The Legon Observer

Abstract

From January 1972 to September 1979, the country was ruled by varipus military dictators - Acheampong, Akuffo and Rawlings. In the past eight years, then, it was in 1980 tbat one could speak of a whole year in which the country was fully run by government which came to power through democratic elections. Considered from this perspective, the year 1980 hopefully marked the beginning of an era in Ghana's arduous, sometimes tragic, search for a yiable constitutional, political and economic order. This search continued in 1980, complicated not only by serious questions that were raised about some of the decisions laid down by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (A.F.R.C.), but also by inflation, demands for higher wages and shortage of consumer goods, drugs, building materials etc. All these created a climate in which the government, on the flimsiest of evidence, suspected subversion in even legitimate moves by its opponents to agitate against some of its policies. ) n this kind of environment, politics inevitably dominated almost all aspects of our life