Of all the good things that Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first Head of State did for Ghana which have led to his name written in gold in the history books of Ghana, there was one thing that he did which has become a black spot in his calico made robe. As I used to write, that thing is now like a chameleon feces into which he stepped. Much as we try to clean, it will not go. It was the Preventive Detention Act (PDA).
Okyeame Osei Akoto and other democratic minded persons in the Ashanti Region had formed the National Liberation Movement (NLM) to challenge the CPP which had held the country at ransom. Dombo and others also from the North founded the Northern Peoples’ Party to charter the same cause. Later on, the NLM, NPP, (the original) and others from the Volta Region teamed up to form the United Party (UP) to challenge Dr. Nkrumah and his CPP.
Sensing danger, Dr. Nkrumah declared a One Party state and also declared war on anyone who opposed his rule. The UP stood their grounds to fight the dictator and so to cow them down Dr. Nkrumah went to Parliament to enact the Preventive Detention Act. The law gave him the blank cheque to imprison anyone who he felt was a threat to his regime. That was how come the doyen of Ghana politics, JB Danquah, fine legal brains and many intellectuals found themselves in the Nsawam Maximum Prison. They were never taken to court but allowed to rot away in condemn cells.
By the time Nkrumah was overthrown and the Nsawam Maximum Prison gates were opened for these imprisoned persons to walk free, it was a very sad spectacle to watch. While some of them died there like JB Danquah, others who survived looked skinny like refugees from Somalia, and others went blind for staying in the light in their cells for so many years without seeing the day. In fact, some of them were mad. That was why Ghanaians jubilated for almost a year after the overthrow of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
Survivors of the Nsawam Maximum Prison used to wear caps with the inscription, PG (Prison Graduate) boldly written in front of their caps. Are you aware former president Kufuor was a Prison Graduate? In his case he graduated from the Usher Fort Prison when Colonel Acheampong overthrew Prof. Busia, arrested and threw many of them in jail. Freedom was under attack like the Nkrumah days. At 31 years, Mr. Kufuor was then the Deputy Foreign Minister so you can imagine how this young man felt when he found himself in jail without any trial for serving his country.
When JJ Rawlings usurped power from the Limann government, he too towed the line of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in a different style. He ruled with iron fist and he declared anyone who challenged him as a dissident. Some were summarily executed and others had to run away into exile. For five good years the good people of Ghana lived under a curfew from dust to dawn. He had his own private army called the 64 Battalion or Commandos who strutted the land with impunity and treated Ghanaians like subhuman beings.
He formed the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), the Peoples Defense Committee (PDC), People’s Militia, the Workers Defense Committee ( WDC) among others and subdued Ghanaians. He then went forward to introduce the Criminal Libel Law to stifle the media in particular. Those were the days when we had what was called Culture of Silence.
When Ghanaians protested and demanded that the wicked law should be cancelled, Dr. Obed Asamoah, who was the then PNDC Secretary of Justice and Attorney General, said the “Criminal Libel Law will be repealed over my dead body”. Kwaku Baako, Haruna Atta and other journalists ended up in prison for flouting the CLL.
As Candidate Kufuor was campaigning in the run-up to the 2000 General Election, he promised Ghanaians that when he held the reins of power he will expunge the CLL from our status book. The promise was the more reason why those of us in the inky fraternity joined the NPP campaign. By the grace of He who delivered Israel, Mr. Kufuor won that year’s election and appointed Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as his Minister of Justice and Attorney General.
The first thing that Nana Addo did after his appointment was to quickly expunge the CLL from our status book. Journalists and Ghanaians in general became very happy when the law was repealed. The Culture of Silence died naturally but Dr. Obed Asamoah is still alive and enjoying the freedom.
That action opened the floodgate for the establishment of various private newspapers, radio and TV stations in the country. I was not surprised when the CLL was repealed by NPP led administration because after all, the motto of the New Patriotic Party is Development in Freedom. Mr. Kufuor had a noble and genuine intention to repeal the CLL for people to have their say in governance and affairs concerning the state.
Sadly, what is happening in our airwaves and the public space in particular has turned the good intention of the gentleman to sour grapes. The younger generation who were born too late to know what happened to our forbearers is taking things for granted. There is this upstart who calls himself Captain Smart of Onua TV who is always on the rampage. He insults everybody in Ghana irrespective of their age or their standing in society.
Even our revered chiefs are not spared when he is on his insulting spree. The other time I heard him saying he completed Apam SHS in 1990. Good Lord! That was when my second son had his Masters Degree. And this guy was bold enough to say he could lecture Dr. Bawumia in Economics. This boy treats Nana Addo, the Executive President of Ghana and the one who worked beyond human endurance to repeal the CLL, like a discarded toilet paper, all in the name of freedom of speech.
And the President has been silent in the face of all these unprovoked attack and provocations because he believes silence is golden. That is the mark of a gentleman and a cultured person. Somebody should tell this 1990 SHS graduate that there is a town called Freetown, the capital of Serra Leon but nothing is free there. He can continue insulting senior citizens, but as sure as the sun will shine tomorrow he will meet his match. He said he was there when the late MP of Ejisu, John Kumah was poisoned and he is still walking free. He doesn’t know that a Pharaoh will come in Egypt who may not know Joseph.
I have been writing this column for twenty four years and so it stands to reason that this boy was in Primary school or JHS when this column was introduced and he was then learning how to literally stitch one sentence correct in English Language. . Today because of the polarisation of the media by the grace of ex-president Kufuor’s repeal of the CLL, he is also jumping like a kangaroo and swaggering like a child of decadent society.
Can’t this guy learn from fine and refined broadcast journalists like Omanhene Kwabena Asante, Paul Adom Okyere, Kwame Sefa Kayi and the rest? Some of us can also spit fire with our trenchant pen and venomous ink but society has tamed us and we are too civilized to stoop so low. Only halfwits and nitwits fail to look back while they talk rubbish.
I know by now anytime Mr. Kufuor listens to wayward journalists like Captain Smart, he will regret the day he dreamt of repealing the CLL. When Mr. Kufuor was in power, his convoy was driving through Magazine, a suburb in Kumasi when a young man who was among the crowd insulted him. The guys around pounced on the insolent guy and subjected him to severe beating before handing him over to the police for insulting the First Gentleman of the land.
When Mr. Kufuor heard of the story, he quickly ordered that the guy must be released immediately because according to him that was some of the price we have to pay for choosing democratic dispensation over dictatorship. The action of the Gentle Giant made all of us to wear the crown of martyrdom even when our political opponents insult us, but these days, the crown has become too heavy for us to wear.
If uncouth languages and dirty insults refuse to go, yours sincerely will also put everything aside, including my angelic white robe and decent into the gutter and with my mission accomplished, I will then raise myself up from the gutter and go under the shower to wash the dirt from my body and thereafter, lift myself up into the firmament where angels dwell.
After all, all of us have red saliva in our mouths but we try to spit out the white one for the sake of peace. If insults are the language people understand, they should get ready to drink from a poisoned chalice because we the zongo boys are very good at it. Ever seen an eagle stooping down to play with chicks? Think!!!