Election 2024: An open letter to Ghana's security agencies

Dear Security Forces of Ghana,

During the Trojan war, the King of Ithaca, Odysseus, eloquently said to Achilles that, “sometimes one follows in order to lead.”

Fellow Ghanaians, with a declined and deteriorated leadership of the country due to literally political compromise – thievery and economic mismanagement of unthinkable proportions – the leadership task has now naturally fallen on the shoulders of the heads of various security agencies and their led to lead Ghana. And as King Odysseus had rightly put it, you can as our security forces exemplify this priceless and timeless observation by the ancient Greek King by being good followers in order to lead the country and navigate it out of our current national conundrum and pandemonium.

I formally write this letter to remind you that your leadership as military, the police, the prisons service etcetera, has suddenly become the most needed and crucial in keeping the hope of the country alive and kicking. Mind you, I am not seeking violence against the officials of the government that have expectedly become artistic thieves. Rather, I want you to organize what President Mahama refers to in his book as “My First Coup D'état”.

Thus, any order or command from a political official – minister or even the president himself – which will be inimical to the credibility and sanctity of the general election must be resisted and not obeyed! You must not also allow them to recruit their bandits to wear your uniforms and impersonate you before DURING and after the election. STAND with the masses. This is how you can exemplify the ancient Greek wisdom of “following in order to lead!”

It must have come to your notice by now, that apparently, president Akufo Addo has failed Ghana and the Ghanaian populace and cannot be relied upon any longer if the essence of government is to protect the citizens.

You must understand that it is not for nothing that Article 83 of the 1992 Constitution has established the National Security Council and explicitly included the Chief of Defense Staff and two other members of the Armed forces, the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of the Prisons Service in paragraph d. e. and f. among others.

Within the clairvoyance of the Constitution, the drafters knew “It is Possible” for the Commander-in-chief of the Ghana Armed Forces to undergo a sort of metamorphosis to become a "Commander-in-thief" of a political drug baron group disguised as elected officials and appointees! As a result, the supreme legal document of the land included the leadership of the security agencies to ensure the affairs of the country is stirred well whenever elected officials become complete criminals.

Unlike our dear president and his vice who really have zero knowledge about security of a nation, you the Armed officers know exactly what it is. You know the true meaning of the functions of the Security Council captured in Article 84 of the Constitution.

As trained security officers to help enforce the rule of law, you know exactly what criminality looks like; you know who a criminal is; and you can tell if there's a security threat to a nation and those who post the threats.

And indeed, for many of you, you now can see that the line between Ataa Ayi and the current president Nana Addo DANQUAH Akufo Addo and many of his appointees, doesn't exist anymore. Today, Ataa Ayi will be considered an apprentice and protégé to His Excellency and many of his dishonorable ministers in thievery. They have become literally worse than thieves and armed robbers.

You see, a thief who steals from an individual where the impact of the crime is limited to only his victim, is far better than a thief whose thievery impacts all the citizens! And to get Dr. Bawumia to appreciate this analogy, a micro level thief is better than a macro level thief. A government official that uses Free Education to loot his fellow citizens is worse than a cassava or fowl thief in Kumasi.

As our national guard, you have been very loyal, diligent, and discipline in your line of duty as far as our enviable democratic process is concerned. Elsewhere in Africa and Asia, security forces have risen against gross misconduct, and terrorism of their political leaders by toppling over their regimes and taking over the governments.

In my humble opinion, mismanagement of an economy due to cruel thievery by politicians is the most treasonous act in the governance process. The worst of it is when the same callous leaders decide to use hanky-panky means to staying in power through electoral malfeasance and cheat.

And for me, it is high time textbooks on governance and politics in general are revised in respect of the definitions of coup d'etats and treasons. Constitutions of countries must consider electoral fraud and certain dangerous levels of economic mismanagements like the current economic mess supervised by Akufo Addo, to be regarded as acts of treason and coup punishment only by death!

For example, despite the glaring evidence in the last election which strongly suggested something was totally not right as far as the credibility of the election was concerned, the supreme court in cahoots with the Executive branch of the government decided to affirm the position of the Electoral Commission’s declaration of a clearly discreditable election. Even as we disagreed with the court's decision but constitutionally accepted it, in my view, an overthrow of a government through barrel of the gun is not different from when the will of the citizens at the ballot box is overturned by foul means!

Unlike these political officials, you, as security forces have however demonstrated loyalty, nationalism, and discipline and being very protective of our democracy despite the economic hardship orchestrated by the obvious reasons for which that election was stolen: massive corruption, thievery and unforgivable gangsterism! You have exercised restraint even as you are aware that the current president and government has been worst vis-a-vis our neighboring countries which military and other security agencies decided to topple them.

