I could not get riled up enough at former President Jerry John Rawlings, who has been widely reported by the media to be protesting the proposed “Enhanced” Military Cooperation Agreement between Ghana and the United States, a 20-year-old bilateral compact which, we learn, was originally struck between the two countries, when the two-time (three-time, if you can’t the first abortive attempt) coup-plotter and junta leader was the democratically elected leader of Ghana. Mr. Rawlings is reported to have tweeted that “Ghanaians have enough foreigners dominating their economic and social life” to think or worry about having a massive military presence of the United States in their country (See “Rawlings Kicks Against Proposed ‘US Military Base’ Atinkaonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 3/21/18). And so what Ghanaians ought to be asking is this: What has seismically changed on the ground, since then-President Jerry John Rawlings signed the first Military Cooperation Agreement with the Clinton Administration some 21 years ago? And then, precisely what motivated the Rawlings-led government of the National Democratic Congress, so-called, to enter into such Military Pact with the United States?
We also need to ask, precisely why and how the “foreigners” whom the longtime strongman claims are dominating the economic and social life of Ghanaians happened to do so or came to do so. We must also promptly recall the fact that for most of the first 10 years of his 20-year peremptory domination of our national political landscape, Chairman Rawlings ran some of the most horrific death-squads under the aegis of “Revolutionary Accountability and Discipline.” Back then, hundreds of Ghanaians charged with various forms of economic and organized crime were summarily convicted by these Kangaroo Courts, the so-called Public Tribunals and People’s Courts and promptly executed by firing squad, totally bereft of the civilized benefit of an appeals process, as had traditionally been the culture of our British-inherited judicial system. Indeed, the Rawlings-Tsikata Diarchy would also cause the summary abduction of three Accra High Court judges, namely, Justices Cecilia Koranteng-Addow, Frederick Poku-Sarkodie and Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong and have them executed in the style that is globally associated with the Sicilian Mafia. A blue-ribbon commission established to investigate this most heinous act of Triple Murder, the Special Investigations Board (SIB), would shortly release a report of its findings indicating that, indeed, the murders were deliberate assassinations contracted by Capt. (Rtd.) Kojo Tsikata, Chairman Rawlings’ maternal cousin and National Security Adviser, with the active knowledge and complicity of the Chairman of the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC).
Ghanaians would further learn to our utter horror that it was actually a premeditated plot, going quite a considerably while back in time, that had been hatched by the PNDC’s cabinet collective. In short, for the 10-year period between January 1, 1982 and January 1992, Chairman Rawlings spearheaded a veritable Reign-of-Terror the likes of which had never before been witnessed nor experienced in postcolonial Ghana, not even during the infamous political purges of the late 1950s and the first-half of the 1960s that were supervised by the Nkrumah-headed Convention People’s Party (CPP). Throughout much of the “Revolutionary” 1980s and the early 1990s, Chairman Rawlings would establish his private army, the 64th Battalion, or the Commando Forces, a deathly feared coercive apparatus, that systematically created what became known as the veritable “Culture-of-Silence.”
And so practically speaking, Chairman Rawlings has absolutely no credibility, whatsoever, to presume to admonish the operatives of the Akufo-Addo Administration to flagrantly renege on the recent Military Pact that they ratified, pending parliamentary approval, with the United States’ Government. To fully appreciate the current spate of violence and other deadly acts of criminality raging across the country, one has to studiously read up on the so-called Rawlings Revolution. The fact of the matter is that about the most constructive, astute and savvy policy measure aimed at stemming the high-tide of political instability in the country is, you guessed right, the proposed “Enhanced” Military Cooperation Agreement signed between Ghana and the United States.
We also need to quickly point out that scarcely a couple of weeks ago, Chairman Rawlings, himself, publicly hinted that the current rash of targeted killings of members of the Ghana Police Service (GPS), contract assassinations and assassination attempts and the murder of innocent and defenseless civilians had the unmistakable markings of the breastwork or handicraft of some leaders of the main opposition National Democratic Congress. And you bet, Chairman Rawlings knew precisely what he was talking about. After all, isn’t he the mastermind and uncontested founding-patriarch of the National Democratic Congress? Indeed, contrary to what the so-called National Security Experts, among them Mr. David Agbee, would have Ghanaians believe, the formidable strength of vision of Defense Minister Dominic Nitiwul, rather than his bizarrely perceived weakness, is indisputably exemplified by the solid stroke of genius that is the “Enhanced” Military Cooperation Compact between Ghana and the United States (See “Ghana-US Agreement: Nitiwul Is Weak – Security Analyst” Classfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 3/20/18).
If it culminates in the prompt and remarkable stemming of the high-tide of deliberately orchestrated climate of violence in the country, it would have been well worth the try. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that this most intelligent and progressive agreement with the United States will be afforded the resounding nod that it deserves by Ghana’s Parliament. Kudos to all the key operatives of the Akufo-Addo Administration who made this compact the practical reality that it is well poised to becoming. Ghanaians have suffered too much violence and terror under the protracted hegemony of the National Democratic Congress for far too long. It is about time all well-meaning Ghanaian citizens and residents got blessed with a generous and healthy dosage of peace and quiet.
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