Limann (Babini), Dr Hilla

Dr Hilla Limann (Babini) was the sole President of the Third Republic Of Ghana, after his political party, the People's National Party (PNP) won the first free elections held in Ghana for a decade on the 18th of June 1979. Sworn-in as President of Ghana on the 24th of September 1979, he was Head Of State until the 31st of December 1981, when he was overthrown by Flight-Lieutenant Jeremiah John Rawlings in a military coup.

 Born Hilla Babini in the remote Upper West Region town of Gwollu in the Sissala West District on the 12th of December 1934, Limann is noted for being the only Head Of State that has hailed from the northern regions of what was at that stage the British colony of The Gold Coast. He is also noted for his poor upbringing, as his father was a simple blacksmith & farmer.

Nontheless, Limann completed his elementary education firstly at Lawra, then at the Government Middle School in Tamale in 1949. In another departure from what would become the norm for other Heads Of State in the independent country of Ghana still years away, Limann was not educated at the prestigious Achimota School in Accra, instead enetering the government Teacher Training College in Tamale, where he qualified as a certificate "B" teacher in 1952. By 1957, Limann had obtained his GCE Advanced Levels while in the teaching profession, enabling him to further his education at the London School Of Economics, where he completed a Bachelor of Science (Economics) in 1960.

He then moved to France, where he studied French at the Collège de Sorbonne (University Of Paris), where he completed a Diploma in French Language in 1962, and completed a Ph.D in Political Science and Constitutional Law again at the Sorbonne in 1965.

Returning to Ghana later that year, he took a position in the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs as head of the desk for European affairs. As an intermediate in the diplomatic service, he retained his position following the fall of Dr Kwame Nkrumah's government on the 24th of February 1966, when a military coup, Operation Cold Chop, seized control of Ghana while Nkrumah was on a state visit to PR China. He served in his post until 1968, but in 1967, took a dual role in the Constitution Commission, which drafted the 1969 Constitution Of Ghana for the military government, the National Liberation Council, who scheduled a return to civilian rule & consititutional rule in that year.

In 1968, he was promoted to the Head of Chancery/Official Secretary at Ghana's embassy in Lomé, in neighbouring Togo. Again not politically-aligned, he held his post during the transition to civilian rule under Prime Minister Dr Kofi A. Busia.

In 1971, he was appointed Counsellor at Ghana's Permanent Mission in Geneva, Switzerland. As a diplomat, he held this post following the overthrow of Dr Busia on the 13th of January 1972 in a bloodless military coup, and continued to serve the newly-installed military government, the National Redemption Council, holding his post in Switzerland until 1975. He returned to Ghana that year, returning to the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs, where he returned to the European affairs desk, and later, the desks for American & Asian affairs.

The political situation in Ghana became increasingly unstable during this time. The self-promoted General Acheampong disbanded the NRC at this time, and created a new military junta, the Supreme Military Council. However, the Ghanaian people, despite the failings in the past, longed for civilian rule, and Acheampong reached what he considered to be a compromise - "Union Government", or Unigov (as it became known)- which would be a composite of military & civilian rule, with himself continuing as the Head Of State. This went to a national referendum on the 30th of March 1978, and in a highly-questionable referendum result, Unigov was passed with a large margin.

However, Acheampong's vision was short lived - just four months later, on the 5th of July 1978, his Chief Of Defence Staff, Lieutenant-General Frederick W.K. Akuffo, and the commander of the Ghana Army, General Neville A. Odartey-Wellington, seized power, literally at gun-point, by forcing Acheampong to resign.

 Lt-General Akuffo's new government, the SMC II, pledged to swiftly introduce a planned return to civilian rule, which the Ghanaian public looked at with some hope for the future. New parties were announced, and for what appears to be the first time, Limann became involved with the People's National Party, who were a centre-left party, strongly affiliated with the politics of Dr Nkrumah and his now-defunct Conventional People's Party, and indeed, the new party had several former CPP members in it's ranks.

Limann's uncle, Alhaji Imoru Egala, was the head of the PNP. Despite being highly respected in political circles, he was barred from running for office, as he was the former Foreign Minister under the Nkrumah government, and the former National Liberation Council had banned all former Nkrumah ministers from holding a public office.

Thus, Limann, who despite his stellar diplomatic career, had no diplomatic experience at all, was nominated at the suggestion of his uncle to run in the forthcoming election for the 1st President of the 3rd Republic Of Ghana. His running-mate would be Dr Joseph W.S. deGraft-Johnson, one of the founding members of the Ghana Institute of Engineers (GhIE), of which he was President, from 1977 to 1978.

