Second Chance

Jerry Rawlings returns

With the help of the armed forces, former Flight Lieut. Jerry Rawlings, 34, was in power in Ghana last week for the second time in 2 1/2 years. Rawlings overthrew the government of President Hilla Limann, 47, in whose favor he had withdrawn in September 1979. The dashing Rawlings, son of a Scottish father and a Ghanaian mother, had seized command, he declared, because the previous government was led by "a pack of criminals" who were taking the West African nation "down to total economic ruin."

The coup was Ghana's fifth since the former British colony, once called the Gold Coast, achieved independence in 1957. Ghana has always held a special place in the hearts of African nationalists: it was the first of the black African colonies to become independent, and it was led by the eloquent and audacious Kwame Nkrumah. Ghana (pop. 11.5 million) has remained one of the world's largest cocoa producers, but its economic downfall began even before Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966.

When Rawlings first took power in 1979, he quickly executed eight high-ranking officers, including three former heads of state. During the four months of his "moral revolution," other military men were convicted by secret "people's courts," merchants were caned in public for hoarding and officials were jailed on corruption charges. Still, Rawlings permitted free elections and allowed Limann, a little-known diplomat, to take office.

But Limann was unable to cope with the country's chronic economic problems, aggravated by world inflation, rising fuel prices and overspending by previous regimes. On seizing power last week, Rawlings vowed to wage a "holy war" against corruption. Judged by his record, it is likely to be a bloody one.

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