Letters
Congratulations
This month marks the first anniversary of Talking Drums joining the numerous publications reporting on Africa and as a regular reader I must say that it has been an eventful first year.Right from the first issue, this magazine established a stand against regimes which use unconstitutional means to come to power and it has stuck to that editorial viewpoint no matter whose ox was gored. Your pages have, on the other hand, been offered for views contrary to yours and that has been an admirable quality that is difficult to condemn.
Of course, since you cannot possibly hope to please everybody, the criticisms, some bordering on pathological hatred for bold, no nonsense magazines like yours have been quite strident.
However, if in spite of the obvious lack of advertisements you've managed to stay afloat for all these months, then your commendation should be even greater.
More grease to your elbow and may Talking Drums grow from strength to strength.
T. Hutchful, Peterhead
Re: "Healthy Arguments"
With respect, Mr Thomas Broni has indulged in the art of standing an argument on its head in order to demolish it as clearly demonstrated in his comment on my rejoinder to Col. Annor Odjidja's Serials (Talking Drums, September 3, 1984).The ex-Honourable Member of Parliament accuses me of being "extremely intolerant" of views opposed to mine without finding it necessary to cite even one example of my intolerance in the whole of the two page article I wrote. He goes further to say that my article showed the role I "played in the AFRC murders and tortures of 1979". Here again, he does not think it necessary to point to a single assertion I made in the article to show what role I was supposed to have played.
It looks as if in Mr Broni's anxiety to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it, he does not even bother to distinguish between views expressed by me and those expressed by others commenting on what I had previously said. Mr Broni devotes two-thirds of his article to an attack on views expressed by Mr KO'Oppong without even showing that I share those views. So why did he have to devote the first four paragraphs of his article to assaulting me?
As to allegations of my role in the "AFRC murders and tortures in 1979" I think it sufficient for the moment to remind Mr Broni that in July 1981 after our compulsory retirement, some of us boldly offered to appear before a public judicial enquiry even though others like Jerry Rawlings preferred a trial by ordeal in front of "Akonnedi".
It is a matter of regret that as a Member of Parliament at the time, Mr Broni, a supposed seeker after the truth, did not see it fit to add his weighty voice to our probe call. Had he done so, perhaps even if some of us would have died in the feared conflag- ration, at least the secrets of the AFRC rule would have been known.
Stripped of all the verbiage, I think Mr Broni is only angry with Mr KO'Opong's pro-Nkrumah stance and just ropes me in as a matter of convenience. The ex-Honourable Member surprises me when he pleads for tolerance, patience and calmness "to discuss and resolve national issues in an atmosphere of peace and concord".
It appears that he cannot see the contradiction when in the very next breath, he turns round to:
a) Chastise others’ inability to understand political issues.
b) Deplore supposed flippancy in others.
c) Praise only those CPP members who admit of the necessity of the 1966 coup. WHAT TOLERANCE! Of course, in the unfortunate situation in which we find ourselves the kettle will always call the pot black.
No matter how rude I might appear in Mr Broni's eyes, I am confident that privately, Col. Odjidja is not surprised by my account of his role in the AFRC. The Col. cannot deny that as a result of our probe call in July 1981, ex- President Limann appointed a Cabinet Sub-Committee chaired by Mr Riley Poku to look into our case.
The Col. cannot also deny that in a confrontation at the Castle I firmly but politely pointed out to him in front of the Sub-Committee members why I thought he was more a member of the AFRC than some of us whose names had appeared in the proclamations. As a "child of history" I am certain that but for the Colonel's "intervention" and backdoor roles, we would have sorted ourselves out at Burma Camp and whatever conflagration arising therefrom would have subsided by now.
In any case, far from being pro militarist and insulting, I had in my article only dared to point out that people like Col. Odjidja cannot escape responsibility for what has happened in Ghana by trying to disassociate themselves from historical events for which there are too many living witnesses.
After 27 tumultuous years it is important that people who have been at the centre stage of our recent history, are no longer allowed to use their official positions to claim anonymity.
Finally, Mr Broni needs to be reminded that his priorities, timing and spacing of action need not necessarily coincide with mine.
Capt. Baah-Achamfour (Rtd.)
Local Banks To Buy Gold
I wish to draw the attention of the Ghanaian authorities to the existence of diamond house in Nigeria, a country that does not exploit diamonds, and also to the practice of banks in Europe in buying and selling gold to any individual and suggest the following to stem the smuggling of gold and other minerals from Ghana.But before then, let me dwell a little on the plight of the people of Obuasi, the base of the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation, which for many years has provided the government with vast amounts of foreign exchange through the export of gold.
For all their contribution to the national economy, there is not a single Obuasi resident who lives in a government built estate house. And as if that is not enough deprivation, the people are now being subjected to various forms of harassment from the Peoples' Tribunals.
Chaired by a Mr George Agyekum, the tribunals are jailing anyone whose lifestyle can not match his known taxable income.
Recently, a middle aged couple were jailed 25 years for their inability to explain how they acquired a refrigerator ten years ago, and also for not being able to explain the source of their joint income of 3000 cedis.
Like the above couple, the people of Obuasi have done nothing to deserve such raw treatment from the Ghanaian authorities. If the government suspects them to be smugglers of gold, then I suggest that a number of the local banks should be authorised to buy gold from individual citizens so that they may no longer be tempted to find markets for the gold in their possession outside the borders of Ghana.
Kwadwo Oppong, Stuttgart, W. Germany