While many think, in the general air, that your silence and dormancy on the outright thieving rampage and arrogance of power by the government going on in the country has been dastardly act of cowardice and compromise, I have a firm conviction you have dashed the temptation of taking over the country in full respect to our democratic experimentation that has made Ghana a shining glory in the comity of nations.

For many Ghanaians, including my humble self, toppling a government through the barrel of the gun which often ensures equal opportunity for all citizens and retribution against political criminals appears far more profitable and prudent than overthrowing a government by electoral fraud as depicted in the last election, which only creates opportunities for fewer national greedy bastards and lunatics. However, you have chosen not to mimic your counterparts in our neighboring countries such as Mali, B. Faso, Niger and others.

This year's election however will serve as the acid test of this claim: whether you have been exhibiting discipline, loyalty to the country or your dormancy has been predicated upon cowardice and enabling of electoral piracy.

The issue is, if you choose to obey the Constitution even in the face of economic robbery of the country perpetrated by politicians by not toppling those criminal leaders, you must equally ensure political officers don't electorally overthrow the government and the Constitution through cheat. Obey the Constitution, not political green-eyed vampires!

By all standard, the current government is nothing more than a criminal cartel empire. If you understand your work better as security forces which I have no doubt about, you can see our dear president is a plausible criminal worthy of arrest because of the manner he has run this country aground. As security officers by training, you know by virtue of expertise in the security of a country, that any attempt to compromise the credibility and fairness of an all important election like the upcoming election will be catastrophic.

Bokom Haram and other terrorists around the world came into being due to circumstances like this when the mandate of the people was deemed stolen away from them by group of careless, foolish, and greedy political officers completely dwarfed in thinking.

Take Al-Qaeda and the Mujahideen, even ISIS, Hezbollah, and other guerrilla fighters for example who have since transmogrified into most dangerous terror groups around the globe caused by foolish politicians. Obviously, the invasion of Afghanistan by Russia in the 1980s and the occupation of Lebanon by Israel respectively led to the formation of Al-Qaeda, the Mujahideen and others. ISIS and Hamas as well as Boko Haram seem to have one interest in common: they all hated who governed them in Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and in Nigeria.

We can’t afford to have some section of Ghanaians rising up to fight the government through terrorism because they feel their mandate has been stolen. As the security forces of the country, do not allow some idiots and thieves who, in an attempt to escape justice for their stupid leadership, force themselves upon Ghana.

I am a very concerned citizen who has meticulously studied the current government, its style of governance and parastatals, and I have come to the conclusion that president Akufo Addo and his appointees didn't come to govern. They came to rob, steal, milk away our resources and to destroy our dear country!

Consider the over 140 ministers appointed by the government alone and the reckless appointments of Justices and Judges to the courts and you will agree with me they came to loot. In fact, as I write to you this letter today December 3, less than three days to the general elections, Akufo Addo is still appointing his food-is-ready party supporters. An indication his not ready to handover to opposition.

In fact, the only reason the NPP seek to remain in government is to first of all protect themselves from prosecution of these economic injustices and fraud they have orchestrated. They also possibly seek to protect their loot and to loot more.

We can’t afford a civil war in this country because of one man’s greed. Patience is like a piece of elastic, it stretches to a certain point; beyond that point it cuts. Ghanaians can’t continue to wallow in this avoidable suffering like slaves in their homeland because of the insatiable political ambition of unqualified individuals. The unfortunate reality is that, they would not have been able to perpetrate such acts of heinous thievery against the citizens of Ghana without your cooperation and support.

In our African parlance, a snake that loses its head becomes a mere rope! When you refuse to obey and protect them, they can't hurt us anymore. It is the Ghanaian taxpayer who pays you in order to protect us. Your protection should not be only against external enemies' aggression and attacks. Our current enemies as we speak are those who claim to be running the affairs of our country. Their unbelievable corruption is worse than being short in the head by an external enemy you are supposed to protect us against. I plead with you to save us from our own selves.

If you were a party boy recruited by your political party in order to do their unconstitutional bidding in order to keep them in power, it is time to rise above party politics and serve Ghana.

The country must exist in order to create political parties. And you are required to ensure the outcome of the election, come December 7, is the very true reflection of the will of the citizens.

Guard the will of the citizens at the ballot box; protect the nation from political jackals and hyenas!

God bless our homeland Ghana, and make our nation great and strong.

Thank You.