WHY PRESIDENT MILLS MUST FIRE THE UPPER EAST REGIONAL MINISTER

If I had the President’s ear, I will advise him to fire Mr. Mark Wayongo the Upper East Regional Minister with immediate effect. This gentleman has proven, by comments he made after video evidence emerged showing the extent to which military offices tortured and dehumanized suspects in Bawku, that he is not cut for that important position. In an earlier article, I criticized the action of the soldiers who stripped two suspects naked and paraded them in the street of Bawku. At the time, the soldiers had attempted to rationalize their action in a most uncanny way, albeit unsuccessfully. The video provided proof that the soldiers lied through their teeth when they claimed they didn’t molest anybody. Faced with this evidence, the President’s representative in the region, Mark Wayongo  is asking Ghanaians not to “over-flog” the issue for the following reasons:

i.              The soldiers will feel unwanted and disillusioned. They will take a back stage when things are going wrong leading to serious consequences.

ii.            Stripping the men  naked is “better” than attempting to kill people (the crime the two men have been accused of)

iii.           The treatment is justified in Bawku because of the “abnormal” situation in the town. It would have been un acceptable in Accra

iv.           Criticizing the soldiers will prolong the conflict.

Mr. Wayongo has demonstrated that he doesn’t understand what constitutional rule is about. Perhaps he was one of the people who enjoyed the “good old days” under military rule and is relishing the prospects of a return to the lawlessness that characterized those periods of our history. 

It may be pardonable if ordinary citizens call into radio stations and suggest that it is ok to abuse the rights of people in conflict zones, but it is totally unacceptable when a minister of state tows that line. Mr . Wayongo and anybody else who thinks like him must understand that you cannot teach the soldiers one way to behave in Bawku and another way to behave in Accra, no matter the circumstances. Perhaps he will understand my point if he pictures a hypothetical scenario where soldiers take up arms and usurp political power (as they did in 1981) and they decide that that parading ministers of state like Mark Wayongo naked on the streets will restore discipline in the country. He should just picture himself being paraded naked in his home town for whatever reason, and rethink his stance. I do not have to remind him that the soldiers actually stripped women naked in Accra during the so called revolution.

I will be quick to stress that like any decent Ghanaian, I want the Bawku crisis solved pronto. In fact I made the point strongly in an earlier article, Bawku’s Bunkers and Baulkers. But in our attempt to get rid of impunity up north, it makes no sense to encourage a more dangerous kind of impunity in which the military are made to feel they can take the law into their own hands when they deem fit and get away with it.

Mr. Wayongo should also understand that a suspect is not a criminal. What will he say if a court of competent jurisdiction looks into this case and realizes that the suspects have had been wrongfully accused? Does he know of any way to restore their dignity in Bawku?

 Mr. Wayongo asserts that soldiers will get disillusioned if we insist they behave right in a conflict zone. I wish to remind him that it is such trail of thought that has kept the murderers of Issah Mobilla out of jail till this time, a situation the minister’s party made campaign capital out of. Let me also remind him that American servicemen in Iraq haven’t remained aloof because some of their colleagues are serving time for abusing prisoners’ rights in Abu Ghraib prison. When we deploy our soldiers anywhere, the least we expect of them is professionalism and discipline that upholds our constitution and international law. The soldiers only abdicate these values because they know their commanders and politicians like Mark Wayongo will come to their rescue. If the message is sent throughout our society that we abhor such barbarism as took place in Bawku, the soldiers will behave. Why do you think our soldiers earn all those accolades when working under UN instructions on peace keeping duties? They only follow the standards. Do our soldiers live up to their international reputation when working in Ghana? I think no. And this is because our society makes apologies for unprofessionalism of the kind exhibited by the soldiers in this instant.

Does the regional minister actually believe that the impunity in Bawku will be curtailed by further impunity? Sending soldiers and policemen to Bawku to “discipline” suspects before a competent court of law has an opportunity to assess their guilt will only draw the military into the fracas in the north. They will lose support of innocent citizens who should be strong allies in stopping the conflict. Winning hearts and minds is key to the to a resolution. Encouraging military brutality will only entrench the conflict. If President Mills wants to solve the protracted conflict in Bawku, he must get rid of this man, he lacks the skills to bring peace to the town.

