A time to hate and a time to love

K. Opoku Acheampong Opinion Jun - 16 - 2014 , 01:35

June 16, 1979, found me in Francisca Abugum’s flat on the campus of the St John Bosco’s College of Education in Navrongo in the Upper Region (Its division into the Upper East and the Upper West regions was to come three years later).

It was about the middle of the morning and I was going towards the administration block of the college to pick students for English language assignments that were due, when I found the manly frame of the Principal of the college, then Rev. Father Joseph Apuri (subsequently a monsignor) gliding towards me in a state of great agitation.

Father Apuri had been pleased with my efforts as a national service person in the college in 1976-77 and actually recommended me for Distinction Certificate of Service and so when I failed to get the job as Public Relations Officer of Upper Region Agricultural Development Project (URADEP) and applied to him for a position at the college to support the son I had begotten in 1978, he readily agreed.

I subsequently developed friendly relations with him, which was to last till his unfortunate death from the injuries he sustained in that needless accident near Nsawam some 20 years later while he was the national head of the Catholic Education Unit.

Execution of Generals

But I digressed. As I was saying, when he was a dozen or so feet away from me, he asked in a very pained voice: Opoku, have your heard? I said no sir and asked what had happened. He replied in a voice full of shock and bewilderment; “They have executed General Acheampong , Col Roger Felli…”and he continued to list them

I responded, “But Father, this was to be expected…. And there will be more to follow,” I added, otherwise this country will slide into biiiig trouble”... And I said this with all the self-righteous and pompous arrogance and unkindness that only youth is capable of.

Father Apuri was so taken aback by my apparent dismissal or trivialisation of such a cataclysmic and obviously painful event to him that he invited me to his bungalow for a glass of beer to hear from me why I didn’t feel anything for the executed leaders.

So I followed him to his house and he fetched a bottle of cold Club beer from the fridge and served me himself. He lowered his huge frame into a chair and then said to me. “Opoku, I am shocked by the execution of the former leaders of our nation but I am even more shocked by your response and want to know why you or anybody would think that their death is a good thing or is deserved or would serve any purpose.”

Perceived conspirators

I forgot what I said exactly, but even now, after all these years, I flatter myself into thinking that it must have been sufficiently sensible to him to give me another bottle of beer.

I, however, recall referring him to Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar” and particularly to the scene where the crowd goes amok rushing into the streets to seek out the perceived conspirators after Brutus had allowed Mark Anthony to address the crowd contrary to the advice of the chief conspirator.

And so the crowd is out on the street looting and killing, raping and smashing perceived symbols of their grievances. Then they accost this man called Cinna and somebody suddenly points him out and says. “Here is Cinna, one of the conspirators”. So they rush on him and get hold of him to do him violence. But the man shouts and says “I am Cinna, the poet. Cinna the poet, not Cinna the politician”.

This protestation of his innocence checks the mob for a while until someone from the back shouts, “O kill him for his bad verses (the bad poetry he has been writing)”. The crowd shouts “yeeee yeee yeee” and they instantly beat the man to pulp. I pointed out that many of those who killed the poet didn’t know him at all. They just wanted somebody to kill to appease themselves for their perceived loss.

I told Father Apuri that day that the men who were executed and those who were to be subsequently executed were sacrificial lambs through whose blood peace could be restored to the bruised heart of the nation. And I believe to this day that these men were victims of our national commissions and omissions. The nation wanted scapegoats to slaughter for the appeasement of its failures and frustration and chose them for one reason or another.

35 Years on

As we celebrate the 35th Anniversary of their deaths, we should think seriously about the circumstances that led to that event. Many of us who had the privilege to serve our nation in the period immediately following their deaths share the deep sentiments expressed by Naval Cmdr Assasie Gyimah during the event to mark June 4 this year.

Let me emphasize what every thinking Ghanaian knows- Simply put, this country cannot continue to do things the way things are going. Sooner than later, something will happen so that this country can return to its senses. When you see storms gathering it portends rain.

Perhaps the way in which the June 4 event was marked in the past, especially during the days of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), didn’t demonstrate enough sensitivity to the children and family of those whose lives were extracted from them to appease a nation on the brink of becoming a failed state. Neither did it extend a shoulder for these bewildered children who were in shock and mourning to cry on.

