GHANAIAN POLITICIANS: DO NOT PLAY POLITICS WITH THE MILITARY INSTITUTION!

Many a Ghanaian patriot and Nkrumaist heaved a huge sigh of relief, when our erstwhile Hypocrite-in-Chief, who also served as the Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces during his tenure, completed his second four-year term of office at midnight on 6th January, 2009 – because we were glad to see the end of an era during which the ruling regime succeeded in dividing our nation along tribal lines like no other regime has ever done since we gained our independence. Sadly, by the end of its tenure, the Kufuor administration had also succeeded in turning our country’s silent majority into moral cowards, who pretended that all was well with our nation when that was clearly not the case. The Kufuor-era was a period when the miasma of unfathomable greed enveloped Ghana completely – a truly tragic time during which we became a society with a culture of dog-eat-dog selfishness, in which looking out for number one, was the personal philosophy of a people, whose traditions encouraged them to live communal lives: which entailed sharing the little one had with neighbours, and caring for each other in family clans.

From what we are now hearing about the shenanigans involved in the military recruitment process in the years towards the end of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) period in office, it would appear that no institution was sacred for those nepotistic and tribalistic politicians – who abused their positions in a manner seldom seen in Ghanaian politics. Clearly, some of the members of the NPP are totally shameless – for, how can politicians who whiles in government, were so cynical and unprincipled, that during the December 2008 elections they had no qualms recruiting thugs, whom they provided with military and police uniforms to wear, and even issued arms to (to impersonate real soldiers and policemen), and dispatched to go round the country snatching ballot boxes in key electoral areas, complain about the new leadership of the military cancelling last year’s recruitment exercise? Do they not understand that the military institution, which is the guardian of the territorial integrity of our homeland Ghana, is the one institution that must not be allowed to become infected by the national disease of corruption, and our unswerving devotion to the”Cult-of-the-mediocre”?

The question that patriotic, discerning, and independent-minded Ghanaians want answered is: How are Ghanaians to know that some of those whose names were mysteriously inserted into the list of army recruits were indeed not some of the NPP “action-troopers” that Lord Commey once boasted about? Who in this country does not remember the extraordinary sight of the top-ranking soldier in Ghana saluting the tribal Chief of Kufuor and Co. at a durbar in Kumasi? What sight could be more nauseating to Ghanaian nationalists and patriots who cherish the enterprise Ghana – and who deeply resent Kufour and his tribal Chiefs’ treasonable attempt to Balkanize our unique nation of diverse-ethnicity, which Nkrumah succeeded in moulding into a united and modern African nation-state, whose citizens shared a common destiny, and which served as a shining example in harmonious multi-ethnic co-existence, to the rest of Africa? Did we all not condemn the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime under President Rawlings for bringing his revolutionary cadres into the military because we did not think it was right to politicize our military – so why should we allow them to destroy the military by manipulating its recruitment processes to serve their secret Akan tribal-supremacist agenda?

The plain truth is that President Kufuor’s shameful and divisive tribal-supremacist ways nearly destroyed the esprit de corps of the Ghana Armed Forces towards the end of his tenure. Who in this nation who is truthful and impartial, will not attest to the fact that the small but powerful cabal of Akan tribal-supremacists in the presidency, who held the NPP to ransom throughout President Kufuor’s eight-year tenure, obviously had a secret tribal-supremacist agenda that included making the Ghana Armed Forces a tool to enable them achieve their dream of permanently dominating our country? Just what possessed them to describe their tribal Chiefs as “Kings” in the diplomatic passports issued to them – when in fact there are no monarchies in the unique nation of diverse-ethnicity known as the Republic of Ghana? How many tribal Chiefs in Ghana go round this country in motorcades led by police dispatch riders – as if they were heads of state? Has there ever been any regime like theirs in our history, which deliberately used the whole machinery of state to promote the overweening ambitions of their tiresome publicity-seeking tribal Chiefs – to the extent that their Chiefs could get away with all kinds of infractions of the law? Who in this country does not know that Kufuor’s tribal Chiefs illegally sold vast swathes of land belonging to the Ghanaian nation-state with impunity – and that that abomination started right from the very beginning of their tenure?

