Features
“BOAKYE GYAN’S WAR”
What is this I am hearing? That self styled OSAHENE Kojo Boakye Gyan (Major retired) says there will be CIVIL WAR in Ghana if the Electoral Commission insists on writing a new Voters’ Register for Ghana?
As an OSAHENE (War Chief) Boakye Gyan fully knows well all about WAR – breakdown of law and order, senseless baseless vengeful killings, rampant rape of women, hunger, total chaos and brigandage – and Major Boakye Gyan says all this will happen in Ghana just because EC wants to write a new Voters’ Register?
I wonder what thought processes took place in his mind to lead him to make such a far-fetched absolutely unrealistic declaration.
Fate brought Boakye Gyan into my life in Legon in 1976. One evening, I returned late from lectures at the Law Faculty to hear my room mate Tony Osei Tutu telling me “Effah, Captain was here – he said he will be back, so wait for him”.
Captain? Which Captain?
In those days the military was in power, SMC I under General I. K. Acheampong. I was a leading student anti-military campaigner. One day I remember so well after a lecture by Kwesi Botchway, I stood up from the floor and descended heavily on the military – abuse of power, corruption and so on to a surprisingly wild applause from my colleagues.
When I sat down, the next student seated by me whispered to me” “Effah, the man behind you is an Army Officer – Major Abobor. “I turned to look at him – he was staring at me, smiling!!!! (He later became a lawyer, a judge and died as a Circuit Court Judge).
Later that night, in entered my room – A34, Commonwealth Hall – a tall fair colored handsome gentleman: “My name is Captain Kojo Boakye Gyan – Ghana Army”.
He told me he was doing Qualifying Certificate in Law but he could not get time to attend lectures, so he went to see the Dean of the Law Faculty who suggested to him that I was one of the good students whose lecture notes he could rely on, so he had come to ask whether I could ensure that I don’t miss a law lecture so that every Saturday morning he would come for my law notes?
In a familiarization discussion, it turned out that he hailed from Jaman District in B/A Region, and that he was an old student of Achimota School, just like me!!!
Thanks to Boakye Gyan my lecture notes for my third year law were up to date and superb – I never missed a lecture. One evening he came to Commonwealth Hall in the company of another handsome very smart looking Air Force officer, chain smoking, whom he introduced as Jerry, his bosom friend, another old Achimotan!!!!
Every week end the three of us would meet and reader the debates! The arguments!!! Hot solid reasons for this or that viewpoint, and slowly my perception of the military changed: all soldiers are NOT zombies. If you commission half-baked drunks as officers, you will get drunks as officers, and if you commission highly intelligent level headedchaps you will get a military commandedby highly intelligent level-headed officers.
These two officers had such a gripping influence on me that I abandoned the pursuit of law and enrolled at the Ghana Military Academy as a law graduate cadet officer. I was sent to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and returned in time as an officer to see the outbreak of 4th June 1979 military uprising, led by my two paddies, Jerry Rawlings and Boakye Gyan.
I love history as a field of study so much that I personally talked to over 50 participants in 4th June 1979 and the conclusion I came to was that the principal master brain behind 4th June was L/Cpl PETER TASIRI of 5BN and a cabal of Boys Company soldiers who wanted to save the life of Jerry Rawlings from then ongoing General Court Martial. L/CplFulavi of 5BN radio room was the first casualty of 4th June, killed accidentally by my intake mate 2/LtAgyemang Bio who then committed suicide.
In subsequent years, anytime I hear Boakye Gyan high on oath pontificating about his role in 4th June – I laugh. He only came into the picture because after the release of Jerry Rawlings from the BNI cells by the 5BN soldiers, Jerry in his initial announcement mentioned his long time old Achimotan colleague as one of the principal officers – that is all, but now, Boakye Gyan keeps saying ad infinitum that they masterminded 4th June in order to punishAcheampong,Utuka,Kotei and co for removing the democratically elected Government of Prime Minister K A Busia on 13th January 1972!!!!
After 4th June, he was promoted Major and sent to London UK to study “War Studies” and then compulsorily retired from the Army. He lived in self-imposed exile in London for over 20 years and returned to Ghana, calling himself OSAHENE (Chief of War), joined the NDC and became Constituency Chairman for Jaman South Constituency then resigned to contest as NDC Parliamentary Candidate for Jaman South but lost the contest to NPP.
Now he lives in Accra, Iike Rawlings over 70 years old, restless, desperately seeking attention, once in a while being garrulous making wild baseless claims.
I had a very good laugh when the Editorial of Daily Guide Friday 15th May 2020 page 4 described the Osahene as suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Syndrome!!! There is a world famous surgeon at 37 Hospital, called DrAsumani. Doc, what is the meaning of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Syndrome??
What has the writing of a new voters’ Register got to do with Civil War? Jean Mensah and her officers at Electoral Commission want to write a new Register because the Charlotte Osei Electoral Commission had so many ghosts- both human and imaginary non-existent polling stations – but even so, NPP, we won, so what is the fuss all about? As Mac Manu said and I agree with him, if because of COVID-19 time is against ElectoralCommission for writing a new Register, no problem, NPP will win all the same.
My worry is that either Osahene is being okro mouth, revealing the dark secrets of NDC, beating macabre war drums, vide ElectoralRegister, or he himself, suffering from Daily Guide’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Syndrome is planning something sinister todestabilize our peace and quiet.
Whichever way, to be forewarned is to be forearmed.Prevention is better than cure. I suggest that the security agencies should “invite” the Osahene to explain himself and henceforth put him on the security radar.
May God spare Ghana a Boakye Gyan War.
Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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