Africa’s Folly

OSAGYEFO DR. Kwame Nkrumah was a big dreamer despite some of his short comings. No matter how you dislike the pig, you, must give it credit for its prowess in love-making. Yes indeed, Nkrumah was a dictator and a ruthless one for that matter, but some of his proposals and plans were good. Sadly, some of his compatriots in Africa did not understand him. They did so at their own peril. It was he and a few Heads of State of Africa who proposed the formation of the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) which is now renamed, Africa Union (AU).

Dr. Nkrumah foresaw an era where military adventurists will take up arms and overthrow legitimate democratically elected Heads of State and so, he proposed the formation of the Africa Rapid Reaction Force. He, Modibo Keita of Mali and Sekou Toure of Guinea went further to form the Ghana, Guinea, Mali Solidarity movement to champion the interest of their respective countries, and work together for the good of their people. Ironically, he was the first to fall victim to military coups to be followed by the overthrow of other Heads of State in Africa. Had I known is always at last, they say.

The Africa Rapid Reaction Force was to be a standby army made up of soldiers drawn from member states to move in quickly to foil any military intervention in member states and restore political power to civilian rules. The ARRF did not see the light of the day and military hotheads who knew nothing about politics and governance started overthrowing civilian regimes. The results were a backward match which brought nothing good to West Africa and Africa, for that matter. All the lofty and good programmes initiated by some Africa countries were jettisoned and in their places, bad and adhoc programmes were introduced as the economies of many Africa countries went from bad to worse. But for the madness of these unruly soldiers, Africa could have been like the Asian Tigers in terms of development because the natural resources were in abundance and ready to be harnessed for the development of Africa. Sadly, a dream went sour. Dr. Nkrumah himself had said that in case the military saw the need to take over power for any reason, it should immediately hand over to an elected civilian regime, since the military is not established to rule the nation. Sadly, the military, which took over power by force from civilian rulers, entrenched their positions, unwilling to hand over power. In Ghana, a so called provisional regime (PNDC) stayed in power for eleven wasteful and bloody years.

Here in Ghana, we went through several years of stultifying military dictatorships which did nothing good for the country. More than three hundred factories established by the Osagyefo were sold by the (P)NDC military regime alone. Loft projects like the Tema Food Complex and cold stores were abandoned while some of them were sold to the cronies of the military junta. We used to have our state-owned first class hotels like Atlantic Hotel in Takoradi, Meridian Hotel in Tema, City Hotel in Kumasi, and Ambassador Hotel in Accra and catering rest houses in all the then nine regions in Ghana. What bled my heart and still makes me sad and angry was the way the (P)NDC sold out the Ghana Black Star Line. Immediately we had our independence, the Osagyefo established the Black Star Line with as many as sixteen cargo ships, the first of its kind in West Africa. He went on to establish the Nautical College at Nungua to train sailors and engineers to man the ships. These cargo vessels were used to transport our timber, cocoa, sawn wood and other bulky goods to overseas countries and brought back goods that we imported from other countries. In fact, other countries in West Africa benefitted hugely from the services provided by the Ghana Black Star Line. It drastically improved international trade and the economy was ready for a quantum leap forward until these military adventurists upturned the apple cart.

When Dr. Hilla Limann also took over power, he bought four brand new cargo ships from South Korea to add up to the existing sixteen ships but immediately the Rawlings-led PNDC junta seized power, all the twenty ships and properties of the Ghana Black Star Line were sold to persons or companies, only the junta can tell. Today, Ghana has no national shipping line. We learnt our lessons well and since 1992, we have been able to steer the ship of state smoothly without any military intervention, thanks to the discipline of our fine soldiers who see no reason to intervene in the democratic dispensation. But, not so with other countries which have to live with coups and rumours of coups.

Unfortunately, anytime hotheaded, drunk and drugged soldiers seize power in Africa, opposition elements who lost elections are quick to organise demonstrations to support the usurpers of power. I call it Africa's folly. The soldiers themselves have not learnt a lesson because they do not look back as historians do. Some of their colleagues who seized power through the barrel of the gun ended up in jail, in exile or killed. In the beginning, they will have the support of the masses but since they were not made to rule, they start making things difficult for the people and in a matter of time, they are treated like rotten eggs. Because they have the guns, they try to quell any demonstration against their regime by shooting at demonstrators, killing, maiming and arbitrarily throwing dissidents in prison, all in an attempt to consolidate power. They begin by issuing draconian decrees and introducing the Culture of Silence like Ghanaians went through for the eleven years that the late JJ Rawlings and his junta held the country at ransom. Citizens who criticised the junta got missing to be found no more and those who were lucky enough run into self-imposed exile never to return again or died in exile.

Today, despots like Umar Al Bashir, Yahaya Jammeh, Charles Taylor, Blaisse Compaore, Gadhafi etc. are either exiled, in self-imposed exile, brutally killed or in prison.

What is happening in Guinea, Mali, Sudan, and Burkina Faso and elsewhere is an example of how the military is again abandoning their role as gatekeepers and engaging in a project that will eventually take their respective countries aback as far as development is concerned. When ECOWAS threatened to invade The Gambia, the moment Jammeh refused to accept defeat and got himself fixed on the presidential seat, the ugly bully had no choice but to allow himself to be taken away into exile. The leaders of the military, who have forcefully taken over power in the above mentioned countries, in recent times, should be pushed out by force through military intervention but not sanctions, because, we have sanction busters who will pass through backdoors to help these hotheads. You don't use kids gloves to fight usurpers of power. If ECOWAS is able to do this, it will send a strong signal to others who have similar intentions to abandon their foolish ideas because ECOWAS will never support such military adventurists. It is an undeniable fact that a worse civilian regime is better than the best military regime. Simplista!!! Go and burn the Atlantic Ocean if you do not agree with me and please excuse me while I puff away my Churchill cigar with professorial bombast. Catch me if you can!

BY Eric Bawah