(3 of 3)
Late News. That, as far as his officers were concerned, was the final blow. Led by Major General Joseph Arthur Ankrah, a tough, pro-British soldier who had been army chief of staff until Nkrumah fired him, they secretly drew up their plans for Nkrumah's overthrow. Perhaps because Nkrumah himself was absent, it was surprisingly bloodless. Two Cabinet ministers were killed, and 25 soldiers reportedly died in the fighting at the presidential compound, but most of Nkrumah's vast array of plenipotentiaries were hauled off to jail rather than shot. His Egyptian wife and three children were even allowed to fly off to exile in Cairo.
The news came to Nkrumah rather late—after he got off his plane in Peking, but just before he showed up for a gala state banquet. By then, his Red hosts had also got the word, and realized that they were stuck with a President without a country. With cold formality the party went on, but Chinese protocol officers carefully kept Nkrumah separated from the rest of the guests. After that first party, Peking's embarrassed bosses canceled the rest of Osagyefo's program.
With that, Nkrumah disappeared into his suite in Peking's Welcome Guest House and refused to come out.
Through his Foreign Minister (and former President of the United Nations General Assembly), Alex Quaison-Sackey, who was traveling with him, he announced that he would "soon" return to Ghana to throw the military out, but he was obviously whistling in the dark. "If he does, we'll cut his throat," grinned a soldier on duty at a roadblock near Accra. Offered exile in Guinea by his good friend Sekou Toure, Nkrumah replied with a cryptic cable: WILL VISIT YOU SOON.
Fate of Many. In Accra, the military government wasted no time in getting down to business. A seven-man National Liberation Council headed by General Ankrah was named to head the government. One of its first acts was to open the political prisons in which more than 1,000 of Nkrumah's enemies had been held for months—even years. Suddenly the newspapers and radio stations, which had so slavishly adored Nkrumah, were heaping scorn on their onetime leader. The new regime had its own words of explanation. Said Radio Ghana: "This act has been made necessary by the economic and political situation in the country." Nkrumah had brought Ghana to "the brink of national bankruptcy . . . What we need is a radical revolution. This will be done almost immediately, and we hope to announce measures for curing our troubles within the next few days." In this type of spirit, the new leaders promised to provide strict separation of powers, reorganize the government and appointed a committee to rewrite the constitution, which later would be submitted to the nation in a referendum.
Meanwhile, Nkrumah was suffering the fate of many a departed demagogue in the past. With hammers, chisels and even wrecking cranes, crowds tore down his statues.