I am not a fan of Spio Gabrah, but he was spot on when he said some of these ministers should never have made it to the substitute bench.  Mr. Mark Wayongo has demonstrated that he is one of such. He has flaunted the opportunity to prove that he is belongs to Team A.

The military is a very important institution in Ghana’s development. We love them and we want to be proud of them at all times. Therefore when such infractions occur, we expect the leadership to come out and assure us that as an institution, they haven’t given up our shared values, and that they will rein in the deviants in their fold

The ilk of Wayongo must understand that human rights are universal non-negotiable rights that differentiate us from animals. That is what guarantees each of us the sanity we enjoy in Ghana. If we contrive to give it away as we have done in the past, we will live to regret it. For a minister of State, he must understand the constitutional position on such things. That is why Mr. President must get rid of Mark Wayongo from his government to show that we care about our own rights.

Chukwudi, How old are you?

"Cast your years on the coaster that rolls behind you and after many football seasons they will overtake you" - Ogyakromian

One of the questions we are taught to answer very early in life is “How old are you?” Therefore when you see an adult struggling to answer this simple question then you know that “matter don come”.  This was the situation Fortune Chukwudi , the captain of the Nigerian under 17 team, found himself in when a journalist asked him, Chukwudi How old are you? A brief background will be helpful.

A few weeks to the commencement of the 2009 edition of FIFA’s under 17 world cup  competition,  Team Nigeria had been thrown into confusion when they were forced to drop fifteen players after MRI scans indicated they were over-aged . In a move reminiscent of what happened to team Ghana before Korea 2007 when Ghana dropped six players after FIFA promised scans to weed out age cheats, Nigeria preempted FIFA’s big stick by carrying out its own scans. This action notwithstanding, during the tournament itself,  Adokiye Amiesimaka, a nations cup winner with Nigeria in 1980 and lawyer decided to use his column in the Guardian to attack the age cheats when all eyes were on Nigeria.  According to Adokiye Amiesimaka, he once ran a football club somewhere in Nigeria and he recruited a footballer who claimed he was eighteen years in the year 2002. Today in 2009, this young man by name Fortune Chukwudi  is the captain of Nigeria’s under 17 team . Assuming he used his correct age in 2002, Chukwudi must be twenty-five now. How did he make it into the under-seventeen team that had been pruned by Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) . In the storm that followed his publication, Adokiye Amiesimaka the man who stood for truth was subjected to all kind of vilifications for being ‘too-known’. This is the bane of Africa’s under development.  But let’s leave that for another day.

After Nigeria deservedly lost the final match to Switzerland, a team that really looked under 17, the captain of the Nigerian team was asked a simple question by curious journalists - Chukwudi, How old are you? The young man’s answer was, “I have put all these issues behind me”.  Many people missed the revelation in Chukwudi’s answer. Remember when Christ was tempted by the devil three times? He told the devil after the third attempt, “get thee behind me Satan”.  The sermon is clear - when you face obstacles in your path to stardom, put the obstacle behind you. Like many more before him, Chukwudi had the opportunity to play for a national team, get a contract in Europe and bye-bye poverty. But one thing stood against him- Age. What did he do? He took the extra eight years or so that ensnared him and put them behind him, only then did he become 17.  If the journalist had asked “how many years are behind you?”  Maybe he would have told us.

