Monday, November 24th 1969. Footage of Komla Gbedemah, a former minister of finance under Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the leader of the National Alliance of Liberals (NAL) on the day that he was barred by the Ghana Supreme Court from taking up the seat he had won during parliamentary elections held to restore Ghana to civilian rule. The decision of the court was 4-1 in favour of imposing an injuntion preventing Gbedemah from taking the seat representing Keta constituency. Gbedemah was also announced by the electoral commission to be ineligible to lead his political party. The injunction had been sought by E. Awoonor-Williams, his Progress Party opponent on the grounds that Clause 71 of the Ghana Constitution rendered his candidacy as void. The clause stated that any person against whom adverse findings had been made by a commission of inquiry was not eligible to hold public office or sit in Parliament for 5 years. In May of 1969, a Commission of Inquiry had found that Gbedemah had spent £17,000 sterling more than his income while he had been a minister during the Nkrumah government. The ruling left the assembly with an opposition of 6 against 105 members of Dr. Kofi Busia's Progress Party. Source: Reuters News Archive. Note: 1. Komla Gbedemah (1913-1998), popularly known as "Afro Gbede" was born in Warri, Nigeria of Ewe parentage. 2. He was famously received by US President Dwight Eisenhower at the White House in October 1957 after he was refused service at a restaurant in Delaware because he was black. Eisenhower apologised to him. The irate Gbedemah had told the staff at the restaurant: "The people here are of a lower social status than I am, but they can drink here and we can't. You can keep the orange juice and the change, but this is not the last you have heard of this." 3. He resigned from the Nkrumah government and went into exile because of worsening relations between both men. Gbedemah considered Nkrumah to be financially irresponisble 4. Gbedemah's disqualification from taking his seat in 1969 was according to Suzanne Cronji, an ethnically motivated manoeuvre designed to "neutralise a potential rival" of Prime Minister Kofi Busia, adding "such speculations were supported by the fact that the Ashanti sare dominant in the Ghanaian Parliament, while the Ewes and others are committed to the opposition." Source: "Military Rule Dies Hard: Ghana Struggles Painfully Towards Democracy", by Suzanne Cronji, London Observer article reproduced in the Calgary Herald, Tuesday, August 25th 1970.

• published: 05 Nov 2019
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