And The Tension Continues…

The race for appointment as Chief of Defence Staff and Service Chiefs for the last lap of the non-performing Mills/Mahama regimes is “hot” and continues to be the source and catalyst of tension and fear in our community. 

 

Interested personalities and their lobbyists are very busy marketing themselves, destroying their perceived competitors and pretending to be performing their duties extremely well and better over their par values. 

 

In fact, our ears and eyes have stumbled upon a lot of materials that suggest that the military hierarchy (High command and Commanders of various levels) is doing a lot of disservice to Ama Ghana.  Commanders in our community have taken enviable positions in the NDC “create, loot and share” division (there are now more than three CLS Brigades in the country).  There is a free for all scramble for money and other resources to prosecute these individual ambitions, selfish, parochial and vicious interests of the “self-appointed candidates” for the offices of CDS, Service Chiefs, Commanders of Commands, Formations, Regions, Divisions, Bases, Brigades, Regiments, Units, Districts, Stations, Platoons and Squads.

There are allegations of serious financial hemorrhage in all our communities – Military, Police, Immigration, Customs Division of GRA, Prison Service, Fire Service, BNI, National Security Secretariat and Allied Agencies.

In all these cases, the rank and file of the Security Services are suffering.  The opportunity cost of the financial hemorrhage is huge, enormous and monumental. For instance, very basic items and materials such as uniforms, boots, web equipment, stationery and office equipment cannot be provided by the authorities for the troops, security personnel and agents of the security services. 

The irony of the situation is that while the units, stations, cells and offices are crying for very basic essential items and materials, the Commanders especially the top echelon, are swimming in oceans of opulence, extravagance and arrogance.  These Commanders are competing for mansions at Aviation Area in Ashalley Botwe, Airport Residential Area, Cantonments, Tsa-do, Labone, Dzorwulu and the various communities in Accra – Tema Metropolitan Areas and other High Class Areas in Kumasi, Sekondi – Takoradi, Cape Coast, Sunyani, Bolgatanga, Wa, Tamale, Ho and Koforidua.

Readers should not be surprised at this revelation as military and other security vehicles are used to cart goods, materials and equipment for building and construction on daily basis from Accra and other Regional Capitals to these high class areas in the regional capitals and hometowns of these Commanders. 

The Commanders should not forget that the vehicles are driven by “poor” junior ranks and officers of the security services.  Doubting Thomases should check on the Tema – Ho, Tema – Aflao, Kumasi – Tamale and Techiman – Wa roads on daily basis and especially during weekends to see how Ama Ghana is suffering from the diabolical, mischievous and criminally-minded activities of the Commanders of our communities.  It is very serious and pathetic that we have Commanders and leaders who are very insensitive and callous to the plight and sufferings of their subordinates.

But who can blame the Commanders of our communities for their unhealthy race for money, property and material, gains? 

Our Commanders are not operating on the latest volcanic island of Tonga but they are operating in an environment where corruption, stealing, looting and inappropriate acquisition of money and property is the order of the day. In fact, from the first to the last member of the current regime the allegation of corruption flies.  The Commanders in our communities are not “fools” to watch toddlers and neophytes in politics (thanks to late John Mills and John Mahama) who are now millionaires and billionaires, arrogantly displaying wealth, acquiring property left, centre and right and insulting the good people of Ghana because of their nouveau-riche status without doing same. 

It is sad that the nouveache-riche undeserved politicians of the umbrella fraternity who pretended to be socialists par excellence “hating” property and thereby teasing the “elephant fraternity” as property owning democrats at the time that they were not in power, are today Commanding the heights of Ghana’s economy – owning industries, businesses, services, houses, vehicles, equipment and directing the political destiny of Ama Ghana.

The umbrella fraternity that did not agree with lawyer President J. A. Kufour that evidence had to be provided before prosecuting people for corruption are today relying on the same legal reasoning and are demanding evidence of their corrupt practices or inappropriate means of acquiring wealth and property from their accusers.

But these criminally-minded persons know inside their hearts that but for their involvement in politics they were “nobodies” and perhaps could have remained so until they found legitimate means of acquiring wealth.

