Thirty nine years ago, yesterday, Ghana witnessed what has been described as her worst nightmare in her post-independence history. Top military officers were lined up on the stakes and shot dead upon the orders of a junta which decided the fate of the whole of the country.
When news about the pending execution hit town after the so-called People’s Court passed the death sentence on them, many thought it was a joke until the stakes were prepared and the junta-accused persons killed.
The world intervened with pleas to the junta leaders not to carry out the execution but they did not only ignore the interventions: they snubbed the pleading countries with threats of ‘Africa Will Burn’ in an arrogant show of useless bravado when it feared the possibility of a military intervention.
The Generals shed their blood because of their so-called involvement in acts of financial impropriety as the bloodletting was going to end corruption. It is instructive that the junta leader who presided over the bloodletting has taken shelter under a constitutional cover of prosecution for acts he committed when he led the junta and subsequent political position as President. If he did not have anything to hide, he would not have to go such a length.
The junta leaders told their compatriots that the execution was intended to rid the country of corruption and while some found the nonsense credible, others thought it was far-fetched and unachievable. Time has actually told us a lot about why the execution should not have taken place after all.
Close to four decades after the bloody act, the country continues to bask in corruptible acts incomparable to what obtained before the decision of the junta.
The rule of law was suspended during the reign of the junta as the country held its breath. Without doubt it was a reign of terror during which death was commonplace.
Today, we are in a better position to relish the rule of law and the freedom which comes with it. We can comfortably pose the question as to whether the bloodletting was worth it.
We share the pain of the families which lost their loved ones even as the architects of the useless executions live pretending to have done so much for the country.
Such architects continue to talk about financial impropriety in public office prompting us to query their moment of senselessness which snuffed lives out of some of our top citizens of this country.
Never again should Ghana go through what befell her during the period under review. Anybody who ousts a democracy does not deserve plaudits. It is on this premise that we think that those behind the executions and the organised chaos which visited the country after that, should bow their heads in shame because the country benefitted nothing from the bloodletting.