History’s habit of repeating itself: From Kume Preko to OccupyGhana to #fixthecountry…

Wa and other matters arising… Ejura, Wa, et al: Techiman South, Ahmed Suale, Ayawaso West Wuogon, armed military invasion of parliament, brutalizing of the Citi FM journalists, the young female journalist’s mishandling by security people on the premises of the superior courts, gun totting MP, now a minister, soldiers poured into the Volta Region to “help” protectElection2020 when in truth it was intimidation, the Unanimous FC of our judiciary and its team captain’s threat of judicial retribution against the freedom of expression during the 2020electionpetition, not forgetting the many alleged corruption stories like PDS, Agyapa, with the bread butter madness like hiking of utility prices, fuel prices – and the many others not captured here.

And can someone tell me the difference between “Kume Preko”, “Occupy Ghana” and “#fixthecountry”? Sometimes, especially, history, by repeating itself, or time, simply passing or just staring us in the face reveal our follies… Sometime last year, history itself was being made a joke of, when some individuals met somewhere in Accra to aggrandize the chief bishop of a so called “National Cathedral ofGhana” with yet another award: The Grand Master of Kume Preko.

Poor Newman had passed on… I had a tangential role to play in the protest marches – the type of role that would get mentioned as a footnote somewhere in a main narration: I was present at the very first tentative tossing about with the idea and actually took part in the “conspiracy”.

Was that not the raison d’etre for Kume Preko 26 years ago?There was a major demonstration led by the organisers in every region of Ghana then.Following the pattern set by the Bishop of the “national” cathedral of Ghana, soldiers run amok in the city of Wa even before our inks had dried on our stories and commentaries on Ejura.

For over thirty minutes, he went on and on makingpasaaof my point of view, while at the same time boasting about his “documents” to set his records straight and boosting the cathedral bishop’s ego! As claims to fame go, I was also the very first media person to inform the public, being the editor of a thenpopularnewspaper, of associated with the “conspirators” and there were many such newspapers also claiming credit for that association… his boss, I gave the late Ferdinand O.

Ayim (Ferddy/Freddy) the editorial instructions to get a story ready, which the two of us would put together, announcing the birth of a massive demo to hit Accra.

A leading spokesperson and apologist for the Bishop of the “National Cathedral of Ghana” took me on in a vituperative monologue on Peace FM that left me aghast with trepidation regarding that individual’s state of mind.

Let us use these nightmarish experiences as a learning process, so that, next time, we can go by the dictum of “Not all that glitters is gold” to guide our political choices.

I got on very well with him – both of us being loyal fufu lovers with “roving eyes” over a good sexed up story.

The Peace Council, whose inane statement was clearly couched in language that would not displease the Bishop of the “national” cathedral was downright hypocrisy.

The irony, for me, is that all the pillars of society, including the clergy, traditional rulers, the media, the CSOs, academia,businessleaders, who ganged up and called for change (an unnecessary one at that) seem to have lost the will to use their voices this time round – bar the Catholic Church’s recent statement.

Those who died during Kume Preko met their demise at the hands of political thugs, but check out the difference: those who died at Ejura, a combination of political thuggery and state sector vigilantism perpetrated by people wearing our police and military uniforms.

In 2020, when the aggrandizement caper was given full media exposure a day after, by some sections of the media, I felt entitled, like the proverbial fly on the wall, to chip in my very little insight, in a commentary I wrote on the marches.

For me, it was a matter of “who the cap fits” and so I wore it with as much tolerance and dignity as I could muster! On that, I took him at his word and wrote in a riposte that I would be looking out for the book a year from then, so this May, as I saw history passing by, I was expecting the authoritative book on Kume Preko in our bookstores.

I have been hearing a phrase that says “Ghanaians are not angry enough”.

Kume Preko was when Rawlings was in office (four people died); OccupyGhana during the presidency of John Mahama (nobody died) and #fixthecountry, during the present dispensation (three people have been killed)..

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