This short article was written in June 1972 as an attempt to provide an eye-witness account of the Busia Government and its difficulties, and is published now as a contribution to the continuing discussion about the reasons for that régime's collapse. Professor Le Vine was Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Ghana, Legon, during 1969–71, and is the author of Political Corruption, the Ghana Case (Stanford, 1975), a study of the Nkrumah period.

‘Autopsy’ is, perhaps, too harsh a word; possibly ‘requiem’ would have been more appropriate. Unfortunately, however, save for the members of the Government displaced by the coup d'état of 13 January 1972, the régime of Dr Kofi A. Busia had few mourners in Ghana. Most Ghanaians appear to have shaken their heads, gone about their usual business, and awaited the future with cynical patience. As coups go, Colonel Ignatius Acheampong's exercise was a model of quiet efficiency – it met virtually no resistance, took no casyalties, and had almost no noticeable effect on the ordinary bustle of life and affairs in the capital cuty. The ensuing celebrations were perfunctory, and what dancing in the streets there was seemed to be half-hearted at best.