Ghana Army: Is it ‘useless’?

Wikipedia defines “useful” as able to be used for practical purpose in several ways.

Synonyms for “useful” include beneficial, rewarding, productive, valuable, helpful and utilitarian.

It defines “useless” also as not fulfilling or not expected to achieve the intended purpose or desired outcome.

Synonyms for “useless” include purposeless, hopeless, fruitless, broken, unusable, impotent, junky, unprofitable and ineffectual.

Readers, Mawuse Oliver Barker-Vormawor is reported to have described the Ghana Army as “useless” in his social media post, even though he has not been provoked in any way, by the disciplined Ghana Army.

And who is Mawuse Oliver Barker-Vormawor? He is said to be the ring leader of the FixtheCountry Movement.

Reportedly, the FixtheCountry Movement is a youthful Ghanaian group that claims to be non-partisan and non-political, which aims at mobilising thousands of Ghanaians for series of demonstrations, for a so-called new Ghana.

But many Ghanaians strongly believe that “the FixtheCountry Movement is a creation of the opposition National Democratic Congress and clothed with the orchestration to destabilise the Akufo-Addo led government”, thus, with the intent to making it unpopular, so that the NDC could ride on its back to power, come 2024.

Others also say:”The cat is now out of the bag because the ring leader of the movement, Mawuse Oliver Barker-Vormawor, was a legal and policy adviser to President John Mahama’s administration.

“And that it was under President Mahama’s led government that Ghana’s economy got rotten.”

The ring leader of the moment, was last Monday, (February 14,  2022), put before the Ashaiman District Court and ‘slapped’ with treason felony in accordance with Section 182(b) of the Criminal and other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).

He was arrested last Friday at the Kotoka International Airport on his arrival from London and was detained by the Tema Regional Police Command.

Barker-Vormawor’s arrest and prosecution is in relation to a social media post in which he threatened to stage a coup if the Electronic Transaction Levy Bill (E-levy), which is currently under consideration in Parliament, is passed into law.

The police insist that Barker-Vormawor’s social media post “contained a clear statement of intent, with a possible will to execute a coup in his declaration of intent to subvert the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.”

Without any provocation from the Ghana Army, he described the Ghana Army as “useless”.

An army within the military set-up, is a ground force or land force. It is a fighting force that fights primarily on land.

In some countries, such as France and China, the term “army”, especially in its plural form, “armies”, has the broader meaning of armed forces as a whole, while retaining the colloquial sense of land forces.

To differentiate the colloquial army from the formal concept of military force, the term is qualified. For instance, in France, the land force is known as Land Army while the land and space force, is also referred to as Air and Space Army.

The naval force, although not using the term “army”, is also included in the broad sense of the term, armies,thus, the French Navy is an integral component of the collective French Armies (French Armed Forces) under the Ministry of the Armies.

Readers, a similar pattern is seen in China and other countries. So, in effect, one cannot tell whether Barker-Vormawor was referring to the colloquial Ghana Army or the Ghana Armed Forces.

A standing army is a permanent, often professional institution. It is composed of full-time soldiers who may be either career soldiers or conscripts.

Standing armies tend to be better equipped, better trained and better prepared for emergencies, defensive deterrence and particularly wars.

Mr. Kwame Jantuah, Chief Executive Officer of Accra-based African Energy Consortium Limited, says:”Barker-Vormawor, being a Constitutional Lawyer should know that the right to free speech comes with responsibilities.

“You don’t just get up and say things and just walk free because free speech comes with limitations.”

Mr. Kwame Jantuah charges:”Nobody should even think about a coup in Ghana because it won’t help us. The situation we are in today, will be 10 times worse if there is a coup in Ghana.”

Readers, I am rather concerned about Barker-Vormawor’s description of the Ghana Army as “useless”. Is it because they have “refused” to assist him to organise his coup?

Is it also the case that the Ghana Army has threatened to deal ruthlessly with Barker-Vormawor and his FixtheCountry Movement, should they make any attempt to derail  the democratic and economic progress made so far by our country?

Really, what at all incensed and “raptured” the “bile” of Barker-Vormawor to describe the Ghana Army as “useless”?

Readers, can anyone contemplate what was raking the conscience of Barker-Vormawor to have described the Ghana Army as “useless”, besides his coup making hallucinations?

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By G. Frank Asmah