All sincere peace loving Ghanaians who knew these persons before January 2009 are convinced that politics has enabled these persons to elevate themselves from “poverty” to riches overnight. Persons who did not have even certificates as at 7 January 2009 and had therefore not worked (forget national service) in any reputable organization in their lives before that date are today owners of mansions, luxurious vehicles, fat bank accounts in and outside Ghana, huge sums of money in their bedrooms, in their vehicles, in their garages, in holes in their compounds, with their wives, girlfriends, family members, surrogates and proxies. 

Do we need any evidence to support our allegations of corruption against members of the NDC government when these people lived in our communities with our people and their social and economic positions were known and today because of their political leanings they are owners of everything one can imagine and think of and yet they want to be seen as angels!! Today, filling stations, vehicles and mansions owned by these NDC personnel and their surrogates are everywhere (in cities and rural areas).

God, Almighty, Immanent, Omnipotent has seen all of them from the President to the lowest NDC member who have stolen public money.  Technicalities may be used to “exonerate” these persons but their hearts will continue to be dark and judgment day awaits them.  They profess to be Christians and Muslims and perhaps pagans and yet they go against the ten commandments of the Lord.  They go to church periodically, visit the mosque on Fridays, consult their shrines, mallams and soothsayers on elected days and yet refuse to accept that they are corrupt and involved in creating, looting and sharing of the resources of the state with impurity. 

If they look at their assets as at 7 January 2009 and compare them with what they have today would they honestly need the Martin Amidus, Bawumiahs and the pressure groups to tell them that they have been and are corrupt and thieves? How come that suddenly people who in yester-years could not afford even meals (once in a day) are today father-Christmas sharing goods and money to people (the poor in particular) for all sorts of political favours? If they could not distribute a piece of cloth and a bar of key soap in 2008, how come that after January 2009 and especially after 2010 they are going round the country with vans, trucks and vehicles sharing bales of cloth, boxes of soap, drums of cooking oil, boxes of sardines, mackerel, cutlasses and notes of cedis under various guises? 

How come that suddenly they are acquiring or have acquired degrees, diplomas and certificates from Tertiary institutions when in fact in the 1970s and 1980s that they “passed” their ordinary level school certificate and general certificate examinations they could not go to training colleges, universities, agricultural institutions, nursing training schools, Institutes of Professional Studies, Sixth form Secondary Schools? Yet in a matter of years some of these “looters” are using their looted money and resources to acquire first, second and third degrees and professional degrees even in law!!!

Commercial education indeed! How come that these persons could not enroll at the Legons, KNUSTS, UCCS, UEWS, UDS, UMATS (Government/State Universities) but have found it appropriate to “pay their way” in the private tertiary institutions and the public tertiary institutions operating purely on commercial basis?

It is all these that have spurred Commanders in our communities to prepare for their rainy days by joining the CLS Division of the umbrella fraternity.  That is the order of the day.  The political leadership of Ghana today, their cronies, family members, girl friends and boyfriends are the ones creating the “enabling environment” for the leaders in our community to create, loot and share the few resources meant for the general welfare, well-being and operational needs of each and every member of our community.

Being insatiable, just as the leading members of the umbrella fraternity, our leaders in this community are allocating to themselves the few resources without caring about what the ordinary soldier, policeman, immigration officer, customs officer, fireman/woman, prison officer or national security agent would wear, arm himself or work with.  

Our leaders are going on frivolous trips especially to China and Brazil collecting fat All Inclusive Allowances and yet are being catered for by the responsible Defence Advisers/Attachés to the detriment of officers and men who go on courses and official duties. 

 

Again, money meant for peace support operations go into the pockets of our Commanders while vital vehicles and equipment meant for these operations are not bought. Where the items are bought, their qualities are inferior and at very astronomically inflated prices thereby denying the security services and Ama Ghana real value for money.  

There are Staff Officers at Service and General Headquarters who sit in Ghana and collect fatter “allowances” from these peace support operations far in excess of what the real participants collect in the Area of Operation (AO).

 For instance, a Chief Staff Officer at the Army Headquarters kept collecting money meant for the maintenance of the contingent’s equipment in the AO leaving the poor Command and Staff Officers helpless. 

With this development, the Commanding officers also started appropriating to themselves allowances and budgetary allocations meant for their subordinate Commanders, the unit’s equipment and vehicles thereby undermining the generational capabilities, capacities and effectiveness of Ghanaian troops in the AO.  The poor soldiers on day and night patrols suffered as a result of the looting by Commanders at home and in the field