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
