The Killings Shall Continue When ‘Powertics’ Meets ‘Monetics’

TVery soon, we will all line up to be killed. This time round, we will not wait for the contract killers to plan their murderous act. We will present ourselves to them, line up in front of their homes, and ask them to kill us – one person after the other – in any manner they so desire. We want to, at least, become witnesses to our own death, since there are often times no witness as regards the killings happening in Ghana.

The past one year or so has been gruesome. We began the year 2018 with Winneba waking up to experience the shocking murder of a woman who was believed to be returning home from town. The killers of Mary Bondze appeared to have hacked her neck and head with machetes, leading to her untimely death not too far away from her home.

During the past two months alone, there have been three obvious cases of contract killings in Ghana, ranging from managers of Ghana Water Company, Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, and the most recent one being Ahmed Hussein-Suale – the journalist whose murder has shaken international foundations.

The Akufo-Addo has offered words of condolences, and asked the security agencies to find the killers of this journalist. I hope that with the President adding his voice, the action towards the apprehension of those who took away the life of the journalist would be swift.

Here lies my problem – in the past ten years, I have received not less than 100 death threats from not less than 20 different sources. I have reported most of these death threats to the police. None of them has ever resulted in prosecution of the suspects. In fact, in some of the cases, police have shown contempt to my reports. Some of those who have issued threats on my life are known faces, who walk around freely.

The last set of death threats was the ‘break-in’ of my office, and the ransacking of documents belonging to my organization – Challenging Heights – including its sister companies. One thing seems to be leading to the other, while no one is being arrested.

I am lucky to be alive. I don’t know what the next one year or so holds for me, but I have never been such resolute in my life in my quest to stand for the truth and to resist the oppressors’ rule, for we cannot will our destiny in the hands of those whose gratification it is to profit from wrong actions.

I believe in wealth creation. I believe that those who work hard and fairly must be rewarded for their ingenuity. But I don’t believe in having monies that are ill-gotten through blackmail, power-play, killings and manipulation. As someone who grew up in the village, I realised everyone worked for his food. And I saw fathers and mothers teaching their children the values of working hard for what we eat.

I appreciate the President’s call for swift action on Ahmed’s murder, but I have wondered if the innocent woman who died at Winneba also deserves the President’s voice?

The woman is believed to have been killed just around 7pm, and where the incident happened is not an isolated area; it is a crowded location. And the police have not said the killers are suspected to have used a vehicle or even a motorbike in their operations. So it is most likely that someone might have seen the incident when it happened. How deep enough is the investigation on this woman’s death so that those who know something about the death could feel confident enough to volunteer information?

Some of these killings seem to have been planned, so carefully executed and so sophisticated in covering their tracks. Such sophistication deployed in these murder incidents makes Ghana more and more unsafe for everyone. It does appear that for each murder case, there is either a political power or a financial power or both behind.

I believe a time has come for Ghana to adopt a compulsory post-secondary school military training for every citizen, especially now that everyone is likely to have the opportunity to access secondary school education. We could develop this project as part of either a national service scheme, a NABCO of a sort or anything that trains all of us in basic security intelligence and self-defence to ensure that when the system fails in delivering justice, the citizens could take arms and defend themselves.

I have received a series of security training from Protection International, and Frontline Defenders of Dublin. I had not put any value on my personal security until I faced a series of death threats, and physical attempts on my life; it was then I realised how real death could be when a fellow citizen is determined to end your life.

And my study in intelligence and security revealed how these killers implement their plans so remotely – so far away from themselves that it is nearly impossible to include them as suspects.

And that is why I am not too sure if Kennedy Agyapong is a suspect in the murder of Hussein-Suale. Of course, he is a person of interest in the case because of his lack of good judgment in exposing the victim to danger, but no sane person would execute such a planned killing of someone whom he has had such a high profile level of confrontation with.

We are sitting on an explosive time bomb my brother. Our democracy is failing. Presently, what we have in Ghana could best be described as ‘powertics’ underpinned by ‘monetics’ – two concepts that we wait to experience every four years under either the NPP or the NDC.

Those who control money are linked with those who control power. In most of the cases, those who control money are the same as those who have power. The latest strategy is to eliminate anyone who is an obstacle to the power and money they are accumulating, and they are willing to go any length to hold on to their illegitimate largess.

Once ‘powertics’ and ‘monetics’ meet, the agenda is to instill fear in those who would resist their oppression. Threaten them; frustrate them; cut off their income sources; scandalize them; maim them, and ultimately kill them!

This seems to be the mindset of some Ghanaians: Let us be the only persons who have everything, and impose our authority on everybody. Thereafter, let us control the oil, the gas and the cocoa, and let everyone queue to plead for favours.

The battle is still the Lord’s!

From James Kofi Annan

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