Sir Sam Jonah, renowned businessman and chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, addressed a gathering on Friday, November 13, 2026, demanding that President John Dramani Mahama, the Armed Forces Council and Parliament restore the military rank of former Head of State Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. Jonah argued that Acheampong was stripped of his rank, honours and pension by decree before his execution without trial on June 16, 1979, and that the restoration should be viewed as a matter of due process rather than an endorsement of his rule.
Speaking at the second edition of a lecture honouring Acheampong’s legacy, Jonah noted that the former president was executed at the Teshie Firing Range without having been convicted by a court. He recalled that Acheampong had been taken to the firing range as a former president rather than as a General because the military council had earlier stripped him of his rank.
“Acheampong was stripped of his rank by decree. He was shot without trial. No court convicted him of anything. A man who had worn his country’s uniform for more than 20 years went to his death as an ordinary Mister,” Jonah said.
Jonah acknowledged Acheampong’s controversial years in power and the suffering of those who lived under his administration, but maintained that the case for restoring his rank does not hinge on whether he was a good ruler. “The case for restoring his rank does not rest on whether he was a good ruler. It rests on something far simpler. In a nation of laws, a soldier’s rank and a lifetime of service is not removed by decree and settled by firing squad,” he added.
He emphasized that due process is a protection for all, even those whose actions or political records are unpopular, and questioned why Acheampong remains the only former military head of state executed in 1979 whose title was not recognised. “Every other soldier who has led this Republic, including the two, faced the same firing squad 10 days after him, is remembered by his title. Only one is Mister. That is not history, ladies and gentlemen. It is an unhealed wound with a filing number,” Jonah said.
Jonah cited the Ghana Armed Forces’ 2019 acknowledgement that the 1979 executions were an aberration and argued that the decree stripping Acheampong of his rank should be reconsidered. He added his voice to a petition recently submitted to President Mahama by the Ambassadors for Reconciliation, Justice and Peace Africa, a movement established on the UCC campus.
He urged the president, the Armed Forces Council and Parliament, where legally permitted, to take three steps: restore Acheampong’s rank of General, restore his name to the rolls of the Ghana Military Academy and return to his family the honours associated with the rank. “Restoring a rank does not rewrite history. It completes it,” he said. Jonah added that restoring the rank would allow Ghana to confront its history more fully as the country approaches the 70th anniversary of independence.
