Think of tomorrow today 

The very thought of thinking of tomorrow today also means that one would have thought of today yesterday. Active thinking is key. We should never take anything for granted. In particular, we take freedom for granted at our own peril. As a nation state, we could lose our tomorrow if we leave freedom on auto pilot, expecting that all will be well.

GOING DOWN PAINFUL MEMORY LANE

Unlike several African countries, Ghana has not gone to war. But admittedly, we went through some rough times during the periods we lived under the mighty thumbs of soldiers and autocrats. Our ruthless coup d’état years marked our own equivalence of national turmoil, with marauding soldiers brutalizing terrified citizens. That period marked the most tumultuous phase of our post-independence life as a nation state. Officially, war was not declared; but the citizens of this country lived under the conditions of war with curfews and all.

I vividly recall a day when soldiers stormed my former neighbourhood in Darkoman, entered the next house and in a matter of minutes, gunned down a man. My neighbourhood went into shock as we stared at the man’s lifeless body in the centre of his compound. We were never told what crime he committed that was so heinous that he had to be murdered in cold blood in broad daylight with his children looking on. That bloody matter I witnessed, and numerous other such bloody matters many of our citizens witnessed and endured are locked up in our collective memory.

So when last week, a journalist of Multimedia Company Ltd, Raymond Aquah, produced the brilliant historical documentary entitled, “Who killed the judges?”, it struck a chord. At the time the three judges and a retired soldier were kidnapped from their homes during curfew hours, driven about five hours outside Accra, murdered and their bodies burnt, my daughter was a classmate of Justice Cecilia Koranteng Addo’s daughter; in a primary boarding school. 

I had never discussed this issue with my daughter since it happened but with the release of the documentary, she went down the memory lane of her childhood. She described how as children, they felt about the murders. They were sad. They were terrified. But the matter was handled by the school authorities in a hush-hush manner, with no discussions.

Often, we do not think of how traumatic incidents affect children. Just because we do not discuss something does not in any way suggest that it goes away. After 36 years of the gruesome murders, there I was standing in my kitchen and for the first time, listening to my daughter tell me her thoughts of that brutal incident that stained our national consciousness. Ghana lost its innocence on June 30, 1982 when those horrific murders were committed.

Since the coming into effect of the 1992 Constitution, we have all been collectively trying to clean up the debris of our ugly past. The national reconciliation exercise in 2002-2004 was a clean-up intervention. People shared their experiences, whilst others confronted those who had deeply hurt them. The three judges and the soldier were only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. So much is untold and unknown; the excesses of power in that era touched all aspects of our national life.

UNENDING AND ENDURING QUESTIONS REMAIN 

As a country, we are supposed to have moved on. Have we? Undoubtedly, there must be people who have not moved on; and cannot move on. Taking a cue from my daughter’s childhood memories of the murder of Justice Koranteng Addo, I wonder if anyone followed up with the direct relatives of not only the four who were murdered on that day, but of the many other untold murders of those decades. 

It will be instructive to follow up on individuals who were personally affected. What happened to them? How many of the children of those murdered had to abandon school because there was no one to pay their school fees? On an even deeper level, how many of them lived in a state of depression? Depression is a darkness that envelops a person, locking him/her up in a prison outside the walls of a prison. Did any of them commit suicide? Did some become alcoholics and ‘no-gooders’? Where are they now? How are they now? How did the murder of their parents affect them? Did they ever recover? How did the adults in their lives explain things to them? Were they expected to just forget about everything and move on? What are the gaping and unhealed wounds in our country as a whole? 

THE GHOSTS OF THE REVOLUTION

Watching “Who killed the judges”, especially the part in which Captain (Retired) Kodzo Tsikatsa spoke at the National Reconciliation Committee session grabbed my full attention. He was perceived as the silent power behind the scenes, the quite unseen tactics guy who made all sort of things happen.

It is true what the elders say that time changes. In the 1980s, I feared his name like ‘kakai’; his name gave me shivers. I could never have imagined or even dreamt of mentioning Kodjo Tsikata’s name in an article for purely existential fears—that my sleeping place will be changed and something really horrible will happen to me and my loved ones. 

But here I am with the freedom to mention his name because I know that I will not be hauled into a national security facility. The 1992 Constitution and freedom of speech have made this possible. After watching the documentary, I found myself worrying about Captain Tsikata. I wondered: how he is taking these public remembrances of Ghanaians about the murder of the judges; and generally, of the excesses of the revolution? Are fingers pointing at him over the murders? 

This must be a heavy burden on his heart as he ages and nears the evening of his life. It will be interesting for him to share with this country, his reflections of the revolutionary days. He should grant a no-holds-bar national television interview with a team of crack journalists to tell his long version of the story from his vantage point. How about writing a book? He should not go to his maker with the secrets, the joys, the challenges, the accomplishments, and of course of the murders that occurred during the revolution.

Do ghosts exist? I do not know! But apparently, the ghosts of the revolution appear to be restless. They have not gone to sleep; they are hovering about, 25 years after the wicked drama ended. History does not die; it simply rolls into the present and the future.

There are deep lessons in these matters. Think of tomorrow today! The truth could find us out at the time when we least expect—so we should be mindful—at all times. The era of silencing the masses have ended. But freedom is only possible if we are eternally vigilant. It will be folly to take our freedoms, which are guaranteed in the Constitution, for granted. We cannot afford to blink for too long. We should constantly go through phases of reflection, with “never again” as our national mantra.

dorisdartey@gmail.com