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06.05.2021 Feature Article

A Revolution Without Celebration

A Revolution Without Celebration
06.05.2021 LISTEN

It came at the back of the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to fight corruption in our kingdom. While this is the second appointment to that office, it is the first in the series of revolutions that never witnessed any celebration in our kingdom.

In 1966, while Kwame Nkrumah-the first president of our kingdom, was on a peace mission to Hanoi, news got to him that there was wild jubilation of people back home. They were celebrating the revolution. Earlier on in 1957, they have had a countrywide celebration of the revolution won from the colonial administration.

When Dr Apollo Milton Obote was overthrown in 1971, there was a nationwide celebration of the successful coup. The people of Uganda praised God for seeing them through a revolution just as when he secured independence for Uganda in 1962. They were sure that the “milk and honey pipes” would be flowing after Milton was gone. General Amin came. Then Yoweri Museveni also came in 1985. All these revolutions witnessed celebrations.

In 1985 in Tanzania, from Zanzibar to Daresalam, there was a mad jubilant crowd celebrating the exit of Julius Kambarage Nyerere. They did the same thing when Tanganyika and Zanzibar became Tanzania at independence in 1964. Their closed neighbours-the Kenyans were also at their best when Jomo Kenyatta led their country to independence in 1964. The Togolese did the same in 1960 when Sylvanus Olympio won the revolution and the country gained her freedom from France.

Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh came at the back of a revolution in 1994 in the Gambia. His victory was celebrated until he became the only God sent Gambian to the presidency and to “cure” HIV/AIDS persons. He was later “assisted” by ECOWAS forces, in 2017, to leave the presidency for Adama Barrow who was sworn in as a president of the Gambia in Senegal. So revolutions are celebrated all over the world.

Take, for instance, the appointment of my uncle-Martin Ben Kaiser Alamisi Amidu as the Office of the Special Prosecutor in 2017. The whole kingdom went agog. Both traditional and social media were awash with news of his appointment like Jesus Christ's entry into Jerusalem during Palm Sunday. He was seen as the Messiah sent by God to defeat the children of darkness in our kingdom. All hopes were on uncle Amidu to defeat the monster called corruption until he was often heard barking without biting. Several times he complained of been given meat without teeth to chew. Another time, he bemoaned about been sent to the war front without ammunitions. Other times he was given ammunitions without soldiers to wield them. Sadly, he resigned citing fears of the possibility of been taking as a poodle of our Paramount Chief whom he accused to be a mother-serpent of corruption.

After uncle Amidu, a "Togolese-Ghanaian" who worked in our public sector for several decades could have fit for the position of the OSP. But even at his back office, he was a man who was always releasing missiles at the children of darkness whose goal is to milk our kingdom dry. He was shown the exit because of his "age and nationality".

Then Kissi Agyebeng is here to take over as the OSP and our Kingdom is gone dead as if they don't know how revolutions are celebrated. Everyone else is going about doing their businesses. No one is at the national park to celebrate the revolution. It appears the silence is even more silent than the "returned culture of silence" bemoaned by Citizen Sir Sam Jonah. And I am shockingly surprised about a nation used to celebrating revolutions yet dead and adamant about another.

But I can understand the nation’s despondency. When I was a child, my dad owned two dogs-Azotisela and Akazotisela. These two dogs had sharp contrast but near similarities in their ability to withstand the agility and bravery of wild animals when we went hunting.

Akazotisela, like Martin Amidu of our kingdom, had previous records of fighting with wild beasts on its own accord and bringing home games from the hunt. First, on a self-hunt, it came home with a bush cat that nourished the body of our family. Second, it was noted for its fearlessness, zealousness and temerity to face the enemy no matter the size and colour of the latter. Akazotisela was the fit- for-hunt dog in the dangerous forest. Azotisela on the contrary was a feeble and meek dog. In our kingdom, it was never known to have ever successfully caught any house mouse.

During a period in our kingdom, there were frequent reports of the destruction of farmlands by grass cutters. Farmers used to record low yields from their maize fields due to the wanton destruction from the bush animals. It became a national crisis. One day, the Paramount chief of the kingdom, assigned Akazotisela to the town warriors to fight the grass cutter invasion. Everyone was happy that the war against the wanton destruction of the state resources would end soon. But unknown to the dog, the grass cutters had artificial teeth bigger than the claws of a lion. Those grass cutters even had strong networks at home, schools, court, in the church and at the King’s palace. In the first trial with Akazotisela, the war against the invasion in our kingdom was lost. Because the dog simply resigned to its faith due to frustrations.

Then a week later the paramount chief assigned Azotisela-the feeble dog to the warriors to continue from where Akazotisela had left off. It was observed that the new decision by the chief did not add any positive results. It only added negative hope and the destruction continues. So the kingdom is back to where she was in the fight against the invasion. Azotisela was simply not the right dog for the battle ahead of it.

So in trying to establish the relationship between revolutions and how they are celebrated, I can only see that the latter comes as a result of the confidence in the sustainability of the former. And if Ghanaians know that the war against corruption is bigger than the head of Kissi Agyebeng, they would naturally not call for any celebration. If Akazotisela has lost the battle and thrown his hands in despair, the question is what role will Azotisela play rather than a poodle?

Comments to the writer should be sent via: [email protected]

Address: Hse/No. EFB 28, Sirigu, Bugsongo

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