The audience at a public lecture marking this year's founder's week celebrations of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences were made to clap twice for Ghana's former military ruler General Ignitius Kutu Aceampong for making Ghana "self sufficient in food production".

Colonel K. Abakah Jackson who was Acheampong's minister for Works and Housing from 1975 to 1976 and Local Government minister from 1976 to 1977 requested the audience to clap when he delivered a paper in the lecture series of the Academy on the country's achievements and challenges under military rule since independence.

He said Acheampong felt Ghana deserved better than what Dr. Busia was offering and "believed he could offer the required leadership" as a result of which he led a bloodless coup to topple the second republic.

Pursuant to that, he said Acheampong did not fail Ghanaians as by the end of the first year of his tenure Ghana had become self reliant in food production, a feat that even those who claim to have the mandate of the people struggle to reach. "He launched a series of actions to meet the needs of the masses. He considered these to be food, shelter, clothing, transport and communication, economic empowerment, industries, energy, education and patriotism. At least he knew what he was doing", the colonel said.

He however observed that Acheampong's biggest challenge was the oil crises in 1973 and that "although our oil bill rose from $24 million in 1972 to $125 million in 1978, Acheampong never increased fuel prices". " the economic situation and wild rumours battered and weakened Acheampong's government", he said.

Colonel Jackson's argument comes against the popular belief that Acheampong's regime was one of the worse Ghana has seen. It has been argued severally that the latter parts of Acheampong's regime in particular were marred by an alarming downward movement in the country's economy. Ghana's inflation rate was said to be second only to Argentina's at the time.

The illicit system of trade popularly referred to as "Kalabule" was said to have become the order of the day as "Makola women" enriched themselves through hoarding and profiteering.

One person who has argued so vehemently in this regard is Professor Mike Oquaye in his book titled "Politics in Ghana (1972-1979).

He wrote "This notorious system - Kalabule - enjoyed the privileged sponsorship of Acheampong himself and his henchmen and found fertile grounds in the shortages created by their very incompetence".

The professor argues that as Acheampong became helpless in the face of nagging economic hardships " he sat in state in a princely, majestic, self-contented posture, laughing heartily over his economic mess".

Arguing further, Prof. Oquaye quoted Acheampong himself from a Monday, 9th May 1977 edition of the Daily Graphic, which reads, " Acheampong alone cannot feed this country; neither can any single individual do that Everybody is now complaining about food prices, while nobody wants to help the government in the search for a permanent solution to the food production problem".

When he was referred to the above argument, Colonel Jackson remarked that he could not go beyond the first few pages of the said book since he could not come to terms with the amount of "lies" it contained and that when he confronted Prof. Oquaye over the matter "he said that was what he was told".

On the other hand, the colonel said his argument is not based on hearsay but a product of personal experience, which makes it doubtless.

He said Acheampong was not as bad as the minds of Ghanaians have been conditioned to believe. "He wasn't a bad guy at all", he emphasized.

Of the other military regimes, Colonel Jackson said even though the National Liberation Council (NLC) wound the clock of development so far back by overthrowing Nkrumah's government, "the NLC put Ghana back on track to democracy".

He also said that though the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) "terrorized the country"; they showed that people could be held to account for their stewardship.

Colonel Jackson advised politicians to desist from fanning conflicts as to give the military an excuse for a junta.

Conversely, he called on the military to " keep the peace by not disturbing the peace we are currently enjoying".