The Peace, the whole peace, and nothing but the peace! Revisited

The exclamation “how time flies” is a common English idiom used in expressing surprise at how fast time has passed. Its first usage goes back to 1800 when Shakespeare used a similar phrase, “The swiftest hours as they flew!” Alexander Pope would later express it in “Swift Fly the Years!”

The idiom welled up in my mind recently when I said to myself, “Wow! So soon, it is already four years since I wrote my December 2020 article on elections titled “The peace, the whole peace and nothing but the peace!” How time flies! Part of that article stated:

Like many other sports, Horseracing is virtually dead in Ghana. In the 1960s, however, horseracing was very alive in Accra and Kumasi. The Accra-Turf Club had its race course between the Accra Sports Stadium and the present locations of Accra Conference Centre and Kempinski Hotel. Some champion jockeys were Kantara Kamara from Mali, Joe Mahdi Elginoir from Sudan and Jim Mackerness from Lebanon. 

“Home Stretch/Straight”

Like is the case in a 400-metre race in athletics, the final bend to the finishing line in horse racing called the “home stretch/straight” saw jockeys spurring their horses furiously, sprinting to win the race as the crowd cheered on. 

With only a week to go for our December 7, 2020, elections, we are in the “Home Stretch/Straight”, with all parties finishing hard. But are they finishing hard peacefully? Have the violent rhetoric of threats, insults and accusations ceased? 

This is the eighth time Ghana has gone for elections in our Fourth Republic. After the 2016 elections, excited friends from two African countries called me to congratulate Ghana. As if rehearsed, both praised Ghana for demonstrating leadership in Africa again. 

I could not believe my ears hearing Chris Christie, former Governor of New Jersey and a President Trump loyalist, declare Trump’s Legal Team’s action a “national embarrassment!” He opined that they should rather advise Trump to concede defeat to President-elect Biden.

Personal ambition must give way to wisdom and the good of the nation. BBC analysts said America has lost the moral high ground as the world’s leading exponent of democracy. Do our politicians want such negative comments about Ghana?

This article’s title is my coinage, replacing the word “Truth” with “Peace”, from the C13th English Common Law practice, requiring witnesses to take an oath by swearing/affirming to speak “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!” One version of oath-taking is that in ancient Greece, the test for men speaking the truth was to hold their scrotums/scrota, hence the word “test-is/testes!”

Facemasks

Unfortunately, Covid-19’s seriousness has been relegated to the back-burner in favour of party politicking for votes. Two pictures put together on the front page of the Daily Graphic of Monday, November 23, 2020, of the two major parties at rallies showed the wearing of facemasks virtually absent. Indeed, the DG for Public Health lamented the drop from 86 per cent to about 20 per cent. As for social-distancing at rallies and peace walks, it is zero! 

Indeed, foot soldiers continue to be bussed/“trucked” in cargo vehicles for rallies, with deaths/injuries in accidents. Peace marches between the two major parties suddenly turned violent, with firearms being misused. Is this the undisciplined and violent Ghana politicians want to rule? 

Politicians take advantage of the poverty and illiteracy of young men to misemploy them to engage in violence, which can lead to serious injuries/death. 

To the youth, please don’t devalue and sell yourselves cheaply to conscienceless politicians. Simply tell them to use their own educated children for the criminal misuse and violence they put you to if they consider that patriotic.

‘CHETWODE motto’

The British Field Marshal Philip Chetwode, who died at 80 in 1950 said: “The safety, honour and welfare of your country come first, always and every time. The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next. Your own ease, comfort and safety last, always and every time.”

It was subsequently adopted as the motto for cadets graduating from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. Some Commonwealth Military Academies have adopted it. I recommend this wisdom to Ghanaian politicians!  

Conclusion 

I have consistently admonished politicians in my articles to eschew violence and promote peace. 

Does it make sense to kill fellow Ghanaians so UN troops will come here to keep peace? 

What is the guarantee the UN will force itself on African nations whose leaders want to shed the blood of their compatriots so they can rule? 

The current war in Tigray, Ethiopia is turning into a massacre, with Amnesty International reporting over 600 non-Tigrayans being butchered by retreating Tigrayan youth groups. 40,000 refugees have crossed to Sudan. Meanwhile, the African Union has said nothing!

Politicians, is this what you want for Ghana? Probably, a month’s attachment for Ghanaian politicians in war-torn countries with our UN peacekeepers, and shot at like we experience, will make them understand the consequences of irresponsible rhetoric promoting violence.
Ghanaians! Let December 7, 2020, pass peacefully to further cement the respect Ghana enjoys as a civilised and peaceful country! Let Ghana win!

Discussion

When the twelve presidential candidates signed a Peace Pact on Thursday, November 29, 2024, I told myself it was only like yesterday that I wrote the article above four years ago! “How time flies!” Apart from COVID-19 being on the rampage in 2020, and now on the back-burner in 2024, the issues discussed in 2020 are still relevant.

Indeed, we have worse problems like galamsey, an existential threat to contend with. Unfortunately, its handling has been cursory, cosmetic and unserious, as winning votes is considered a priority over an existential threat to Ghana. As for the DDEP which has decimated our bond investments and sentenced people to premature death, may the perpetrators live with their blood-stained conscience!

Need I say more?

May elections on December 7, 2024, be one of “peace, the whole peace and nothing but the peace!”

Leadership, Lead by Example! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!

The writer is the former CEO of African Peace Support Trainers Association, Nairobi, Kenya/Council Chair Family Health University College, Accra.  

E-mail: dkfrimpong@yahoo.com