The Fallen Angels Of The Revolution
By Our Correspondent
The argument being that it is those who are blinkered in their view of the PNDC and are determined to see nothing good out of their activities that think there is any significance in the fact that there is such a high turnover in the personnel that propagate the gospel of the revolution. But surely, it must count for something that the life' expectancy of so many of the high Priests of the Revolution has been so short.
Flt Lt. Rawlings must have been peculiarly unlucky in his choice of friends and lieutenants or else there is a fundamental flaw in his judgement of human character.
It could be, of course, that sinister foreign imperialist powers, intent on upsetting the smooth running of the revolution, had been responsible for feeding the leader of the Revolution with unsuitable people. But that is a proposition that must be laughed out when people with renowned political astuteness as Captain Kojo Tsikata are in charge of security.
In surveying the fallen angels, one must necessarily start with Sgt. Alolga Akata-Pore who for the greater part of1982, out-Rawlingsed Rawlings in the revolutionary rhetoric. He was supposed to be the darling of the ranks in the Armed Forces, he had the credit for ensuring that the Workers Defence Committee of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, had as its chairman, a lift attendant and the Hospital Administrator and Dean of the Medical School had to invite him to policy meetings or risk revolutionary action.
Sgt Akata-Pore had something to say on every subject, ranging from his concept of the role of the PDCs, WDCs and the true meaning of democracy - conservancy labourers should serve on the import licence allocation committee because they use the pans and they alone know which types are suitable and should therefore be imported.
One fine day in November 1982, Sgt Akata-Pore was heard of no more, he has since then been held in custody accused of trying to overthrow his revolution or of wanting to supplant his friend the Flight-Lieutenant.
Equally vociferous and almost as visible was Chris Abukari Atim, the ideologue and 'action man'. He led the delegations to the Eastern bloc countries and came back with high promises. All Nkrumah-era projects abandoned since 1966 were going to be reactivated and completed. The help from the East was so definite and imminent that the only problem was that the slow moving Civil Service might hinder quick implementation, thus the setting up of a special committee to ensure prompt action.
Chris Atim fell from grace with Akata-Pore, emerged in neighbouring Togo with a strange letter of resignation from the PNDC addressed to the leader of the Revolution and copied to the people of Ghana accusing the Flight Lieutenant the PNDC of all kinds of very uncomplimentary things. One wondered why Chris Atim felt compelled to send a copy of his resignation letter to 'the people of Ghana' seeing they did not have anything to do with his being appointed in the first place but who cares about such things....
Rev. Father Damuah invoked the Holy Ghost upon the revolution, and assured the world that the Flight Lieutenant was the Almighty's own anointed. He, it was, who exposed the evil machinations of the Churches and how they were seeking to derail the revolution. High drama, flamboyance, the unkind will say eccentric, but he held aloft the revolutionary flag that much higher than the Churches, but it was not enough, he still fell from grace.
Amartey Kwei, "the authentic voice of the workers', rose to fame during the GIHOC workers strike and subsequent assault on Parliament House, he was last heard of, having an intimate conversation with his comrade Head of State at the stakes, a murderer, said to have been described by Capt. Tsikata as a person with 'a twisted mind' even if his friend the Flight-Lieutenant was "faithful to him even unto death" and tarried with him in his Garden of Gethsemane keeping vigil...
Brigadier Nunoo-Mensah who provided the ‘acceptable', some would say 'respectable' face of the revolution and who made the memorable observation which will doubtless haunt him for a long time: "hand over to who(m)?”. Almost one year ago, he also resigned, claiming it was not the PNDC that was ruling Ghana and accused the Flight Lieutenant and his friends of many unpleasant things. Some people have said that he had atoned for his unfortunate statement and for lending his name and reputation to the regime by that letter of resignation. The penance undoubtedly continued through his most unorthodox and hazardous flight from Ghana.
It is quite possible that the person who kept the tempo of the revolution up and added the most colour and drama was the poet/lecturer turned revolutionary Atukwei Okai. His contributions included the banning of the grilling of meat for sale to the public - ending the centuries-old 'tsitsinga' trade! and an ill-fated attempt at introducing "opening hours'' for beer bars.
Most people heard about his sacking before he did himself and he obviously does not have much faith in the revolutionary climate he has helped to create. Last seen, back to his old calling as lecturer on a Nigerian University campus!
Ms Ama Ata Aidoo did not think very much of pre-revolutionary Ghana and said so very loudly in her capacity Secretary for as Education. She was determined to change the educational system and her target was the private schools.
Having succeeded in terrorising parents who had children in private schools into registering them in state schools for purposes of ensuring a place in a good secondary school, she obviously does not like what she has created either. She has left Ghana and was last heard of in Zimbabwe increasing the numbers of the Ghanaian diaspora.
Johnny Hansen who provided the 'gravy hairs' to the youth of the revolution and who was sure that nothing better could have happened to Ghana than the advent of the PNDC somehow lost his voice along the way. He, it was, who offered the definite proposition that the judges had been killed by anti revolutionaries....
One never knew what role Kofi Kuffuor of the PFP had hoped to play in a revolutionary administration when his colleagues of the disbanded Parliament were locked up in jail, but he did not last very long and he has not been heard to have defended his stewardship in the revolution.
The indomitable K.B.Asante was more positive and vocal in his revolutionary activities. Since falling from grace, he made his way out of Ghana as early as possible and watches the revolution from the safety and comfort of Britain.
Lesser cadres of the revolution have gone the way of the bigger guns. Kwasi Adu of the June 4 Movement whose tasks in 1982 and part of 1983 consisted in 'explaining the revolution' to the dimwitted population, he has also fallen by the wayside..
Kojo Yankah who is assured a place in the Ghana revolutionary Hall of Fame for adding 'Peoples' to the 'Daily Graphic', has been felled by over-enthusiasm, but might be resurrected. Prof Mawuse Dake showed the way, that once you know how, a fall from grace need not mean a loss of place on the right hand of the heavenly Father.
The list continues depressingly long. Flt-Lt. Rawlings must either be most unlucky in his choice of people on the premise that he is right and all these people are wrong - or else Ghana is most unlucky to have him controlling and determining her destiny.
It is a requirement of leadership that one knows how to pick a team to work with and also that one is able to work with people, having selected them. So far, it looks as though Flt-Lt. Rawlings either cannot pick a team to work with or else his sense of judgement is faulty or else he needs to ask himself if he is the one that needs changing.
Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink..... do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field
— Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke.
