The NPP, a party that had always held itself before the Ghanaian public as being opposed to military takeovers under any guise, and had always argued that no military takeover could be justified under any circumstance whatsoever, over the weekend, at Fiaxor in the Volta region, paid glowing tributes to the memory of the late Lt. Gen. E. K. Kotoka, the man who, as it were, introduced military takeovers to this country.
The Deputy Chief Legal Advisor to the NPP government, Hon. Osei Prempeh, in eulogising the late Lt. General Kotoka, described him as a “hero”, and urged the youth to emulate his shinning example.
The call on the youth to emulate Kotoka’s example was echoed by the NPP’s puppet of a regent, Francis Nyonyo Agboada, who took pains to emphasise on what he describes as the gallantry of Lt. Gen. Kotoka and his paid CIA agents, which he claims saw them liberate Ghanaians from suppression by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. On his part, the Volta Regional Minister, Mr. Kofi Dzamesi, who accused the Nkrumah regime of being dictatorial and abusive of the rights of the citizens of this country, said that “they say Nkrumah never dies, we say the name of Kotoka will live forever.”
"It is evident that the [1966] coup brought an end to a dictatorial regime which could have exploded into worse situation as some countries in Africa are experiencing,” the Volta Regional Minister averred, adding that “therefore, one cannot totally ignore the role of Lt Gen Kotoka in the fight for democracy in the history of Ghana.”
The exhortation by the deputy Attorney General and the self-styled regent of Anlo on the youth of Ghana to emulate the exploits of Kotoka is being seen as an indirect call on anybody who may perceive the NPP government, or any other government for that matter, as dictatorial to take up arms against the government and overthrow it.
That the NPP apparently sees the overthrow of Nkrumah as an act of gallantry perhaps explains the party’s hesitation in giving the founder of the nation, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the recognition that the majority of Ghanaians believe that he deserves in the run up to the highlight of the Ghana@50 celebrations. Meanwhile, an unimpeachable source with very close links with highly placed personalities on the National Security apparatus, has hinted The Ghanaian Lens that the effort being made to immortalise Gen. Kotoka is only a prelude that is supposed to soften the grounds for the government to honour the late Gen. Afrifa.
“If they start with Afrifa, people would accuse them of tribalism, so it was decided that Kotoka should be honoured first. But the real person that they have in mind is Afrifa, and depending on public reaction to this one, I can assure you that they would find a way to immortalise Afrifa before the year runs out,” the source revealed.
The source however warned, “what they are doing is dangerous. I have always told them that anytime a constitutional government justifies a military takeover, it only succeeds in limiting its own constitutional space and also creates fertile grounds for military takeovers.”
The source, who himself was in the forefront of one of the military takeovers in this country but later fell out with his leader, pleaded with the people of Ghana to “speak out against these things before they explode into something none of us can contain”.
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