spanish)
• West Africa Review (1999) on Ghana's economic policy ( Memento of February 17, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
• The BBC on the planned exhumation, April 30, 2001 (English)