On February 24, 1966, the National Liberation Council (NLC) overthrew Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah and the Conventions People’s Party (CPP) in a military coup d’état while he was on a peace mission in Hanoi the capital of Vietnam at the invitation of the president, Ho Chi Minh to resolve the Vietnam War.

Lt-Gen Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka, was one of the leading members of the NLC who staged the most talked about “Operation Cold Chop” coup.

“Fellow citizens of Ghana, I have come to inform you that the Military, in co-operation with the Ghana Police, have taken over the government of Ghana today. The myth surrounding Nkrumah has been broken. Parliament has been dissolved and Kwame Nkrumah has been dismissed from office. All ministers are also dismissed from office. The C.P.P. is disbanded with effect from now. It will be illegal for any person to belong to it,” Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka announced the successful overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah on Radio Ghana.

Kwame Nkrumah in his book, ‘Dark Days in Ghana’, wrote that the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A) of the United States of America aided the Ghana Army at the time to overthrow his government. He died on April 27, 1972, in Bucharest, Romania after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Source: GhanaWeb

Exactly 86 Years ago today, on January 31st 1935, the Asante Kingdom was restored to it’s glory with the symbolic return of the Golden Stool, making King Osei Agyemang Prempeh II, the first Asantehene to use the title, ‘Otumfuor’.

After several prior wars with British troops, Ashanti was once again occupied by British troops in January 1896.

 In 1900 the Ashanti staged an uprising. The British suppressed the violence and captured the city of Kumasi. Ashanti’s traditional king, the Asantehene, and his counselors were deported.

The final outcome was the annexation of Ashanti by the British so that it became part of His Majesty’s dominions and a British Crown Colony with its administration undertaken by a Chief Commissioner under the authority of the Governor of the Gold Coast. Ashanti was classed as a colony by conquest.

The Ashanti lost their sovereignty but not the essential integrity of their socio-political system. In 1935, limited self-determination for the Ashanti was officially regularized in the formal establishment of the Ashanti Confederacy.

The Crown Colony of Ashanti continued to be administered in a scheme with the greater Gold Coast but remained, nonetheless, a separate Crown Colony until it became united as part the new dominion named Ghana under the Ghana Independence Act 1957.

In 1935, the Golden Stool, which had been lost to the British, after Asante lost the war, was finally returned to the Kingdom, signifying the return to glory of Asante.

The stool was used in the ceremony to crown Otumfuor Sir Osei Agyemang Prempeh II.

Source: GhanaFeed.Com

Exactly 55 years ago on January 22, 1996, Ghana’s first president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah inaugurated the Akosombo Dam across the Volta River.

The Akosombo dam created a hydroelectric power plant, which fuelled an aluminium smelter and provided electricity to urban centers and adjacent countries like Togo and Benin.

However, the main purpose of the dam was to provide electricity solely for the aluminium industry. It is known to be “the largest single investment in the economic development plans of Ghana”

Source: GhanaFeed.Com