Ghana: Reformer Removed

Ghana's first President, Kwame Nkrumah, was a master of using his office for personal benefit. In six years of increasingly ruinous rule, the self-proclaimed "Redeemer" of Ghana managed to squander his way through the country's entire treasury of $560 million and run up another $1 billion in foreign debts. He built vast and useless public monuments as well as an overpowering presidential palace. To take care of odds and ends, he also accepted bribes in return for government favors.

Nkrumah's spending and bribe taking led in 1966 to his overthrow by the...

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