Ebo Quansah - Plot Thickens On The Exclusion Of The Rawlingses

Wonders, they say will never end. But how Major Boakye Djan (rtd) came to associate himself with the National Democratic Congress to the extent of claiming to be the founder of the party must be the ultimate of mysteries. Here is a person who has spent most of his productive adult life in a tug of war with the very foundation of the party. To state that the former Spokesman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council hated the very guts of the men and women whose activities gave birth to the NDC, is to state the obvious. It was a truth universally acknowledged in the Ghanaian exile community in London in those days, when Jerry John Rawlings sat at the Castle as head of state and Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), the military junta that metamorphosed into the NDC, with the retired major as the military junta�s Number One sworn enemy. A number of sorties to the West Coast of Africa, organized by the exiled community of Ghanaians in London, was specifically aimed at ending the junta in one form or another, and Boakye Djan was one of the leading architects of the �Get Rawlings and PNDC out� call. In politics, they say there are no permanent friends or enemies. There is only permanent interest. Even then, it begs the question to be told that Major Boakye Djan has ever identified himself with the ideals that begat the PNDC. I have known the retired Major for a while, on account of being in exile for close to 14 years myself, and having worked with him. In the late 1980s and 90s, Major Boakye Djan established an African Intelligence Newsletter- �The African Preview�. It was a weekly document looking at events in Africa and predicting the likely scenario of a typical week on the continent � security, political and economic analysis. Let me be honest. I have never believed in socialism as a concept capable of liberating the African. Boakye Djan belonged to the old school of Convention People�s Party ideologues, and believing in its concept of comradeship proffered his belief in the socialism introduced in Ghana, in the latter part of the Nkrumah regime. It is not only ideology that set us apart. The manner the AFRC organized the June 4th Uprising and disturbed the political evolution of Ghana, was one source of worry to me especially. I remember those days in London, when we used to argue on end at work, over the conduct of the AFRC. I have still not come to terms with the callous murder of eight top officials of the Ghana armed forces, including three ex-heads of state. The executions by firing squad of General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, one-time Head of State and Chairman of the Supreme Military Council, Lt-Gen. Fred. W.K. Akufo, leader of the palace coup that toppled Gen. Acheampong, Lt-Gen. Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa, one of the leaders of the military gang that deposed Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in 1966, Air-Vice Marshall Yaw George Boakye, Air Force Commander in the era of the SMC, Rear Admiral Joy Amedume, Commander of the Navy in the era of the Supreme Military Council, Colonel Roger Felli, Commissioner for Foreign Affairs in the SMC administration, Maj-Gen. Robert E.A. Kotei, Commander of the Army forces under the SMC, and Emmanuel Utuka, Boarder Guard Commander in the era of the SMC, could not be substantiated under any law, besides what operates in the jungle. Up till today, there is no evidence that these ex-military officers were properly tried and convicted. I have been irked, especially by the execution of Lt-Gen Afrifa, who had handed over as Chairman of the National Liberation Council in 1969, and had filed his nomination to contest a seat in Parliament in 1979 on the ticket of the United National Convention of William Ofori-Atta. I have always accused Major Boakye Djan of hand-picking Afrifa for execution. As far as I am concerned, that act was never part of the collective will of the council. The excuse that June 4 was to end all coups and, therefore, military officers who had previously staged coups against civilian regimes were those to be executed, was outright bunkum. At the time the executions took place in 1979, General A.A. Ankrah, head of state and Chairman of the National Liberation Council which toppled the Nkrumah regime was still alive. Why was he not picked up if Boakye Djan�s idea of executing Afrifa as part of a grand scheme to discourage coup d�etat by executing previous coup makers was to be believed? At that point in time, Mr. Harlley, Deku and others, who were all leaders of the coup that toppled Nkrumah, were alive. In my estimation, Afrifa was singled out and executed on the orders of Major Boakye Djan, whose hands are dripping with the blood of these victims of man�s inhumanity to fellow man. At a meeting of the New Patriotic Party at Manor House in London, in the early 1990s, when Major Boakye Djan arrived to address the meeting, some members of the party, led by Mrs. Arthur protested his presence. The argument was that Major Boakye Djan did not have democratic credentials to address a party committed to the entrenchment of democracy in Ghana. Mrs. Arthur argued that the selective justice meted out to victims of the AFRC contributed to the events that led to most of them running away into exile. The woman was particularly irked by the circumstances leading to the execution of Lt-Gen Afrifa. In her considered opinion, Boakye Djan could not be entertained at a meeting of the NPP. As other members joined in the protest, Major Boakye Djan was escorted out of the meeting, with his tail virtually in between his thighs. Long before then, Major Boakye Djan had enjoyed a rather frosty relationship with the NPP in Britain. Though the Kufuor regime gave the former Spokesman of the AFRC a safe passage to give evidence at the sitting of the National Reconciliation Commission in Accra, it is obvious he never really had a meaningful relationship with the NPP as a political party. When he finally settled down in Ghana and decided to contest the 2008 Parliamentary election for the right to represent the people of Jaman South Constituency, he entered the race as an independent candidate. According to the official result, Major Boakye Djan could only marshal eight percent of the popular vote in the constituency. Mr. Yaw Maama Afful of the NPP won the seat with 16,878 representing 55.8 percent of the 30,266 votes that was cast. There are those who believe that the spokesman of the erstwhile AFRC is nursing the hope of adding the NDC votes in the constituency to his estimated eight percent, to ensure that he unseats the incumbent and joins the august House of Representatives in January 2013. Even then, it is difficult to rationalize his contention that he founded the NDC on the principles that begat the AFRC and its June 4th. For all it is worth, not many of us believe in the concept that begat the AFRC. From my point of view, the mutiny was a spontaneous reaction to the circumstances that led to the arrest and trial of Jerry Rawlings, after the May 15th insurrection. Whatever it is, the orchestrated attempts to placate Jerry Rawlings from his role as founder of the NDC and replace his vision with an Nkrumaist ideology may work for a while. Eventually, it may blow in the face of those who are employing state resources to fight the internal problems of the NDC. One wonders what Jerry Rawlings would be feeling, after nurturing the NDC and bringing in John Evans Atta Mills, only to be stabbed in the back. On Monday, The Chronicle published a piece in which Mrs. Rawlings said the ruling party was gradually being moved away from the ideals of Jerry Rawlings, to the camp of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. She said paid officials of the Mills regime were busily working to change the vision of Rawlings and replace it with the vision of Kwame Nkrumah. If the former First Lady and her husband are unaware, the plot began the moment those around Jerry Rawlings succeeded in getting the former military head to lead the NDC into the 1992 elections. The idea was to gradually replace the Rawlings era, by converting the NDC to the CPP. They may deny it in public, but I submit here and now that people like Ato Ahwoi, Kofi Totobi Quakyi and other leading officials surrounding President Mills are all dye-in-the wool Nkrumaists, using his vision to fool Ghanaians to perpetrate their misrule in Ghana. With the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute graduate, John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills at the Castle and with state largesse available, the plot to replace Rawlings with Nkrumah is in full swing. Boakye Dyan�s introduction is only a foot-note to irk the founder to look elsewhere, for his political future.