The party that was the main opponent to the PNP was the Popular Front Party (PFP). Led by the political veteran, Victor Owusu, who had been the  former Attorney-General and Foreign Minister In Dr Busia's government. However, this powerful groupe of Busia-Danquah veterans unexpectedly split, thus splitting the power-base. This created a third party, the United National Convention (UNC), under the venerable William Ofori-Attah, a member of 'The Big Six'.

Three major events events would happen in Ghana before elections were held on the 18th of June 1979. On the 15th of May 1979, Flight-Lieutenant Jeremiah John Rawlings staged an unsuccessful coup. While several key points in the city were captured, and the "successful" coup was announced from Broadcast House, the forces of SMC II regrouped, and managed to recapture those key points and maintain control of the government.  Rawlings was detained and faced court-martial, along with several of his co-conspirators.

SMC II decided to televise the procedings, but this was a disaster, as Rawlings used this publicity to against the government, winning support amongst Ghana's somewhat disillusioned population. Then, on the 4th of June 1979, when it appeared that SMC II had crushed the coup, another group of the plotters, led by Captain Kojo Boakye Djan of the Ghana Army, attempted to seize power from Akuffo's government. While this coup was an autonomous coup, and not initiated by Rawlings himself, the plotters sprung Rawlings from captivity, and managed to seize power, bringing about the fall of Akuffo's government.

In the ensuing action, SMC II's Chief Of Defence Staff, General Neville A. Odartey-Wellington, was killed in a firefight at the Nima police station, where he had attempted to set up a command post. With the Armed Forces commander dead, organized resistance to the Rawlings/Djan coup began to collapse. By the end of the day, fighting had ceased, and Akuffo & most of the key leadership of SMC II were detained, along with several other figures that were considered to pose a threat to the fledgling Rawlings regime.

Surprisingly, despite the end of SMC II's reign, the newly-formed Rawlings government, which announced itself as the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), quickly announced that return to civilian rule would not be affected, and the elections that were scheduled to take place in two weeks time would go ahead.

Before this came a huge bombshell - on the 16th of June 1979, General Acheampong, along with another member of the SMC (I), Major-General Edward K. Utuka (former Border Guard Commander), were sentenced to death and executed at dawn at the Teshie firing range just outside of Accra, having been found guilty of corruption by an AFRC special committee.

This caused some shock in Ghana, who had become accustomed to the relatively soft treatment that had previously been metted out to former Heads Of State in such circumstances, and this action began to define a distinct difference between the AFRC and the previous military juntas that had led Ghana.

 Meanwhile, and in spite this shock, the promised elections were indeed held two days later. Limann's PNP emphatically won the general elections for Ghana's proposed return to civilian rule, scheduled to take place on the 24th of September, winning 69 regional seats, while their nearest rival, the PFP, won 41 seats. However, the presidential race was forced into a run-off between Limann & his nearest rival, Owusu, because despite his victory, Limann failed to get the more than 50% of the total vote against all other candidates who ran in the election.

But first came the second bombshell from the AFRC - on the 26th of June 1979, a further six military officers, mostly members of the overthrown SMC II, were found guilty of corruption & abuse of office, and executed by firing squad at the Teshie firing range on the same day. The executed men included two former Heads Of State - the overthrown General Akuffo, and Lieutenant-General Akwasi A. Afrifa, the former Chairman of the National Liberation Council in 1969, and architect of the transition to constitutional rule that same year. The other executed officers were Rear Admiral Joy Amedume (former Ghana Navy Commander), Air Vice-Marshal George Yaw Boakye (former Ghana Air Force Commander), Major-General Robert E.A. Kotei (former Chief Of Defence Staff), and Colonel Roger Felli, the former Commissioner for Foreign Affairs.

Nonetheless, despite these somewhat brutal displays of "house-cleaning" conducted by the AFRC, the run-off election occured on the 9th of July 1979, and Limann quickly established a lead that would become unassailable. Within two days, the result was clear, and Owusu had conceded defeat - Limann, largely unknown in political circles prior to the election campaign, had overcome all odds to poll 62% of the popular run-off election to become the newly elected President of Ghana, slated to return to a new constitution in September 1979.

 Meanwhile, while Limann acquainted himself with his people, the AFRC continued their bloodletting, as their war on corruption, and righting apparent social "wrong-doings". Many Ghanaians who had obtained a degree of wealth honestly had their assets seized on often very thin suspicions that they were gained dishonestly. The Lebanese community of Ghana, always a culture which performed strongly in business, also bore the brunt of the AFRC policy to exploit the petty prejudices a small sector of indigenous Ghanaians. A "war" of sorts was declared on profiteers, black marketeers, and even professionals & academics. Many of Ghana's best minds fled abroad during this period, fearing a backlash from the new government.

