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Let’s cherish and value our own instead of these wild vilifications
The word vilification means the act of saying or writing unpleasant things about someone or something in order to cause other people to have a bad opinion of them. An act of vilification is capable of inciting hatred, ill-will and disaffection towards someone or attempting to destroy a reputation by open and direct abuse. Such behaviour is so offensive and cannot be tolerated whatsoever in a society which seeks the welfare of its people.
OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOUR
There are situations where people considered to be your own brother, friend , family member or companion will smile at you, eat and drink with you, interact with you more often and frequently, work in a friendly and cordial at mosphere with you and above all, do everything with you in common, but inwardly, that person will be pretentious and doing all these things for fun as he or she hates you and have no regards for you whatsoever. That is nature and we must be on guard to fish and flush out for such pretenders.
I have decided to go on this tangent because of what is happening in the Ghana Police Service (GPS) in recent times in which the Inspector General of Police, the overall boss of the Ghana Police Service is being willfully maligned, attacked, accused and vilified by his own senior police officers for no apparent reasons.
COMMITTEE TO PROBE THE LEAKED TAPE
On Tuesday, July 11, 2023, a leaked audio recording, allegedly involving a Police Commissioner and a politician discussing a plot to remove the IGP, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare from office circulated on social and the traditional media. Consequently, the Minority Caucus in Parliament, called for a probe into the leaked tape. The Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin in his wisdom, constituted a seven-member bi-partisan Committee to authenticate the audio and probe into the se cret recording of an alleged plot to remove the IGP from office ahead of the 2024 general election. The committee which started its work on Tuesday, July 25, 2023, was mandated to report back to the House on September 10, 2023, but that had not been successful due to on-going investigation.
AGGRIEVED POLICE OFFICERS IN COURT
It appears that there is a pend ing court case involving some 82 aggrieved police officers who have sued the Attorney General, the GPS and the IGP for acting unfairly and capriciously concerning the failure of the service to promote them. According to them they were due for promotions after the completion of their studies, through the study leave with pay policy, of the service, but they were yet to be promoted several months after the completion of their studies. Since the matter is still pending, I do not want to go into the merits and de merits of the case to avoid conflict with the law.
What is more worrying and disturbing is the personal attacks on the competence and integrity of the IGP by the three senior officers – COP George Alex Mensah, Superintendents George Asare and Gyebi, who had earlier testified before the committee with wild allegations against their boss which necessitated the invitation of the IGP by the committee chaired by Samuel Atta-Akyea (NPP), Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South with James Agalga (NDC), MP for Builsa North as his vice. So far so good.
IGP BEFORE THE COMMITTEE
When the IGP appeared before the committee on Tuesday, September 12, 2023, it was emotionally stricken but astute policeman that he is, he was able to control his emotions as he tried to defend himself against the wild allegations that have been levelled against him by his own officers in the service. His initial comments were so sorrowful and indeed heart- troubling. After initial argument between his legal team and the committee that the three senior police officers who have levelled allegations against their client should not sit through the IGP’s testimony, the chairman overruled that objection with the view that their presence was not in any way going to be injurious to the IGP and that they would not be allowed to interject in the proceedings at any point in time. When cool atmosphere was established, the IGP, flanked by his lawyers and with the support of senior management of the Ghana Police Service, set the ball rolling with his initial comments after the chairman had asked him whether he had listened to the tape in question.
INITIAL COMMENTS BY IGP
Hear the IGP; “Honourable Chair, thank you and thank you to the members of the committee. I will like to say that Hon. Chair, if you will permit me, I will like to make a few opening remarks. Honourable Chair, there have been a lot of is sues about my person and I will like toi take the opportunity to speak to a few of them, for about the next three to five minutes”. Honestly the two to five minutes remarks travelled about 20 minutes without interruption. He spent most of his time talking about his family matters and his upbringing, academic achievement, Christian background, where he was raised during infancy, how friendly he has been to friends and colleagues and indeed, giving explanations, clarifications, debunking the allegations that had been made about his person and the police service under his leadership. He ended up by saying, “honourable Chair, I am here, being asked to answer to wild, unsubstantiated allegations by my brothers, in order to cover up their shame. I am ready, thank you.”.
PAINFUL AND HEART-BREAKING
It was so painful and heart-breaking to me and many others who were glued to their television sets to watch and listen the chief executive of our national security apparatus – Ghana Police Service pouring out issues he claimed he knew nothing about. Right now, it is left to the committee to weigh the IGP’s testimonies against that of his accusers- the three senior po lice officers and establish the truth in the allegations
PROTECTING POLICE INTEGRITY
This particular encounter, has brought to the fore the need for people to appreciate hard work and tenacity of purpose, respect for authority in spite of political differences and no matter where one finds himself or herself because the future is unknown. We should not allow politics to divide our ranks and create disaffection and hatred for ourselves. It is important to bid our time and wait for the opportu nity to show up.
Let us remember that the Ghana Police Service is a noble institution established by law to protect and safeguard the lives of the people and ensure that they move about freely. It is an institution that de mands confidence and respect from the people and therefore if officers from that institution do not have confidence in its leadership, then we are doomed as a country. The service must therefore be freed of politics to enable the institution to operate effectively.
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By Charles Neequaye
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
