Wednesday,
June 18, 2014
Folks, history has a way of
repeating itself when it so chooses, not when forced to do so by mortal human
beings. And by so doing, history teaches lessons that it expects mortal human
beings to learn, but which they don’t and end up running around in circles,
repeating the very acts that feed the annals of history.
For us in Ghana, particularly,
there is a lot that history teaches us but which we refuse to learn.
Regrettably, we can only conclude that it is a Ghanaian thing; the Ghanaian way
of striving to bend history to do the impossible, including settling scores
with Nature—and doing so wrongly too.
Is it strange, then, that while
Ghanaians are complaining of the harsh conditions of existence in the country
and doing all they can to leave for other countries, they fail to realize that
other foreign nationals are more than eager to relocate in Ghana by fair or
foul means? While they consider life in Ghana as difficult to live, foreign
nationals think otherwise and act decisively.
The glaring truth is that the
influx of the Chinese, Nigerians, and Liberians (among others) into Ghana is
not just accidental or inadventitious. It is a calculated, natural pull of gravity
to where there is substance to hang on to. Unfortunately, Ghanaians themselves
are so hollow upstairs as not to know that they have a huge oasis within reach
but are thirsty for being shortsighted and foolish. (Don’t ask Bob Marley to
explain to you his philosophical wisecrack that in the abundance of water, the
fool is thirsty). By the time we realize it, we will become foreigners in our
own land!!
There is too much of the negative
politics infecting our lives; it is detrimental to our fate today and that of
posterity. The seeds of this high-level despondency and self-destructive
miscalculation were sown long ago and have now blossomed to unnerve us into
blaming everybody but ourselves for our sorry state.
A quick trip down the memory lane
should help us know the cause of our woes. That is why when I hear that certain
past 4events are being revisited and highlighted today for political
expediency, I cringe. The news reports have it that “A solemn memorial service was held at the Christ the King
Church in Accra yesterday in remembrance of eight senior military officers who
were executed in the heat of the 1979 Uprising. There were no tears at
the service, which was anchored on the theme ‘Love, Forgiveness and
Thanksgiving’”. (See http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID
=313122).
=313122).
This
is the first time that such a commemorative service has been organized. Why this
time, one may ask? I thought that the Kufuor government did all it could to end
it all: exhumation and reburial of the remains in “dignity” in their hometowns
and the need for “forgiveness and forgetfulness”, apparently facilitated by the
work of the Truth and National Reconciliation Commission? Why re-open dead
wounds at this time? Of course, it’s human lives at stake, but I can read a
deeper meaning into the day’s event to conclude that some faceless politicians
are manipulating some people for political advantage. That’s where the issue
irritates me.
The lives and works of these
ex-military officers were not all rosy; neither can we say that their
participation in the governance of this country was without any blemish. Or
that it didn’t harm interests. While remembering these senior ex-military
officers on the basis of their sad fate, have these children and family members
paused to consider the victims of their atrocities? The politicians callously
manipulating them won’t do so because their conscience is seared with hot,
branding iron, supported by selective amnesia. I don’t intend to rub any salt
into their wounds at this point; but I want to bring it home to them that the
rise to prominence of those former military rulers didn’t happen without
negative repercussions for those on whose shoulders they would rise to
prominence.
Mention these ex-military
officers and I will tell you how their desire to achieve fame caused much
anguish to innocent people who might not even have been standing in their way.
Is it Okatakyie Akwasi Amankwaah Afrifa who strategized with Emmanuel Kwasi
Kotoka and others to overthrow the Great Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah at the
behest of their CIA manipulators? Or who else? Bring it on!
Of all, I.K. Acheampong comes
across as a victim of circumstances whose rise to power was not paved by a
single gunshot to wound anybody. He did so because he was put in charge of the
military detachment at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation by the Busia
administration that believed too much in the rumours of military coup against
it. A paranoid government hamstrung by shortsightedness. You know what?
Acheampong was a frolicker, a
celebrated connoisseur of good women, wine, and anything convivial. But he was
also trusted by Busia as a “fellow Akan” who won’t orchestrate a coup d’état
against an Akan government. So, placing him at the GBC was a strategic move to
prevent any coup making from reaching the airwaves to cause any mess. A grand
miscalculation!!
As the situation turned out to
be, Acheampong (a product of the Kwame Nkrumah ideological Institute at
Winneba), knew how to turn the situation to personal advantage. And he did so.
But he couldn’t have succeeded had the Busia administration put its own house
in order.
Legend has it that on the night
of Wednesday, January 12, 1972, Acheampong had visited a part of Nima to
indulge in the “sweetness of the bottle” and the “deed of darkness” with one of
his numerous girlfriends. It was revealed that at one point, his girlfriend
pressed him for money, which he did n’t have to give her. His response? “Don’t
worry. When I become Head of State tomorrow, all your financial problems will
be solved!”
As is said in Ghana, even walls
have ears. And so, Acheampong’s utterances leaked to the “ears and eyes” of the
Busia administration, headed by Professor Ofosu-Armah. Unfortunately, Ofosu-Armah
couldn’t relay the sensitive message to the seat of government because he wasn’t
sure of the initials of the Acheampong who was covered as making that utterance
on becoming the Head of State. Ofosu-Armah wasn’t sure whether it was I.
Acheampong or I.K. Acheampong; and the message delayed.
By the time that commonsense
dawned, boooom!! In the early hours of Thursday, January 13, 1972, Acheampong
was on air, dismissing the Busia administration from office only 27 months of
its being inaugurated. Everything went overboard and the Second Republic was no
more. No single gunshot fired, which makes me wonder whether the 1966 coup d’état
masterminded by Afrifa and Co. really deserves the name given it (“Operation Cold
Chop”) because it couldn’t have succeeded without much blood-letting. Indeed,
Nkrumah’s security was formidable and couldn’t have been overpowered easily.
God bless Bawa and Co for sacrificing their lives in defence of good conscience
and uprightness.
You see, friends, there is a lot
to rely on as we interrogate the circumstances surrounding the celebration of
the lives of the executed military officers just for political leverage by
opponents of everything that Jerry John Rawlings stands for.
Those of us who were alive to
happenings in Ghana in the era of these military officers won’t praise them for
anything, especially after 1975 when the National Redemption Council
metamorphosed into the Supreme Military Council (versions one and two) to
superintend over the total destruction of the country at all fronts. The high
degree of moral decadence and economic stagnation, not to mention the
denigration of the national psyche, is enough to prove to me that those
military officers positioned themselves as bull’s eyes to be so hit. Why bother
about them anymore when they suffered the consequences of their own
miscalculation and careless abandon in or out of office?
I shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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