Politics

Dr. Busia had entered formal politics in Ghana in 1951 when for the first time in our history; national elections were held to choose African legislators. In 1952, upon the dissolution of the United Gold Coast Convention, he became leader of one of the new parties, the Ghana Congress Party. He was Leader of the parliamentary opposition to the CPP Government at the time of Independence, having been elected leader of the United Party in 1956. Even in opposition, his views on parliamentary democracy, human rights and the rule of law were adequately reflected in the 1957 independence constitution.

He went into exile in 1959 and returned in 1966 after the overthrow of the Nkrumah regime and appointed Vice Chairman of the Political Committee of the NLC Government. The following year he was appointed Chairman of the National Advisory Committee and in June 1967 was made Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Centre for Civic Education. In 1969 he became a member of the Constituent Assembly which wrote the 1969 Constitution. When the ban on party politics was lifted, he helped found the Progress Party. True to his democratic principles, he did not assume leadership of the Party, but contested for that position with his peers, and won. He led his party to victory in the elections on August 29 1969, becoming the first, and as it turned out, the only, Prime Minister of the Second Republic.

Exile

On January 13, 1972 his administration was overthrown in a military coup d’état, and he found himself in exile for the second time. He died in exile, in Oxford, on the last Monday of August, August 28 1978. By the time of his death, Busia was regarded as one of Africa’s most influential scholars whose parallel academic and political careers were shaped by an abiding and consistent concern for the peoples of Africa and the principles of democratic rule. In the publication “Busia-a Symbol of Democracy”, L. H. Ofosu-Appiah wrote of Busia’s leadership: “He has the singular distinction of having left office without a single political prisoner in any jail in Ghana. He was deeply religious, loved humanity and could not tolerate the poverty and misery which he found surrounding him. His attempts to solve these problems were cut short by the military coup, but even during his ill-health and exile he was very concerned over the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian.

Soberly and unrhetorically it can be said of him that he was one of those rare geniuses who put more into the world than they take out of it. Ghana is all the emptier for his leaving it.” That same professor, writing after Dr. Busia’s passing, eulogized him saying: “the curtain has fallen on the figure of Kofi Abrefa Busia, but his good deeds will outlive him. History may be kinder to him after his death than it was when he lived.”