Mohammed Bazoum should reject the ECOWAS Intervention Force: an open letter to deposed Nigerien president

Mr (former) president, give me your ears, hear the voice of wisdom. Don't allow yourself to be led astray by those who now goads you on into the darkest tunnel of unreasonable war.

Sir, what at all do you gain when you are made a king over people that you want to return to power at all cost?

Now listen to me with rapt attention. I come from Bono's Goka in Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana. Where I'm from, our folks say: ɔhene ntemtam nnye n'ahenkyɛ. To wit: a king does not wrestle for his due crown/inheritance.

And it so happened in a much reported political life of Ghana and Africa's independence hero, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

In his book, Dark Days in Ghana, Dr. Nkrumah wrote that when the military junta deposed him through a coup detat when he was on his way to Hanoi, Vietnam; there came many allies who advised him to stage a comeback coup in Ghana.

Yes, Dr. Nkrumah was by then living in Conakry, Guinea, granted asylum by his friend, President Sekou Toure, the Guinean leader then.

He gave a graphical reportage of how political allies within Africa and beyond promised him their unflinching support to invade Ghana.

As wise as he was, the very reason for which we Ghanaians say: Kwame Nkrumah never dies; Africa's Man Of The Millennium answered the warmongers and the merchants of war as follows: "Why should I fight against the very people I only led to serve and protect? Why should I kill the innocent boy who is capable to grow up one day to finish the business I started? Why should Ghana burn because Kwame Nkrumah is out of its shores?" (sic).

Behold, Mr. Bazoum, the warpreneurs retreated. They saw wisdom speaking. They saw a true leader speaking. And his words thrust him onto the pantheon of a Paragon of Leadership.

In return, the people of Guinea, in semblance of the biblical Joseph who was made a deputy king to Pharaoh in Egypt, Nkrumah was crowned a co-president to President Sekou Toure. The Guineans saw in Kwame Nkrumah a man of peace. So when he died, his remains became a tussle between his kinsmen in Ghana who earlier rejected him, and his host country, Guinea Conakry.

Don't be lazy to read to the last word this my long letter, Mr. Bazoum, least you'll make a fool out of yourself.

Don't be foolhardy Mr. Former President. Your abductors say when the power drunk leaders of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) invade your country with their artillery, you will be the first casualty. You will be the first to be killed. When the head of the snake is cut off, the rest becomes a rope, so goes the timeless Bono Adonteng Warriors war strategy.

Today, because of you, your country has literally been besieged by weapons of mass destruction. Because of you your country is now a turf war where strangers are battling for their interests at the expense of the vulnerable - women and children, the hungry, and the sick.

Denounce this ominous catastrophe. Stand against this unsolicited for assistance so the people of Niger will accept you that indeed you are one of their own. You know they never endorsed your nationality. On the eve of your investiture, there was a putsch coup detat. The rebels claimed you're from Libya, and you are falsely imposed on them to serve foreign interest.

Now is the time to wash yourself clean of this accusation.

A king does not wrestle for his due crown or inheritance.

When the tree does not allow itself to be toyed by the wind, it breaks.

As said of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, his wise decisions has earned him a place in our hearts. Today, his resting place is a shrine for political pilgrimage, otherwise known as a mausoleum.

Mr. Bazoum, let posterity remember you for good reasons, and you'll be worshipped, and live forever. War is out of the question now.

By Charles Yeboah (Sir Lord)
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