I grant that this indeed was the case. And to the extent that I was a part of the PNDC, I apologise to them for failing to recognise their hurt. It was never intended by any of us to disregard your loss. Indeed I have come to know some of you at close range and I have seen the deep wounds which only the blood that was shed on Calvary can heal. No human can. It is too deep for human knowledge to deal with.

Perhaps the anger of the people of Ghana against their leaders at that time was not recognised but dismissed as the doings of envious people. This view is also wrong. There were deep-seated anger in many Ghanaians for the humiliation that had befallen them at the time – such as queuing to buy toilet roll -- and they wanted somebody to blame. Today, there are things happening which many Ghanaians find humiliating and for which they hold the political elite responsible.

These are matters we can discuss. But how on earth are we supposed to discuss and learn any lessons from the sacrifices of those whose lives were extracted forcibly from them to appease an angry nation when a monumental event in which these fine officers were lined up and shot are brushed aside in sectarian or bipartisan political shouting game?.

Neglecting lessons from history

Let us not forget the saying that those who neglect the lessons of history stand to repeat them.

I cannot end this Requiem without recounting an event which happened last month. Captain Pat Donkor (retd), known to his colleagues as Pataku, died in May, 2014. Pat was a young officer in those heady days of June 4. He afterward went on to head the security details at the Castle.

He resigned from the army and left for Canada for further studies and returned to the country following the return to multiparty politics. Meanwhile, his position at the Castle was taken over by Warrant Officer Tetteh.

Pat Donkor had studied planning and development economics and so went on to work with the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC). He worked quietly there until his hospitalisation and death as aforesaid.

On the eighth day of his death, in keeping with Akan customary practices, family and friends and old colleagues congregated in his house behind the offices of the Ghana Football Association in Accra to observe his passing away and join the family as they made plans for his burial and final funeral rites.

On arrival, I recognised a number of old faces and we shook hands and expressed the usual civilities.

As the afternoon grew into the evening, we found ourselves sitting together, some 20 or so of us. Among us were people such as Sgt Akatapore (a man we set out to track at the time and incarcerate) and Kwesi Pratt Jnr (who has told everybody who will listen that we put him into a “monkey wrench” at one time). There was Sgt Peter Tasiri, a member of the Armed forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC).

The military brass was there. Among them were Brigadier Generals Kusi and Ritcher Addo, as well as Lt Col. Gbevlo Lartey, the former National Security Coordinator, and Naval Commander Assasie Gyimah.

Not too long ago, a scene like this would have been impossible. The hurt and wounds were too fresh and too painful. But today, we sat and talked and even in the awkwardness of the historical relationships between us, we all recognised instinctively that we must bury the past and move on.

Love, forgiveness and thanksgiving

Today, Monday June 16, 2014, at the Christ the King Church in Accra, the children of the executed army officers -- Lt General A.A. Afrifa; General I.K. Acheampong; General F.W.K. Akuffo; Major General Robert Kotei; Air Vice-Marshall Yaw Boakye; Rear Admiral Joy Amedume; Major General E.K. Utuka and Colonel Roger Felli – are doing exactly that.

These children will hold a memorial and thanksgiving service under the theme, “Love, Forgiveness and Thanksgiving.”

Let as many of us as can have the time, join them in white clothes to celebrate this day. Let us endeavour to do so as a signal that from now onwards, we will remember June 4 and the events thereof not as an occasion to cause pain or propagate one half of the truth but as an occasion to swear an oath with our salt-tasting tongue that never again will we, as a people, let things deteriorate in our country to the point where such trauma would ever be visited on any family to appease the anger of the people.

And let us also spare a thought today for the many – without titles or positions in society -- who also lost their lives during those months when our country tottered drunkenly and dangerously on the brink of unmitigated disaster so that you and I can enjoy the freedoms we benefit from today which some of us are so busily abusing.

Somebody has written on a bus, “The Youngs Shall Grow”. The children of the soldiers who died so that the angry people of Ghana would be appeased have come of age. Let us help them to put the past behind them and move victoriously forward in Love, Forgiveness and Thanksgiving.