Whispering Drums With Maigani
by Musa Ibrahim
A disqualification decree?
Sometimes I wonder if there is any hope for Africa.Nigeria and Ghana have so many things in common, geographically near each other, same colonial experience, their people have so many shared experiences. Somehow the two countries never seem to learn from each other's experiences!
Other people have already catalogued the striking way in which Nigeria and Ghana have been emulating each other's disasters from time to time. It might be 1966 coups or sending away "illegal aliens" from each other's countries, changing currency, launching wars against indiscipline, soldiers reducing prices with the use of whips in the market and causing serious food shortages, and forcing newspapers to reduce their pagination to 8 miserable pages! One could go on and on.
Right now, the Buhari regime is said to have embarked upon a project which has been tried and failed and discarded? in Ghana.
You remember the famous 'Disqualification Decree' in Ghana after the 1966 coup? Well, this was the decree which 'disqualified' a whole host of ex-Convention Peoples Party members from holding public office and thus from contesting the 1969 elections. The result was that the field. was left relatively clear and easy for the late Premier Kofi Busia.
From what I hear, the Buhari people have started compiling a long list of people who would be disqualified from holding public office and from contesting any political elections in Nigeria, so that the field will be left for their chosen friends.
With such a list in place, they are hoping that even if they are forced to leave the scene sooner rather than later and hand over to a civilian administration, they are hoping that the members of such an administration will all be people who are friendly and maneuverable by them.
It is not difficult to guess some of the names on the list, but I am told that some others are quite startling. Apparently, some people who have managed to escape being convicted by the Tribunals, have been added to the list. In other words, if the Tribunal finds you not guilty or you are released from Kirikiri prison for want of any grounds for prosecution, the 'Disqualification Decree' will still get you!
From what one remembers of the Ghanaian experience in this particular episode, it had a very unhappy ending. And yet Gen. Buhari is said to be determined to promulgate his own brand of disqualification decree.
Big brother is listening
This is by way of a friendly warning to anybody who might possibly have any kind of information that will interest the Security Services in Ghana.The Ghana Security Services, currently headed by Captain Kodjo Tsikata, have obviously decided to launch an offensive in the eavesdropping department. It looks as though Security boss Tsikata, having been at the receiving end of the Security Services attention for much of his adult life, now that he has the opportunity, is determined not to do his surveillance the way he was followed around Accra.
The information came to me quite by one of those quirks of fate. A friend of mine went into a shop in New York which sells electronic gadgetry. Anybody who has been in New York will tell you that the city is full of such shops. Anyway, my friend entered one little such shop quite near the Ghana Mission and started looking at the wares on display.
As would happen on such occasions, a conversation started between him and the shopkeepers, as they tried to interest him in the latest electronic wonders cordless phones with 45 mile radius capability, toys, etc. ... "Where you from?" they asked. "Ghana," my friend replied. Suddenly there was a significant exchange of looks between the two shopkeepers.
"Well, well, some officials from your country were in here the other day and I made some very good sales. They were interested in eavesdropping gadgets. I showed them this version which is very sophisticated. You simply place this tiny piece anywhere in a room you want to bug - under a table, inside a file, behind the door, on the floor, anywhere, it is so small, the person would not see it; once in place you can, from a one-mile radius, hear everything that is being said in that room perfectly and you can tape it also. Your people bought 17 of the gadgets and have placed orders for some more..."
So, people better inspect their offices, homes, telephones etc. very carefully those who think they have something to say that will possibly interest the Ghana Security people.
I keep wondering about the priorities of this people's government. Here they are buying gadgets when there are no drugs in the country's hospitals and there are no buses on the streets. Oh, by the way, each of the gadgets cost over one thousand dollars (US$1,000) and they bought 17 that day and ordered some more! I suppose to qualify as a people's government, Capt. Tsikata wants to know what all the people are saying in the privacy of their homes and offices.
