The Dean of the University of Ghana School of Law, Prof Raymond Atuguba, has said Ghana may be ripe for a coup unless government acts quickly.
His assessment, he noted, partly stems from a doctoral research conducted on why some coups succeed and others do not, using Ghana as a case study.
The government has acknowledged there is no money, thus, an urgent need to pass the e-levy to expand the tax base for sustained development and reduce the debt burden.
At a forum organised by Solidare Ghana, Prof Atuguba said: “My current assessment that Ghana may be ripe for a coup partly springs from the knowledge I gained from accompanying my friend through part of his doctoral research on this topic”.
“It does not help matters if we consider Samuel Huntington’s thesis on the snowballing effect of coups in the sub-region and the closeness of recent coups to home.”
He, thus, urged the Minister of National Security, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, to have a conversation with his friend at the War College, who conducted the study to avert same.
Prof Atuguba explained further that a big part of why certain coups succeed and others fail is the economy.
“What is the state of Ghana’s economy today? At the level of the most irreducible idiomaticity, Ghana is broke; your nation is radically broke – so broke the Speaker of Parliament has publicly warned that we may not be able to pay the salaries of public sector workers in some three months unless a miracle happens,” he stated.
Prof Atuguba added: “The minister of finance has waded in, in very fine and polished English.”
Quoting the finance minister, Prof Atuguba said, he (Mr Ofori-Atta) said: “The legitimate reality is that there’s no money.”
In his view, at least, the finance minister has confessed to us that “there are some illegitimate realities”.