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Independent Ghana
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Independence
On August 3, 1956, the new assembly passed a motion authorizing the
government to request independence within the British Commonwealth.
The opposition did not attend the debate, and the vote was unanimous.
The British government accepted this motion as clearly representing
a reasonable majority. On March 6, 1957, the 113th anniversary of
the Bond of 1844, the former British colony of the Gold Coast became
the independent state of Ghana, and the nation's Legislative Assembly
became the National Assembly. Nkrumah continued as prime minister.
According to an independence constitution also drafted in 1957, Queen
Elizabeth II of England was to be represented in the former colony
by a governor general, and Sir Arden-Clarke was appointed to that
position. This special relationship between the British Crown and
Ghana would continue until 1960, when the position of Governor General
was abolished under terms of a new constitution that declared the
nation a republic.
The independence constitution of 1957 provided protection against
easy amendment of a number of its clauses. It also granted a voice
to chiefs and their tribal councils by providing for the creation
of regional assemblies. No bill amending the entrenched clauses of
the constitution or affecting the powers of the regional bodies or
the privileges of the chiefs could become law except by a two-thirds
vote of the National Assembly and by simple majority approval in two-thirds
of the regional assemblies. When local CPP supporters gained control
of enough regional assemblies, however, the Nkrumah government promptly
secured passage of an act removing the special entrenchment protection
clause in the constitution, a step that left the National Assembly
with the power to effect any constitutional change the CPP deemed
necessary.
Among the CPP's earliest acts was the outright abolition of regional
assemblies. Another was the dilution of the clauses designed to ensure
a nonpolitical and competitive civil service. This allowed Nkrumah
to appoint his followers to positions throughout the upper ranks of
public employment. Thereafter, unfettered by constitutional restrictions
and with an obedient party majority in the assembly, Nkrumah began
his administration of the first independent African country south
of the Sahara.
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