Chemogoh Kevin Dzang - The Revolution and Its Aftermath

The Revolution and Its Aftermath

While at post, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), under the chairmanship of Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, took over the reins of government in a bloody revolution on June 4, 1979, during which some members of SMC I and SMC II were executed by firing squad and other senior military officers sentenced to many years of imprisonment. Life at post during the Revolution was uncomfortable and pensive. The Staff at the High Commission pored through the occasional newspapers received from Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for any adverse information or otherwise about their boss who they knew was formerly a Member of SMC I. Fortunately, the heady days of the AFRC were soon over and Dr. Hilla Limann took over the reins of Government as the democratically elected civilian Head of State. Dzang therefore remained at post as Ghana’s High Commissioner to the Commonwealth of Australia, albeit through the very difficult period from the time of the SMC II government through the AFRC government and His Excellency President Limann’s Government, to the early days of Chairman J.J. Rawlings’ Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC). The Limann Government had actually recalled Dzang for reassignment, but the new PNDC government held the recall in abeyance.

In February 1982, Dzang finally wound down business in Canberra, Australia, and returned to Ghana, and straight back to his rice farm in Kpalgini in the Northern Region, recording successes in rice farming for about three years before a recall to duty as Secretary for Defence in 1985. It was a difficult tenure of office in the Defence Ministry because the relationship between the Officers and the Men was anything but cordial. It required tactful handling through durbars to right the perceived wrongs and chart a new course away from the animosities and hatred of the past, to a new one commensurate with, and necessary for disciplined services established to defend the country through thick and thin. Dzang’s diplomacy would serve him well in this capacity. Progress was slow but successful. On Dzang’s own request, the PNDC government released him to return to the farming venture which was going through difficult times due to change in government policy.

Acheampong and SMC I had drastically subsidized farming inputs and encouraged everyone to go into farming if they so desired. Civil Servants and Service personnel were encouraged to have backyard farms/gardens. The World Bank, however, managed to convince the PNDC government and coerced policy makers to withdraw the subsidies on inputs like fertilizer, making it expensive and difficult for the poor village farmer to continue in farming ventures profitably. With the policy change, the rice farming industry collapsed and those farmers who failed to recognize the downward spiral in earnings, following poor record keeping, discovered the worsening situation only too late and thus went bankrupt. Kedge Resources, the vehicle on which Dzang conducted his farming, noticed the warning signs and scaled down involvement in rice farming in particular, while emphasizing other areas that did not depend too much on Government subsidies.

In 1994, the NDC government again offered Dzang ambassadorial assignment to Japan. The offer was eventually accepted and from 1994 to 1998, he served as Ghana’s Ambassador to Japan with concurrent accreditations to the Commonwealth of Australia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam and Thailand. During his tour of duty to Japan, high-level official visits were made by President J.J. Rawlings to Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and of course Japan in 1997.

Dzang finally retired from public service in 1998 and is self-employed with interests in traditional royal matters bequeathed to him by his forebears in the Nandom area.