Fortune Chukwudi is not the only player with a few years behind him.  I lost interest in FIFA’s aged competitions years ago when I came to the conclusion that the competition has been over-abused particularly by countries in Africa led by Ghana and Nigeria.   As far back as the eighties I wrote a letter, that wasn’t published, to the editor of Graphic Sports , a Ghanaian sports weekly on this subject . My letter said Ghana was cheating and I cited examples of some players. I have since decided not to celebrate any star from these tournaments; I’d rather wait and celebrate them when they become real stars at the senior level. For these players, excelling in these tournaments is a once in a life time opportunity to be seen by scouts of European teams. A contract in Europe translates many from the dominion of poverty to the glory of riches. The stakes are therefore very high for them; it doesn’t matter if they have to cheat to be in a squad. But for sports officials who condone and connive with these guys to put as many as eight to ten years behind them, I don’t know what motivates them. It is no secret that ages on passports and birth certificates in Africa are what we say they are, but we all know what a 16 year old looks like in our community and it is very easy to verify these ages if we want to. Most of these players would have played for various teams from the colt (real under 17) league to the premier division. The football associations have these records and can easily make a good guess of a player’s age from his history. Most of them were once enrolled in schools where age records are kept.  Getting such data on 98% of these footballers is a no brainer, therefore for an FA official to suggest that we go ask the parents of these footballers to confirm their ages , is to say the least , ridiculous.

 In my early teens, Yaw Preko was my favourite player in the colt league in Accra. He played for Kotobabi Power lines. At the time (Around ’84), some competing teams felt he was above the 16 year limit for the league.  In 1991, Yaw Preko played for the Ghana under-17 team for the second time at age 16. After giving a good account of themselves at their maiden world cup appearance, the senior national team of Ghana will be carrying the expectations of Ghanaians into another world cup in South Africa. Judging from their ages in 2006, the Black stars team is expected to peak around 2010. However, the high expectations of Ghanaians is being tempered by one difficult question- How many years do they have behind them?  Recurring injuries to any of our heroes is viewed with suspicion in Ghana- Could that be the sign that the years have overtaken him from behind?  The fitness of Laryea Kingston, John Mensah, and Stephen Appiah still gives me the shivers. I made a sign of the cross when Michael  Essien recovered from that knee injury in less than six months and came back firing on all cylinders. I don’t believe he is 26 years but he must be close to that (less than four years from the fact).  I still pray that Asamoah Gyan’s current form continues and the injuries that plagued his career last year remain behind him too. Is he 24?

When I realized that Julius Agahowa’s back flicks that characterized his goal celebrations have abandoned him at age 24, I knew the pace forward have finally been out paced by those years behind him.  Does anybody in Nigeria remember Nwanko Kanu’s  educational history? When measured against his football age of 33 what does it say? That Kanu  was 2 years old in what class? I hear his team mate David James, the England goal keeper, has challenged the assertion that at 37, he is the oldest player in the team. He reserves that honour for 33 year old Kanu. His former coach Harry Rednapp thinks Kanu is 47.

If the age cheating phenomenon was bringing benefits to Africa, few people will lose sleep over it. But apart from making a few players and their families rich, it has no other benefit. If winning under 17 trophies does not translate to winning the real world cup, of what benefit is it? However, if we feature true under-17s and true under-20s in these age competitions, the scouts will still find the talents from Africa. These true youths will benefit from the youth training system in the European clubs, they become better players, our chances of winning the senior world cup are brighter and guess what, they will earn lots of money for many years to come and lift the family yoke of poverty. Every age cheat just steals the opportunity of this true talent. Africa is the loser.

Chukwudi, whose place did you steal in the national under 17 team? Chukwudi, How many years did you cast behind you? Chukwudi , How old are you?

WHEN THE LIES FALL FLAT

"Truth is the safest Lie"

There are times when lies are simply not helpful and insisting on your lines make you look silly. Many a time, governments’ PR machines get chided for doing a bad job of defending their government when in reality, the actions taken by their employers are simply indefensible. In such circumstances, intelligent men and women are made to look like over-indulged adolescents who are just oblivious to reason. Our security institutions get caught up in this situation a lot when they exceed their powers. They claw at any scrap they can find, for example, to explain why a suspect in police custody is swollen-eyed even though he was not manhandled.


