Point of Order: A National Plea to Remember Our Lost Children

In pursuit of comprehensive remembrance: Why state protocol must institutionalise the memory of underage casualties, the young souls of historical conflicts, and the transition of our final veterans.

The recent National Day of Prayer served as a profound moment of reflection, demonstrating the highest values of our statehood. The poignant sight of the President of the Republic and the national leadership acknowledging and honoring our surviving war veterans brought a deep sense of pride to citizens across the country. It is entirely right, just, and necessary that we give maximum honor to those who stood between Ghana and peril.

However, an essential tenet of statecraft is that true national reflection must leave no chapter of history in the dark. While we rightly remembered the brave men and women who grew old after the battles, national protocols inadvertently omitted a deeply heartbreaking category of our historical narrative: the children and under-aged youth who never made it back home. As a progressive democracy, our state remembrance ceremonies must mature to consciously capture these ultimate, innocent sacrifices.

The Unspoken Historical Context: From World Wars to Peacekeeping

When a nation counts its historical casualties, it often evaluates them through the lenses of formal recruitment, adult enlistment, and standing regiments. Yet, a deep dive into our military and geopolitical history reveals a much more complicated reality for Ghana’s youth.

• The Brutal Reality of the Burma Campaign: During the mobilization of the Gold Coast Regiment under the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) in World War II, intense recruitment drives heavily targeted young men and malleable youth across the territory. In what became known as the "Forgotten War," thousands of these adolescent boys—many captivated by colonial propaganda or swept up in district recruitment quotas—were shipped to the harsh, unforgiving terrains of the Burma campaign. Plunged into the dense, disease-ridden jungles of Southeast Asia, these under-aged Ghanaian youth battled Imperial Japanese forces amidst extreme monsoon rains, malaria, and grueling hand-to-hand combat. Many perished far from home, their young lives cut short in a distant jungle, permanently disconnected from their families and completely forgotten by the empire they were forced to serve.
• Global Peacekeeping Missions: In the post-independence era, the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) emerged as a beacon of global peacekeeping, from the early Congo deployments to contemporary missions under UNIFIL in Lebanon. While our troops have earned international acclaim for bravery, these volatile operational environments have frequently caught local children in the crossfire. Furthermore, when Ghanaian peacekeepers tragically lose their lives in the line of duty, their own young children are left behind to carry a lifetime of collateral grief and socio-economic vulnerability.
• Pre-Colonial and Internal Strife: From the tragic historical blockades of the Anglo-Asante wars to local internal skirmishes, children have historically borne the heaviest, undocumented brunt of conflict—suffering from forced displacement, disease, and starvation.

The Looming Milestone: When the Last Veteran Passes

A poignant reality hangs over our national memory: the biological clock is ticking. In July 2026, Ghana interacts with what remains a dwindling, precious few of our World War II veterans. In the near future, the inevitable will happen, and our last living war veteran will pass on. How we handle that milestone will define our national character.

We must not let their passings signify the closure of remembrance. When that final veteran transitions to the ancestral realm, the state must transition from living memory to institutional legacy. The finality of their era must usher in a permanent, unshakeable state commitment to documenting their sacrifices, alongside the forgotten children who died decades before them.

Why Diplomatic and State Recognition is Essential

Failing to explicitly mention these young souls in state prayers and historical standardizations creates an incomplete national memory. Institutionalizing their remembrance serves three profound state purposes:

• Affirming the Full Sanctity of Life: Acknowledging child casualties proves that Ghana values every single life lost due to conflict, regardless of age, rank, or legal status.
• Healing Generational Trauma: Many Ghanaian families still carry quiet, multi-generational grief over ancestral children who vanished during colonial recruitments or historical internal displacements. State validation offers these families profound closure.
• Reinforcing Foreign Policy and Humanitarian Commitments: By officially mourning the youngest victims of war, Ghana diplomatically signals its unshakeable adherence to international frameworks like the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), strengthening our voice in global peace-building forums.

A Direct Call-to-Action for Defense Leadership and Parliament

True systemic change requires legislative backing and executive order. We directly call upon the current political leadership of our defense and legislative sectors to act:

• To the Minister for Defence (Acting Minister, Hon. Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson): We urge the Ministry of Defence to immediately issue an executive directive expanding the scope of national commemorative protocols. The Ministry must formally incorporate the memory of underage casualties and the young dependents of fallen peacekeepers into all official GAF remembrance scripts, state veterans affairs policies, and the annual Poppy Appeal Fund frameworks.
• To the Parliament of Ghana: We call upon the Parliamentary Select Committee on Defence and Interior to sponsor a bipartisan resolution. Parliament must pass a legislative framework that establishes a permanent National Day of Remembrance. This bill should legally safeguard the historical archives of our veterans and formally recognize the young, underage victims of our military history, ensuring that state funding is allocated toward preserving this complete narrative.

Practical Suggestions and Recommendations for State Action

To ensure that future state events are fully inclusive and prepared for the post-veteran era, the state should consider the following diplomatic and administrative interventions:

• Refining State Protocols: The Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, alongside the Ghana Armed Forces protocol directorate, should include a specific, dedicated line in national prayers and the Veterans Day script acknowledging "all young lives and children cut short by historical conflicts."
• Symbolic State Wreaths: Future national remembrance events should feature a symbolic "Wreath for the Innocent Child," laid by the First Lady or the Minister for Gender, Children, and Social Protection.
• A Living Monument for the Last Veteran: Upon the passing of our final living veteran, the state should commission a permanent national monument or a dedicated wing at the Armed Forces Museum. This site should not only honor the veterans but feature an eternal flame or symbolic sculpture dedicated to the child casualties of war.
• Curating Academic Archives: The Ministry of Education, in partnership with the Department of History in our public universities, should fund research documenting the impact of the World Wars and regional peacekeeping missions on youth and child demographics in the Gold Coast and modern Ghana.
• Institutional Care for Gold Star Children: The state should reinforce comprehensive educational and psychological support systems for the surviving children of fallen Ghanaian peacekeepers, ensuring their futures are protected as a tribute to their parents' ultimate sacrifice.

True national greatness is not measured solely by how we honor our strongest heroes, but by how tenderly we remember our most vulnerable victims. The veterans who returned to our soil deserve our endless praise, our pensions, and our highest salute. However, our national conscience cannot be entirely at peace until we intentionally reserve a moment of silence for the children who never had the chance to become veterans.

Let future National Days of Prayer be a holistic mirror of our past. By remembering the children who never came home, and by preparing a dignified, permanent legacy for when our final veterans leave us, leadership will not only correct a historical oversight—it will sanctify Ghana's future as a nation fundamentally committed to peace, justice, and the protection of the innocent.

✍️ Retired Senior Citizen
For and on behalf of all Senior Citizens of the Republic of Ghana 🇬🇭

Teshie‑Nungua
akpaluck@gmail.com

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