However, on the 24th of September 1979, the excesses of the AFRC came to an end, as Limann was sworn in as 1st President (and as it turns out, only) of Ghana's Third Republic. Flight-Lieutenant J.J. Rawlings handed over the ceremonial scroll of office, making a somwhat aggressive speech about the actions of the AFRC, and entrusting the new government to continue it's struggle to purify Ghana's society of corruption & bribery. Rawlings went on to say that "we have every confidence that we shall never regret our decision to go back to the barracks".

Limann's inaugural address highlighted his desire for a return to basic Nkrumahist policies of developing agriculture, and resurrecting projects similar to those abandoned after Dr Nkrumah was overthrown. He went on to outline his desire to encourage foreign investment, and make in-roads into tackling Ghana's national debt. The issue of stemming food shortages was also earmarked as a key issue of the new government.

Indeed, Limann's cabinet was a conglomerate of former member's of Nkrumah's former party, the Conventional People's Party (CPP), and more pragmatic members who favoured a pro-capitalist stance. Limann attempted to curry favour from both camps - by adhering to the Nkrumahist ideals of planning large scale government works and a basic social fabric, while aligning Ghana with the west, with an eye on the economic benefits of a pro-capitalist policy, and the potential promise of foreign investment to counter the economic woes inherited from the previous military regimes.

While President Limann, Vice-President deGraft-Johnson, and the PNP cabinet went about the business of government, the AFRC disbanded. Flight-Lieutenant Rawlings returned to his military career, while Boakye Djan left Ghana to study in England, and the former members of the AFRC splintered and went their separate ways. However, the Rawlings factor would remain during the entire term of Limann's time in office.

Aware of the Rawlings spectre, but perhaps unaware of the factions that loomed as being at odds within the PNP, Ghanaians settled back into constitutional rule. However, the honeymoon period enjoyed by the Limann administration was quickly overshadowed by the urgency on the part of his government to tackle immediate issues affecting the population.

Chief amongst the issues faced by Limann's administration was the economy. Inflation, already exceedingly high when Limann took office, would more than double during his term in office. Coupled with the sharp decline in the value of the Cedi, and the growing national debt, led to the slowing of the economy.

The continuation of Ghana's recession crippled the administration's ability to deliver on it's promises. One of these was to curtail a chronic food shortage, particularly flour. Foods that particularly required refining, such as flour to make bread, were in chronically short supply. As a result, the price of bread spiked to ridiculously inflated prices, and well beyond the means of the average Ghanaian, as basic wages were not keeping tabs with inflation. Milk, sugar, and other food stores were largely unavailable or remained in short supply, an issue that plagued the Limann administration until the end of it's rule.

The economic woes had a ripple effect - little was achieved in modernizing agriculture, despite the best intentions of the administration, and the proposed revitalization of government projects based on the Nkrumah model could not be realized.

By early 1980, the first ripples of discontent started to become apparent. Largely oblivious to the problems faced by the Limann administration, the fact that it was largely hamstrung by the declining economic situation was largely lost, as Ghanaians became hostile towards the inactivity on the government's part to take visible forms of action to rectify the decline. Students & workers began to strike, and in extreme cases, riot, and Limann's calls for restraint of these excesses to allow his administration to tackle these problems increasingly fell on deaf ears.

Another factor that the population was largely unaware of was the factional fighting with the PNP itself. The former CPP Nkrumahists felt that Limann's policies towards capitalism and the west was a clear abandoning of their ideals, while the capitalist faction saw the socialist ideals, and the willingness to align with the Soviets as a pending disaster for Ghana.

By 1981, the situation in Ghana had become desperate, and most of the population seemed to tip that a military coup was imminent. Ripples of discontent within the military were rumoured, adding to the list of the Limann administration's detractors.

As if to highlight the situation, the cornerstone of the PNP, Imoru Egala, for whom Limann had stood in place of in the June 1979 elections, died of heart failure on the 1st of April 1981 at Kotoka International Airport, just after boarding a flight that was to take him and Vice-President deGraft-Johnson on a diplomatic mission to Europe.

By now, Rawlings was widely touted as being the man waiting in the wings to overthrow the Limann administration. While Limann himself repeatedly denied any concern of the threat of a Rawlings-initiated coup, his movements were being monitored by officials. Indeed, by this time, Rawlings was loudly criticizing the performance of the government, and lamenting that the AFRC did not allow itself more time to conduct it's "corrective measures".

The administration received a further condemnation of it's performance, when for the first time in Ghana's history, the government's proposed budget failed to gain parliamentary approval. The opposition party, the PFP, slammed the budget, calling it out as unsatisfactory to curb Ghana's urgent economic problems.

 Detained briefly by the newly-created Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) set up by Rawlings, he was eventually released, and continued to reside in Ghana. He attempted a short-lived comeback into the political arena when Ghana returned to a new constitution in 1992.