The military detachment in Bawku took custody of two guys, teachers by profession, for allegedly shooting indiscriminately in the highly charged town. The veracity of this allegation will soon be determined in a competent court of law. However, reports that the soldiers stripped the teachers to their birthday suite and paraded them stark naked in the Bawku Township, totally demystifying all trajectories protruding from the groins, cannot be taken lightly. Thanks to the actions of these soldiers, the mother-in-laws of these two chaps do not have to imagine the measure of trauma their daughters bear in carrying out wifely duties; they have seen it ‘fiili fiili’, they can even make comparisons to their own crosses. If these two guys ever make it back to the classroom, they will not dare ask the pupils to write an essay describing their teacher. In these days of technological proliferations, these guys could one day walk into an adult theatre and get shocked to the realization that they are the key actors in the latest porn movie .

Of course, the military has vehemently denied stripping the guys and parading them in the streets. According to Captain Frank Abrokwa, the commander of the military detachmentt, one guy was already half naked (without a shirt) when they attempted to arrest him, and in his attempt to resist arrest the trousers shriveled into nothingness. When asked what happened to the suspect’s under wear, he struggled to suggest that the suspect, who had just returned from a shooting spree, was walking around “anti-pe” (no under pants). He further explained that they had to walk the naked suspect from his home to the waiting military vehicle which was some distance away creating the impression that the suspect was paraded naked.

I believe that in typical Ghanaian military style, the soldiers stripped the guys naked and paraded them in the streets of Bawku to serve as a deterrent. I also believe that Captain Abrokwa’s version of what took place is far from the truth, in fact he is a bad liar . The Captain’s story falls out in the face of two facts:

i. It doesn’t convincingly explain how the second suspect also got naked.
ii. Being that they arrested one suspect in his own home, they could have clothed him before walking 10 km to their car if they did not intend to parade him naked.

I have heard many people call into radio programs to support the action of the military in Bawku because they believe such high handedness is required to stop the people of Bawku from annihilating each other in a stupid ethnic conflict. I have similarly heard many Ghanaians castigate human rights activists for speaking for the rights of armed robbery suspects. Such people speak out of ignorance. When people demand rights for suspects, they do so to protect innocent citizens who will be caught up at the wrong place at the wrong time, not criminals. The human rights groups are fighting for the rights of the people who ignorantly castigate them on air. If any of these guys find themselves at the other end of the stick, they will learn the hard way to appreciate what the concept of human rights is all about.

Growing up in Rawlings’ Ghana in the eighties, I saw and heard enough of military style justice in this country to say that no civilized nation needs it. Through fear, it chalks some successes in instilling discipline, but the excesses far outweigh any benefit. Women stripped naked, loss of innocent life, torture of ordinary citizens, arbitrary justice is too high a price to pay for discipline. We have cheaper options in staying loyal to the rule of law.

It is important to note that even prisoners of war are entitled to rights. When some American soldiers conscripted prisoners in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq to act porn movies similar to what Captain Abrokwa and his men produced, it generated uproar in the world. Some soldiers were discharged from the army and others are currently serving jail sentences for those actions. We appreciate the sacrifices of our Men in uniform, but they must understand the times. The days of the banana republic are gone. In this dispensation, there is a soldier and his role, and there is a judge and his role, let none usurp the role of the other.

Bawku’s Bunkers and Baulkers

Dedicated to The Innocent Victims of Unchecked Criminality in Bawku. The State must silence the guns up north!

In the early part of 2008 as the then Senators, Barrack Obama and Hilary Clinton tried to outshine each other to get the nomination of the Democratic Party as its presidential candidate, the latter landed in hot waters when she made the infamous claims about sniper fire in Bosnia. The former first lady of the United States of America said of an earlier trip she had made to Bosnia, "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base." She was forced to beat an embarrassing retreat as she downgraded her heroic Bosnia tale to a “misspeak”.