We must speak plainly and boldly against those who seek to tear our country apart with their foolish dreams of restoring a feudal system that thrived on superstition, ritual killing, deception, and the enslavement of others. We only have to look at nations torn apart by tribal divisions across Africa to understand why we must never forgive the small but powerful group of Akan tribal-supremacists that dominated the NPP under Kufuor, and which by all appearances unfortunately still remains influential in that party today. Do they think that any genuine Nkrumaist and nationalist will ever sit unconcerned and allow a few greedy and selfish tribal-supremacists to make us go through what nations like Sudan; Chad; Zimbabwe; Kenya; DR Congo; Rwanda and Burundi have gone through – just because our country has become a nation in which good and honest people, in a society full of hypocrites and moral cowards, are too afraid to speak out against tribal-supremacists? We must not tolerate their attempt to destabilize our country so that their past sins against our country can remain hidden from ordinary Ghanaians. Their outrageous attempt to besmirch the reputation of the present leadership of our military and the disrespect they showed the minister of defence in Parliament must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Are the present military leadership and the minister of defence not simply correcting one of the many egregious actions taken in the past – when those who hijacked the NPP during their years in power infected virtually every institution of state in our country with their absurd and ridiculous Akan tribal-supremacist nonsense on bamboo stilts?

The fact of the matter, is that it would be highly irresponsible on the part of the minister of defence and the current military leadership, to allow standards in the armed forces to be lowered – which is what they would be doing, if having detected the existence of the anomalies, they condoned the illegal actions of those who smuggled in those names, during the recruitment exercise in question. Why, are they not aware of the fact that our military is recognized the world over as a military force with some of the finest fighting men and women in the world? Is it not an institution that has an enviable UN peacekeeping reputation and is widely acknowledged for its excellence? Under the circumstances, the decision by the military to use the money saved by canceling the 2008 intake’s training, to improve the infrastructure of the training school, is pretty sound – as it assures the future of that vital institution. Do those hypocritical politicians not know when to stop their chicanery? When they adopt that nauseating holier-than-thou hypocritical attitude in Parliament, do they think we have forgotten their roles in the perpetration of sundry illegalities, such as that massive fraud that the railroading through Parliament of the sale and purchase agreement for VALCO to International Aluminum Partners represents? Did any of them bat an eyelid when the crooks amongst them were leading our nation down the garden path in that instance? What primary school child in Ghana does not know that that grandly-named special purpose vehicle was set up specifically to hide the stake of the NPP’s greedy-brigade in the privatization deal that never was?

We cannot, and must never allow the high standards of our military, to be sacrificed for such rogues – and let those who worship so fervently at the “Cult-of-the-mediocre” present the Ghana Armed Forces to their confounded deity-of-incompetence as an offering for their many sins of the past. No politician must be allowed to attempt to play politics with the military – for it is far too important a national institution to be used as a political football. It is time the honest and principled members of the NPP took control of their party. They must not allow their party to become a tool and handmaiden of the small cabal in the presidency under their regime, which hijacked their party for their own selfish ends, during their years in power – and who now want to use it to shield themselves: in the hope that it will prevent their being made to pay for their iniquitous actions of the past. Why, are they not the very people whose greed made their party lose the trust of discerning Ghanaians? Do the decent members of the NPP not understand that playing to the gallery on behalf of those who lost them the elections will not ultimately help the cause of their party? They must understand that in the Ghana of today, it is not the opinion of the millions of “My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong” myrmidon-types, whose unflinching support they can rely on, that matters. The real kingmakers in Ghanaian politics today, are the discerning, patriotic, and independent-minded individuals, whose crucial votes now decide who is elected as Ghana’s president. Rather than play to the gallery, let them pause and think – and work hard to prise their party from the iron-grip of those whose greed and tribal-supremacist negativity lost them the December 2008 elections. A word to the wise…