ABSTRACT
Why did the military intervene again in 1972? The withdrawal from politics in 1969 had been very competently done, and there seemed good ground for believing that the armed forces would keep aloof from politics. Yet on 13 January 1972 there was the second coup. Why did it happen? The most salient factors were probably the Progress government's refusal to exclude the military and police forces from the general cut-back in government expenditure, the personal ambitions of a small group of officers, and—reinforcing these two motives—a third element, namely, what was seen as an anti-Ewe stance of the Busia administration and the effect it had on the senior command of the army. We need to begin, therefore, with the effect of the July 1971 budget on the armed forces.
