Re: Colonel Jonfia

I read a very interesting piece entitled “Colonel Jonfia” in the Friday, June 21, 2024, issue of the Daily Graphic newspaper and my heart will not be at ease unless I scribble a rejoinder to it.

You know, reader, when I was a student at Achimota School back in the late 1960s, I used to fantasise about being an army officer in the coveted rank of BRIGADIER.

When I later joined the military, I eagerly looked forward to the day I would become a Brigadier General, but Jerry Rawlings’s intense discomfort at my persona cut short my military career at the rank of Captain (which I happily used to frighten innocent gullible maidens!!!).

All my mates who joined the Military Academy in Intake Twenty on November 2, 1977, are all retired now, quite a few reaching the rank of Brigadier General like B. F. Kusi and my beloved Brigadier General Tetteh Akunor, who was with me in Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, but now lies in his grave at Somanya.

Why all this ranting about Brigadier General?

Because there is one regular columnist in the Daily Graphic, one Brigadier General Dan Frimpong (retired), who is a voracious writer and constantly keeps producing mind-boggling articles.

One would think he was a journalist. But no, he was an infantry officer, and my senior by far in the Army. I think Intake 17 or so. Last June 21, 2024, he wrote a piece about the Reverend Colonel Jonfia, who has passed on, and his funeral at Burma Camp. As a matter of fact, it was the article which made me know that my good friend, Reverend Colonel, Jonfia was now with the sages.

I strongly recommend that you look for the Daily Graphic issue of June 21, 2024, and read that article, laden with quotations from William Shakespeare and Latin expressions.

You will think that the article was a quasi-tribute by the Brigadier General to the deceased Man of God. But it was not.  The lodestone of the article was the sermon, the funeral oration by the very respected most Reverend Dr Paul Boafo, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, Ghana, and his advice to the congregation “to think about tomorrow”.

Tomorrow

You know, reader, the most awesome mystery about life is that one word: “TOMORROW”.  So much literature is spent on it but with no definite conclusion. Tomorrow? Just what will happen TOMORROW? ONLY GOD KNOWS.

Very early in my practice as a lawyer, about two years old at the Bar, then, I found myself one day sitting next to the famous lawyer, E. K. KOM, now of blessed memory. We were all waiting for our cases to the called, and naturally, we fell into conversation.

He told me, talking about “tomorrow”: “Look here, Effah, tomorrow is so uncertain. So use your money to build a decent house for yourself in Accra and build a small hencoop for yourself in your hometown.

Where? Berekum?... then give the best education to your children. And, Effah, use the rest of your money to enjoy life… When you die, that’s it! I recently turned three scores and ten, and looking back at life and the way some people boast…

I have one hundred houses! My exotic car with my name as registration number…my hotels…reader, and so what? Just die today and see what will happen to your chain of houses, your cars with your name as registration number…

You know, reader, arguably, one of the most revealing books in the Holy Bible is the book of Ecclesiastics, which most scholars attribute to King Solomon. The lodestone of that book is vanity. Nothing lasts forever. All shall pass.

Think about tomorrow. That is what matters. Rev. Dr Paul Boafo reminded the Congregation or was it by Brigadier General Dan Frimpong… that even Methuselah died at age 969 years!!

William Shakespeare wrote in MACBETH, “Tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow recorded time goes on and on”….Reader, man is but a walking shadow. Here today, gone tomorrow.

There was a human colossus larger than life Superman called Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada, who held the neck of Uganda and ruled like a despot in blood. But where is he today? Gone.

For 40 years, he strode on Libyan soil with his Jumahinya theory, using oil money to advance his brand of socialism. Where is Gaddafi today? Gone!

Heroes

Look next door, in the next town, next district ― open the pages of yesterday’s newspapers… where are all the heroes? Reader, let us think about tomorrow… Rest in peace Colonel Jonfia! No, no……. I have not finished.

King Solomon is widely credited with Ecclesiastics and the personal tutor of Solomon when he was a kid was Ahitofel, King David’s chief’s advisor. That man was very wise, but according to history, he died by suicide – saying life is meaningless.

I don’t agree with him. Life is vanity if you don’t have God. If you don’t have feelings for your fellow man and you just think of your stomach, then life is meaningless. Be good, help others, give a helping hand to others and God will prolong your life on earth.

Brigadier General Dan Frimpong, write something else for me to see whether I can pull a rejoinder… Permission to carry on, Sir!