Renowned broadcaster Paul Adom-Otchere has defended the military overthrow of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, which was masterminded by Lieutenant Colonel Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka on February 24, 1966.
Speaking during a panel discussion on JoyNews’ NewsFile on February 7, 2026, Adom-Otchere stated that Ghana’s first president did so many bad things that necessitated his removal by Kotoka.
He claimed that the announced plan of the government to rename the Kotoka International Airport to Accra International Airport, removing the name of Kotoka, is being masterminded by a group of individuals who want to paint Ghana’s first president as a saint in the eyes of Ghanaians, which he indicated was far from the truth.
He went on to list some of the bad things, which, in his words, made Kwame Nkrumah a “terrible president for Ghana,” as follows:
Nkrumah making himself lifetime president:
He claimed that Kwame Nkrumah made himself the lifetime president of Ghana by amending the Constitution of the country.
“The 1960 Constitution, which Nkrumah put together, which I have in front of me. Nkrumah’s name was buried in the Constitution, Article 10, where it talks about Kwame Nkrumah as president of Ghana.”
Changed the constitution to sack judges:
He also asserted that Kwame Nkrumah amended the constitution to allow him to sack justices of the country’s courts without going through the required processes.
Change of Ghana’s national flag:
He also claimed that Kwame Nkrumah used the amendment of the Constitution to change the colour of the national flag of Ghana to the colours of his political party, the Convention People’s Party.
Ban on all political parties:
“Now, there was nowhere else to go, because if you look at the amendment of the Constitution, Nkrumah had made himself a life president, and he had also made CPP the only legitimate party,” he said.
Persecution of political opponents:
The broadcaster also alleged that Kwame Nkrumah used the Preventive Detention Act (PDA), created in 1958, which was initially a good thing, to persecute his political opponents.
“In fact, if you look at the usage of the PDA between 1958, when it was set up, and about 1961, it was minimal. But from 1961 to 1964, the PDA was railroading everywhere, and every home was afraid,” he said.
“But we cannot ignore history. We have to make obeisance to history. The history is that from 1960 up to the time Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966, he was a despot. He was not good for Ghana; he was terrible for Ghana,” he said.
However, private legal practitioner Oliver Barker-Vormawor has taken on Paul Adom-Otchere over these claims.
In a series of posts shared on Facebook, Barker-Vormawor debunked all the claims made by Adom-Otchere.
Adom-Otchere’s claim of Nkrumah making himself president:
On Adom-Otchere’s claim of Nkrumah making himself president, Barker-Vormawor asserted that the mere fact that Nkrumah’s name was in the Constitution did not mean that he had made himself lifetime president.
He explained that the provision in the Constitution which named Nkrumah was there only to recognize who the first president of Ghana was, put there even before the country’s first presidential election was held.
“Nkrumah got 89.07% of the votes. JB Danquah got 10.93%. Now, the draft Constitution made provision for a clause to indicate the name of the first president who would be elected under it, when the draft was being finalised after the referendum. Meaning that if JB Danquah, a candidate as popular as Hassan Ayariga is today, had won that election, his name would have been written in the clause for First President,” Barker-Vormawor wrote.
Amendment of the presidential term limit:
The lawyer also refuted Adom-Otchere’s claim that Ghana’s Constitution was amended in 1964 to make Nkrumah a lifetime president.
He explained that the presidential term limit after the Constitution was amended was still five years.
“Under the 1960 Constitution, the President’s term was limited to five years. This was linked to the life-term of Parliament. In fact, it could even be shorter, because in true Westminster format, the President (Prime Minister under British tradition) could dissolve Parliament earlier and call for early general elections. If that happened, the President’s term of office also ended. See Articles 11(1)(a) and 23(2) of the 1960 Constitution.
“The big defect of the 1960 Constitution was that, in switching over from the Prime Minister to President, we did not put in place a Vice President; and so there was no mechanism for executive transition in case the president died or resigned his office. To cure this, the 1964 Constitution created a Presidential Commission, which would take over after the President was no longer in office. So, in fact, the 1964 amendments rather fixed a problem in the 1960 Constitution,” Barker-Vormawor wrote.
He added, “Here is the biggest shocker. The 1964 amendment rather gave Parliament the power to impeach the President by resolution on grounds of incapacity or medical infirmity. This did not exist in 1960. Listen, so rather than make Nkrumah a life-term president, it actually gave Parliament the power to remove him. Refer to Section 08 of the amendment which introduced Article 18 of the 1960 Constitution as amended.”
Claim of change of Ghana’s flag:
Barker-Vormawor also refuted the claim that Nkrumah replaced the flag of Ghana with the flag of his party, the CPP.
He indicated that the only change in Ghana’s flag in 1964 was the yellow in the middle being changed to white, with red and green being maintained.
“Please, when people tell you that we changed the flag to CPP’s flag, the first reasonable question one should be asking is, ‘What was CPP’s flag at the time?’ They won’t know the answer. But I will help you. The CPP’s flag since 1948, when the party was founded, was plain white with a red cockerel in the middle.
“How is red, white and green with a black star in the middle the same as a white flag with a red cockerel in the middle?” he quizzed.