June 4 1979 remains Ghana’s biggest day of shame!

There is nothing wrong to identify one’s self as a revolutionary enthusiast, or an ideologue of transparency, probity and accountability.

However, it becomes extremely troubling and hypocritical when a group of people who claim to be the exponents of such ethos would then turn round and dip their hands into the national coffers as if tomorrow will never come.

Unsurprisingly, however, the NDC loyalists would never agree with some of us for persistently analysing the current affairs through the lenses of the past. But I am afraid we cannot make sense of the present happenings if we refused to take stock of the past events.

Why won’t some of us continue to nag, censure and highlight the revoltingly risible tendencies of the so-called devotees of the June 4 uprising?

A sequential account is given, though anecdotally, that the harsh living conditions during the Supreme Military Council’s regime in the late 1970’s prompted a group of patriotic citizens to stand up against the injustices and demanded a democratic rule.

But before the country could reach a consensus on the question of civilian rule, a group of mutinous junior army officers led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings revolted against General Fred Akuffo’s SMC2 regime on 15th May 1979.

The misguided junior army officers failed in their insurrection, which culminated in the arrest and trial of Rawlings and his cohorts.

However, the judicial process was halted prematurely by a group of soldiers sympathetic to Rawlings, who revolted on 4th June 1979.

The rebellious soldiers (mobsters) broke jail and released Rawlings and his cohorts from a lawful custody.

The aimless and jealous cabal deposed the Supreme Military Council’s regime. After successfully usurping General Akuffo and his Supreme Military Council2 (SMC2) government, the stubbornly impenitent jailbreakers went ahead and formed their own government, which they called as the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and appointed Flt. Rawlings as their chairman.

Rawlings and his ill-informed friends vowed to purge off the alleged sleazes, corruption and social injustices which instigated their coup d’état.

So in their desperate attempt to lustrate the country of the perceived injustices, they carried out what they termed “house cleaning exercise”, they dealt with perceived offenders arbitrarily (instant justice was the order of the day).

The mutinous coup makers proceeded with their intentions and callously exterminated eight prominent officers, whom they accused of committing sleazes and corruption without trial.

The Officers included General Fred Akuffo, General Kutu Acheampong, General Akwasi Afrifa amongst others.

The coup makers transferred power to Dr Hilla Limann and his PNP Party following the successful election in 1979.

The story is narrated, in a historical standpoint, that the Limann government assumed office at a time when the economy was stagnant; all credit lines to the country had diminished and were finally blocked due to brutalities and confiscations at the harbours and other points of entry into Ghana.

However, through well-executed negotiations, policies and programmes, PNP government back then initiated a prudent approach with the view to resolving the socio-economic problems.

It was reported that the PNP government put in dint of efforts to repay the short-term debts and showed commitment to meet the debt obligations.
More importantly, DrLimann’s government was able, within 18 months, to restore virtually all traditional credit lines (Source: PNC).

Rawlings and his cohorts did not give Dr Liman and his PNP government the breathing space to govern the country, as they relentlessly breathed down the neck of President Liman.

Rawlings and his conspiratorial plotters, as a matter of fact, unfairly kept criticising Dr Limann’s administration for what the coup makers perceived as economic mismanagement, until Rawlings and his jailbreaking geezers decided to depose Dr Limann.

Subsequently, J.J. Rawlings and the other obstreperous jailbreakers took arms and succeeded in deposing the democratically elected government of Dr Hilla Limann on 31st December 1981.

And, Rawlings and his friends formed a government which they called the Provisional national Defence Council (PNDC) and appointed Rawlings as the chairman.

After imposing himself and despotically ruling the country for over 11 years, J.J. Rawlings retired from the military and bizarrely metamorphosed into civilian president in 1992.

Regrettably, the coup making cabal attacked people with more than two cars, but as I write, the so-called revolutionary enthusiasts are in possession of not less than two vehicles per household.

More so the vast majority of house owners were punished severely for having more than one toilet facility in their homes.

But the last time I checked, the vast majority of the so-called revolutionaries have uncountable toilet facilities in their luxurious mansions.

Moreover, the founders of the NDC impertinently exhibited their communist ideals by going into war with business men and women in the country.

The founders of NDC, regrettably, tortured and murdered innocent business men and women, many of whom were bizarrely accused for legally borrowing meagre sums of money from banks to support their businesses.

Strangely, however, the so-called revolutionaries who repugnantly collapsed innocent peoples businesses now own business outlets all over the place.

Some innocent business men and women, so to speak, were abhorrently humiliated and their businesses were either seized or destroyed by the despotic NDC founders.

Worst of all, billions of cedis (in 50 cedi denominations) were seized from ordinary Ghanaians without trace.

The NDC founders, ironically, replaced our educational system with that of a communist model, while deceitfully turned round and sent their children abroad to study in what they saw as a superior educational system.

Ghana’s revolution days under the jailbreaking founders of the NDC, so to speak, could be likened to: “in the China of “the Great Helmsman,” Kim Il Sung’s Korea, Vietnam under “Uncle Ho” , Cuba under Castro, Ethiopia under Mengistu, Angola under Neto, and Afghanistan under Najibullah”.

Never again must we entertain self-seeking brats.