Thirty-two years ago, Ghana suffered what remains the darkest moment in her political history, with the extra-judicial execution of eight senior military officers because, according to the then unknown Flt. Lt. Rawlings, they deserved to die.
The anniversary of the blight fell last Thursday, a day on which members of the slain persons’ families recall with pain, what they went through as they pray for the soul of their loved ones.
The attention of the civilized world was at that time turned to Ghana, with many wondering whether indeed a seemingly possessed Flt. Lt. Rawlings would make good his plan to kill the officers he had for long loved to hate.
No wonder news about the development, even after the intervention of many a world leader to spare the lives of the officers, resonated across the world.
The senior officers, whose blood Rawlings will always have on his hands for as long as he lives, were not the only persons hated by the paranoid junta leader. Those who showed signs of progress in their chosen occupations, especially in the private sector, were fair targets for destruction in the name of the so-called excesses of the revolution and many of them really died under crude circumstances, as others went missing.
“Africa will burn”, the red-eyed disgruntled Air Force officer screamed on the airwaves as the country waited and prayed for deliverance from the hands of a bloodthirsty military man.
The decision of the Rawlings-led junta to have executed the aforementioned officers, was to state the least most cruel.
The stupidity and wickedness in the shameful act laid in the factors which accounted for the choice of victims for the bloodcurdling appetite.
How else can we describe the so-called ethnic balancing factor which informed the choice of Rear Admiral Amedume in that crazy imbecility to cleanse Ghana of so-called iniquities?
It is regrettable that even after tolerating, albeit forcefully, this band of mischievous persons who dwelt on pretentions to undertake their project, Ghanaians are still reminded here and there about the dark moment in the boring and vexatious speeches of one of the players of the nonsense.
Much as that coup remains a subject of debate because it was carried out to remove an unconstitutional order, it paved the way nonetheless for Rawlings to unfold his treachery of a comeback, a stab in the back of his colleagues.
It was a useless project from which Ghana benefited nothing but polarization of the highest order, as mentioned in the preceding paragraph supporting Rawlings’ future dream.
If some of the officers died because they accessed bank loans, it is regrettable that the man who ordered their executions is still living today with dark entries in his personal log books. God save this country.
As the families of the slain mourn and grieve over their beloved ones, we ask them to wipe their tears and take consolation in the fact that the man responsible for their pain is still an unhappy man in spite of all the wealth he amassed.
Screaming on rooftops about corruption and about how he alone has solutions to Ghana’s challenges even after decades of engaging in the cacophony of probity and accountability, he shows all signs of a disturbed and haunted soul, perhaps to the end.
May the souls of the executed persons rest in perfect peace!
Source: daily guide
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