 

The Upper East regional minister Mr. Mark Wayongo will have no such problems if he makes the big decision to succeed the asomdwehene as the next NDC president. His account of what happened to him in Bawku, as he narrated on the Joy FM’s Super morning Show, hasn’t been challenged so it must be the truth. He has seen enough on the battle field to describe the guns used in battle and give an estimate of the number of enemy combatants. There is enough material in the story to spawn a movie, maybe his strategists can take that up. The movie can end with Mr. Wayongo advocating for a Presidential Special Initiative (PSI) to build bunkers in Bawku since it has become apparent that Ghanaians are not interested in ending these conflicts up north. The bunkers will be dotted around the Bawku Township providing politicians with immediate refuge when their political tours are interrupted by gun fire.

It begs saying that, the recurring war of attrition between ethnic groups in Bawku and other parts of the northern region, is fast becoming a big embarrassment to this nation. Sometimes, those of us far from the conflict zones struggle to understand the reason for these battles and I sometimes wonder if the combatants do. Millions of Ghana cedis that could be channelled into development are spent to protect people from their kith and kin, while the real enemies- poverty and under-development – cool off in the stands. I seek a soothsayer that shall declare how much greatness shall emanate from the North of Ghana; if peace replaces war, if opportunity replaces poverty, if tractors replace the guns, if compromise replaces contest and dialogue replaces distrust? Surely, my folks up north recognize this truth better than I do. So who stokes the flame?

When the guns that had been silent over Bawku for sometime went blazing over the weekend of 30^th October, I asked myself

Who is the peace baulker in Bawku?

a.      The People

b.      The Politicians

c.       The Police (Security)

d.      All the above  

Who gets my ‘vote’?

Surely, the people of Bawku must have a say in the battles. Who burns the houses? Who pulls the trigger? Who hides the combatants? Certainly, there is a beast within. The art of war, especially in a functioning state like ours, must be difficult to plan and execute. Raising the funds to buy the armour, doing the actual purchase, smuggling ammunition to the right destination, organizing the clan to fight and other tactics of war require a man or woman with great influence in our society. I dare say this war lord is a citizen of Bawku. Who can name him? It is my belief that one word from somebody in Bawku will collapse the world of these war lords. Who wants to bell the cat?

It is a sad commentary that there are few good things happening around us that we can attribute to our politics. But Ogyakrom politics never fails to provide the spark to create controversy and sometimes notoriety. Such cynicism stems from the mediocre treat dished to us year after year by our elected officers. It is just not possible to extricate our politicians from the troubles up north.

It is no secret that warring factions have aligned themselves to the two major political parties in the country. There is the growing perception that factions aligned to a ruling party at any time get audacious in their attacks for obvious reasons. Recently, in an extension of the battles up north, some men were butchered in cold blood at the Agbogbloshie market in Accra. They were NPP sympathizers who had lost control of the market because NDC had regained power. The culprits are still at large.   Which party do they belong to? 

During the eight years of Kuffuor’s government, there were many infractions up north, where NPP sympathizers were fingered as culpable. Is it for lack of evidence that we didn’t see a single successful prosecution, or the guys were just untouchable? For some reason, sitting governments tend to exhibit great inertia in prosecuting their own.  Signals that one can get away with impunity if he is properly connected cannot augur well for fighting crime and lawlessness anywhere.

Former president Rawlings made several statements on the northern conflicts that perhaps got NDC some votes but did little to stem the tide of the wars up north. Is politics all about power and all other things secondary?

The police force has a lot to prove that they are on top of security issues in this country. I do admit that they share responsibility for fighting the crimes up north with the military, but responsibility of internal peace lies with the ministry of interior rather than the ministry of defence. The Bawku crisis has spanned the tenure of a number of IGPs. It will be of interest to see what these police chiefs record on their CVs and auto biographies regarding what they did in Bawku. It is a shame that the whole State apparatus hasn’t been able to get big convictions to halt these small intra ethnic battles. There have been tough talks warning people to surrender arms- how many did we collect? Why can’t we craft an intelligence network to unravel the source and paths traversed by sophisticated armour to get to Bawku? When institutions like the BNI and National Security are in the news, I’d rather it is about such exploits than bravado against wives of former ministers at the airport. Sometimes I do wonder if political powers prevent the police from doing their lawful duty. If it is so, what does a police chief worth his title do? Kowtow to the dogs of war or remain professional and earn his medals? I hope none of these police chiefs was mis-decorated with Kuffuor’s medals. The blood of the innocent from Bawku shall stand in their faces if they don’t return them.

