One man, aided by those who claimed to believe in him, shot his way to power on a rainy morning on June 4, 1979. He and his cronies constituted themselves into an oligarchy and ruled this lovely country, formerly called the Gold Coast.
Their main ally was the gun that was used indiscriminately on those who failed to toe the line.
At the time of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) adventure, the state was administered by another group of military adventurists, who had seized power and used the resources of state for themselves.
What had apparently calmed nerves at the centre of the earth was a programme of action put together to return the nation to civil rule.
Many resented the intervention by the second batch of adventurists, especially when blood-letting became the modus operandi to cow down the citizenry. Somehow, Ghanaians waited with bated breath, knowing that the return to civil rule could not be altered.
The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council stuck to its word and handed over on September 24, 1979, a week before the scheduled hand-over date.
Apparently, Nigeria, the big brother to the east, had also scheduled its hand-over date for October 1, and that the military authorities at the time did not want any clash of dates. Many made merry across the length and breadth of the nation, after seeing the back of the hoodlum answering the name of a military regime.
In spite of the dissolution of the AFRC, the image of its Chairman loomed large even on the hand-over day. Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings gave the incoming leader, Dr. Hilla Limann, and his People’s National Party (PNP), a six-month ultimatum to change the narrative of this country or face another coup.
Many took the threat with a pinch of salt, but barely six months after the return to civil rule, rumours of a coup, headed by Rawlings and aided by ex-Capt Kojo Tsikata, began making the rounds.
Within two and a quarter years after the hand-over the dreaded coup d’état, indeed, materialised. On December 31, 1981, as Ghanaians prepared for the New Year eve church services and general commemorative events, Jerry John Rawlings struck again, aided by the intimidating powers of the gun.
With Kojo Tsikata in charge of security, many Ghanaian refusniks were hunted down and slaughtered in their numbers. The Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC), formed to administer this country, launched what it called Operation Search and Destroy, under which Ghanaians critical of the mal-administration were murdered.
Guardrooms in all military installations in the country were full of Ghanaians waiting for their fate at the hand of the bloody regime. It was at the height of the Search and Destroy campaign that three high court judges – Justice Kwadwo Adjei Agyapong, Justice Fred Poku Sarkodie, Justice Cecelia Koranteng Addo, and Major Sam Acquah (rtd) were abducted and executed at the Bondase Military Firing Range.
One fact that cannot be wished away, in spite all the propaganda, is that all the victims were Akans. The executioners, Lance Corporal Amedeka, Michael Senyah, Tekpor Hekli, and Johnny Dzandu, were all Ewes. Apart from L/Cpl Amedeka, who was on guard duties at the Broadcasting House in Accra, all the other four murderers were residing in the Boys Quarters of Jerry John and Nana Agyeman Rawlings.
It is one irony of fate that Jerry John and Mrs. Rawlings have since looked at Ghanaians in the face and continued to protest their innocence. As a matter of fact, one of my greatest disappointments, as a Ghanaian, is that Jerry Rawlings did not live into his old age for him to reflect on the injury he had caused the body politic of this country.
After eleven and a half years of the rule by the butt of the gun, and with agitation for a return to civilian rule echoing all over the country, Jerry John and those who claim to believe in him constituted the PNDC into a political party, using resources of state, I dare say!
To spite those of us agitating for the exit of the PNDC and all it stood for, they named their new party the NDC (PNDC minus P). With a new dispensation without the aid of the intimidating powers of the gun, NDC (National Democratic Congress) has found refuge in lies and propaganda. The last I heard, a whole floor at the new NDC office at Adabraka is devoted to propaganda. .
Cheap lies and propaganda have served the NDC well. Remember the late Kow Nkesen Arkaah, the first Vice-President in the Fourth Republic.
When he fell out with then President Rawlings, some NDC cohorts, led by Mr. Sam Pee Yalley, contrived to disgrace the Veep, claiming that the fairly old Arkaah was in an amorous relationship with a niece of Mr. Sam Pee Yalley himself.
The imaginary woman could well pass for a granddaughter of the then sitting Vice-President.
Every morning one woke up to twists and turns of the alleged relationship. Even when Jerry John assaulted the old man at a Cabinet retreat and tore the coat of the Vice-President, what mattered to the top hierarchy of the NDC was not the assault, but the alleged sex scandal involving the Veep. Mr. Arkaah died in a mysterious car accident that has still not been resolved.
Unless you are very young, you might have heard of allegations, spear heard by the same Sam Pee Yalley, about the President John Agyekum Kufuor impregnating a certain Israeli woman and bringing forth twins.
It became an NDC battle-cry. Every morning, pro-NDC media were full of news about the so-called Kufuor side-chick arriving at the Kotoka Airport with the President’s twins. At one point in time, it looked like that was the only issue in town. Apparently, it was one gargantuan lie concocted to disgrace the sitting President.
What do we hear now! The same Sam Pee Yalley is at it again. This time, he says Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the sitting Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana, is a British national.
His evidence! That the Vice-President was, at a point in time, a Director of a Ghanaian bank listed in Britain. Who said one has to be a British citizen to be a Director of a bank owned by Ghana and only trading in England.
I have with me a copy of the registration form that Dr. Bawumia signed as Director of the Ghana International Bank. At the time he registered to be a Director of the bank, Alhaji Bawumia lived at the Kanda Estates. His address at the time was House No. 48, 6th Estate Road, Kanda Estates, Accra. His occupation is listed as a Banker.
Dr. Bawumia stated unambiguously that he is a GHANANIAN (emphasis mine), How he became a British citizen by virtue of his directorship of a Ghanaian bank exists in the minds of men and women who are sweating under the Vice-President’s popularity as we move towards the time for him to challenge for the leadership of this country.
Without any shred of doubt, the NDC and its leadership are sweating over the threat of the Vice President’s popularity. I have just been informed that former the President has lamented abroad that Ghanaians do not believe in the NDC and its leadership, and that the NDC would do whatever it takes to reverse the trend.
If this is one of the strategies, then the party and its leadership have failed terribly. Lies do not make anybody or institution popular. One of the major issues the party and its leadership should address is the inability of the NDC to collate their own results.
Going to court without documents to prove one’s case, and turning round to lampoon judges for being pronounced guilty, does not inure the party and its people to popularity from the masses.
It is my intention to inform Mr. John Dramani Mahama and his entire leadership why the NDC is a bad case in spite of all the lies and propaganda in subsequent issues of this paper. Until then, the NDC is advised to behave like a political party in a civilized society.
I shall return!
Ebo Quansah in Accra
