At a time when we should be discussing very important issues of the forward march of the country in the face of the worldwide fallouts from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are allowing ourselves to be swayed by one-man’s inordinate obsession with power.
We do not wish to belabor the fact that there is no precedence of a Speaker of Parliament having as part of their security details platoon of soldiers at their beck and call.
From the time of our first post-independence Speaker E.C. Quist and his successor Lawyer Akiwumi who took over in 1958 when the former resigned on health grounds, soldiers have neither been deployed for guard duties at their residences nor offices.
We should stop departing from standards because when we do the cacophonous situations such prompted by the Alban Bagbin security would always rear their heads to be exploited by bad politicians.
The country woke up to the whingeing of the Speaker Alban Bagbin to the effect that soldiers in his security detail had been withdrawn. For those politicizing every move in this country, he provided fodder for their diabolical manouvres. Although their mischief was short-lived it just reinforces the fact that truth shall always subdue mendacity.
Not even the National Security apparatus’ explanation about the reality of the issue placated such persons.
The truth is that our Speaker erroneously seeks to compare himself with the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the country.
Those who have witnessed his entry into his hometown will attest to the manner in which he wastes state resources. On one such trips a police rider, part of an advance party of security personnel proceeding to his final destination up North, died in a crash.
Can’t this man use the riders at the regional police headquarters or even the regional minister’s office if he loves the sound of sirens and stop sending advance teams before his arrival by air?
Ever since his announcement that he could remove the President but the latter could not do so to him, many began questioning whether the man was not getting megalomaniac. Of course he was.
With his residence and office taking on the traits of a garrison the decision to withdraw soldiers in his security detail was an order well executed and in tandem with security norms.
Our only concern is that the Military High Command took too long in correcting the anomaly and it fed into the diabolic plans of these bad politicians.
The Ghana Police Service is mandated to provide him with security for protection something they are primed to do and efficiently so.
Perhaps if the soldiers under his command had not been Returned To Unit (RTU) he would have one day asked them to join the police officers to mount a guard of honour for him each time he returns from Parliament.
It is only when you bestow power on people that you can determine the stuff they are made of.
As for the man under review his traits in the past months have showed without dispute that he loves power and would not hesitate to go beyond what he is entitled to which is exactly what we are noticing in him.