Profile of Captain Kojo Tsikata (1936-2021)

An alumni of Achimota College and a graduate of Sandhurst Military Academy, Kojo Tsikata was involved in many of the tumultuous events in Ghana's political history: From the Congo to abortive coups and the era of the PNDC government led by Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings.

His ideological influences lay in Nkrumaist Pan-Africanism and Socialism. As a young man he had a political relationship with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who sent him on special missions to the Congo and Angola. In the early 1960s, he served as Nkrumah's military envoy to Patrice Lumumba in the Congo. And in May 1965, Nkrumah sent him to Angola to serve as a military adviser to the nascent MPLA (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola). He arrived in Cabinda a few weeks before the arrival of the first six Cuban advisers.

He would go on to develop political ties with the likes of Fidel Castro, Thomas Sankara and Muammar Gaddafi.

But in the later part of the 1960s Tsikata faced obstacles. The military regime which had overthrown Nkrumah in February 1966 would the following year declare him a wanted man. Tsikata was thus forced into exile where he remained until the return of civilian rule under Dr. Kofi Busia.

In the interim period, he was persuaded to attend a meeting in Guinea in November 1968 at which the discussion was about bringing Nkrumah back to power. He arrived in Conakry with plans for removing the Ghanaian junta from power. However, Nkrumah refused to see him because he believed that Tsikata had been involved in a pre-1966 plot to overthrow his Convention People's Party (CPP). Suspecting that he was embarked on an enterprise to assassinate Nkrumah, the Guinean government detained him and threatened to execute him. It is claimed that the Mozambican guerrilla Samora Machel, then a rising commander in FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique), interceded on Tsikata's behalf and Tsikata was expelled from Guinea.

At some point after his return to Ghana from exile, he left for Angola where he served as a military adviser to President Agostinho Neto's MPLA forces under the assumed name of Carlos Silva Gomes. His role in Angola was interrupted by health problems which necessitated travel to the United Kingdom where he received treatment at London's Brompton Hospital for fibrotic pulmonary sarcoidosis i.e. non-malignant but severe growths in the lungs.

On November 29th, 1975, when he was working as the general manager of the Ghana Diamond Marketing Board, Tsikata was arrested and went on trial for his alleged involvement in the "One man, One Machete" coup against the Acheampong government. He was severely tortured and later convicted by a military tribunal which sentenced him to death. The sentence was later commuted. As a prominent Ghanaian newspaper editor told the New York Times in 1976, the Acheampong regime which had previously prosecuted three subversion trials since its coming to power had an unwritten policy: “if you don't spill blood, you won't pay with your blood.”

Tsikata was a key member of the PNDC during which time he served as the National Security Advisor. Tsikata's legacy was severely tarnished by the circumstances surrounding the kidnap and murder of three Ghanaian High Court Judges and a retired Army Officer in 1982.

A Special Investigation Board chaired by a former Chief Justice of Ghana recommended that Tsikata and nine others be prosecuted for the murders. However, the serving Attorney General of Ghana concluded that there had been "insufficient evidence" to prosecute him. Further, the sole witness against Tsikata subsequently withdrew his accusation just before his firing squad execution.

Tsikata died on November 20^th, 2021 at the age of 85.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2024)

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer who is based in London, England.