So, is it the People, the Politician or the Police? Who is your choice?

If we find the baulker , lock him in Wayongo’s bunker, Bawku may never brawl again.

The African Gift Train

In a chat with some colleagues in the office last week I cited a bribery allegation brought against Ghana and Nigeria by Liberia in 2001 and the defense put up by Nigeria, to illustrate a point about corruption apologists. Events in Senegal over the week resonate with what happened in the run up to qualification for the FIFA 2002 world cup.

Ghana, Nigeria and Liberia among other countries had to fight for one of Africa’s five slots in the FIFA 2002 world cup. After the penultimate matches in the group, it became clear that even though Ghana’s chances of representing Africa were gone, it would act as the king maker in the group to determine whether Liberia or Nigeria qualifies. If Ghana gets a draw against Nigeria in the last match, Liberia goes through to represent Africa from their group. In the match itself, Ghana fielded a weakened team and lost their goal keeper through a needless act that attracted the red card from the referee. Ghana lost the match by three goals to nil (Nigeria 3: Ghana 0), and Nigeria qualified from the group. After the match, a Nigerian governor from Rivers state presented a gift of $25 000 to the Ghanaian team at reception he held for both teams.   Liberia reported this incident to FIFA’s disciplinary committee. In its defense to the disciplinary committee, Nigeria explained that it is a local tradition to give out gifts to visiting teams; FIFA accepted the explanation , case close. How did I miss that tradition in Africa?

Last week in Senegal, the Government was forced, after initial denials, to admit that it gave a gift of two hundred thousand US dollars ($200,000.00) to Alex Segura, an IMF official, after his tour of duty had come to an end. .  According to the Prime Minister, Souleymane Ndene Ndiaye, the money represented a goodbye present - part of an African tradition. He said, "We in Africa have a tradition - when someone visits you, you give him a gift at departure".  The tradition again!  It is just not fair that some of us have lived in Africa for so long but have managed to miss out on the most lucrative African tradition.  On a continent that conjures memories of hunger, famine and extreme poverty, a tradition of dollar denominated gifts is a powerful tool to restore humanity to many. But somehow, our society has contrived to conceal this great tradition from the people who need it most.

I have realized that the ubiquitous African gift train travels with engines powered by tradition or friendship. When the history of Ghana’s 4^th republican adventure gets chronicled for posterity, I am sure there are many who will want the former president, J²R, credited as the greatest Apostle of Probity and Accountability.  It is worth noting that this gentleman, whose supporters claim made no fortunes for himself when he superintended the affairs of Ogyakrom for almost two decades, took a coach on the gift train. When Ogyakromians wanted to know how the former first family managed to educate their kids abroad, they were told that the expensive educational bills were funded by friends. As if on cue, a former minister in that government who was convicted before the fast track high court for causing financial loss to Ghana also claimed to have benefited from a gift train powered by friends when he had to educate his kids abroad. A couple of years later, it was the turn of a health minister in K4’s government to announce that the gods of Africa have blessed him with a ride on the golden rails. This gentleman had misplaced a condom whiles attending a conference on AIDS,  resulting in a bouncy baby boy.  He was asked to justify how he raised over ninety thousand US dollars for the upkeep of his son, you guessed right, from friends.

I am particularly upset at the gods for denying me a ride on the train. But I have planned my revenge. If any young man mistakes my head for ‘Odomankoma’s’ wisdom pot, and he asks me, “Ogyakromian, what can I do to be rich?” My answer shall be  

“Find the African Gift train. Get on board. The engine driving it may be tradition or it may be friends, it makes rich anyway. The consequences are yours”. If he understands my wisdom and asks    “How do we make Africa rich in the midst of Africa’s riches?” There I have my revenge. My answer shall be “Derail the African gift train!”.