Daunting Task

New leader, old problems

The pattern was distressingly familiar. After a New Year's Eve coup, Jerry Rawlings, 34, a former air force flight lieutenant, moved ruthlessly to fashion what he called a "people's government." Working with friends in the military, he summarily dismissed Ghana's parliament, banned political parties and suspended the nation's constitution. By the end of last week the new military government had called for special "people's tribunals" to try Ghanaians, including government officials, arrested for crimes "against the people." The announcement raised fears that the takeover would follow the course of Rawlings' first seizure of power in June 1979, when three former heads of state were executed. Presumably among those who will soon be tried: former President Hilla Limann, 47, who was taken into custody last week after an apparent attempt to flee the country.

The coup was the fifth since 1966, when former President Kwame Nkrumah, who was in power when Ghana got its independence from Britain in 1957, was overthrown following widespread discontent over food shortages, corruption and extravagant government spending. Ghana has since become a case study in African nationalism gone wrong, and lately a prototype for young African countries beset with similar problems. In West Africa, Guinea-Bissau, Upper Volta and Liberia have all suffered similar revolutions within the past two years; The Gambia and Sierra Leone have narrowly avoided similar revolts. Much of the difficulty, as Rawlings insists, stems from government elites that squander resources and are unable to control their economies.

Ghana (pop. 11.5 million) has provided a spectacular example of these failings. Successive governments have failed to diversify the economy and ease the dependence on a few key commodities, with disastrous results. Ghana's foreign reserves have all but dried up, and the vital cocoa crop has declined from 420,000 tons in the early 1960s to an average of 270,000 tons in the past few years. The country's mines, which once produced 35% of the world's gold, supplied only 1% in 1979. Increased oil prices in 1980 took 30% of export earnings. Inflation has reached an estimated 120%. At the official exchange rate, a loaf of bread costs the equivalent of $7.27. The anger of workers, particularly those in the cities who are unable to feed their families, helped create the atmosphere that led to Ghana's latest coup.

Rawlings, who must now confront corruption and bring the economy under control, is an admirer of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi; he once described Libya as a "revolutionary dream." Rawlings has replaced the Limann government with a Provisional National Defense Council and plans a support system of Libyan-style local "defense committees." U.S. and British officials fear that Rawlings may turn to Libya for help. But no political shift will solve the basic economic problems that are stirring the real unrest in a part of the world where ties with the West are already strained.

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