Campaign for Kofi Baako

 Recently for about two weeks or more, the world’s attention was focused on France because of the Olympic Games. Men and women in various sports disci­pline were in France striving to excel in their individual sporting discipline to win medals for themselves and their nation.

One can see clearly the ex­pression of joy on the faces of medal winners as they stood on the podium, especially of the gold medal winners with their national anthems being played.

A certain athlete from Botswana recently won the Olympic 200m race and he was given a resounding wel­come literally by the whole nation. The President of Botswana declared a nation­al holiday on account of this gentleman’s achievement of the Olympics.

It is said that a country that does not honour its heroes is not worth dying for and I believe that was the rationale behind such an honour and also for it to serve as a moti­vation for others to emulate to die for the nation.

This brings to mind a man called Kofi Baako of bless­ed memory, who used to be a minister and a trusted confidante of late President Kwame Nkrumah.

There has been a lot of talk in recent times about the need for patriotism among Ghanaians but patriotism is not an item on a supermarket shelf.

It is something that comes from a deliberate environ­ment created by the nation for individual members of society to feel that the nation really cares about them. This, then generates in them a sense of indebtedness to the nation so they are motivated to as it were, strive to do something in return, ostensi­bly to repay the nation.

The flag of the nation then becomes an important symbol in the lives of the citizens of the nation and they then become citizens and not spec­tators in every aspect of the nation’s life.

If the nation treats its cit­izens well, the younger ones see the relevance in being patriotic and therefore put­ting the national interest first above personal and usually selfish interest.

Mr Kofi Baako as I hinted earlier was the Minister for Defence during the First Republic under President Nkrumah. Historical records show that he was authorised by President Nkrumah to negotiate for the purchase of an aircraft for the country in the UK.

In the course of the negoti­ations, he was offered a bribe of either one million Pounds or 10 million pounds but refused to accept it. There was a public declaration by revered journalist Kwaku Baa­ko, who happens to be the son of Kofi Baako, that his father wrote a letter to President Nkrumah informing him of the attempted bribery.

This is a clear example of what patriotism looks like. When the Nkrumah govern­ment was overthrown by Kotoka et al, this nobleman was sadly imprisoned and his property was sold to the pub­lic. How can such an action perpetrated against such a man motivate young people to be patriotic?

That is why I loathe coups and coup plotters. They al­ways accuse the people they overthrow but they do worse things when they come into power.

A very befitting honour this nation called Ghana, in my opinion can give to Kofi Baako is to immortalise his name by naming the Kotoka Interna­tional Airport after him.

Kotoka must be replaced with Kofi Baako so that the youth on seeing and hearing about it, would be motivated by the rationale behind it, to also emulate his patriotic action which will help in the fight against corruption.

I believe this public hon­our although posthumously, will make a very lasting and considerable impact on the fight against corruption. It will also send a clear message to all and sundry that coups are not acceptable in our gover­nance architecture. May God bless the descendants of this remarkable patriotic citizen.

By Laud Kissi-Mensah