It has Not Been Easy To Be A Columnist

– Final Part

The erstwhile Committees For the Defence of the Revolution (C.D.R’s) were responsible for recommending suitable Ghanaians to be appointed as District Secretaries by the PNDC Chairman Flt. Jerry John Rawlings from 1983 to 1992. It will be recalled that the country’s administration did not want to co-operate with the revolutionary govts. of the AFRC in 1979 and the PNDC in 1982.

Therefore in March 1985, the steering committee of the erstwhile C.D.R’s including this writer who was the then Chairman of the Arbitration and Complaints Dept. from October 1983-1992 recommended a cadre from the Ashanti Regional Secretariat of the C.D.R’s to be appointed as the second PNDC District Secretary for Obuasi after the first District Secretary for Obuasi was transferred to Tepa in the Ashanti Region. That first District Secretary is now the Honourable Minister for Local Government and rural development today 2013. That new District Secretary whose name I will not mention for security reasons was endorsed by the District Assembly members, and five months after taking Office he met the stirring Committee Members of the District Secretariat of the C.D.R’s and told them that he was not happy with the way 1 single handedly wrote an article in the newspaper telling Ghanaians that “The C.D.R’s were a mass political organisation in Ghana, and that they could transform the country and lead her to the promise land if the revolutionary organs were to be transformed into a political party in any future democratic elections”. This District Secretary did not fear God and ordered me to retract that article and apologise to the PNDC Chairman with copies to the National CDR Secretariat the Regional C.D.R’s Secretariat and give him a copy also.

I asked him the reason why that article written by me under mined the PNDC government as well as the cadres nationwide?

He could not give any tangible reason, and I told him that I started the revolution as a June 4 member, and I played a very important rule even before the 31st December Revolution, adding that we had a special group within the June 4 Movement which was known as the CLUB and that we were responsible for sensitizing Ghanaians to get ready to support a popular revolution that will overthrow the PNP government of Dr. Hilla Liman, adding that I knew that Jerry Rawlings was going to launch a Revolution to replace the corrupt PNP government, but I did not know the exact date. When we were in the trenches, I did not see any of them there. So for me, I was FAR ABOVE INTIMIDATION BY ANY PERSON OR GROUP OF PERSONS within the revolutionary Organs nation wide, and so, I would not write the apology to any person or group of persons including him. On June 4, 1985, I again wrote a powerful article in support of the June 4 Uprising in which I stated thus: “We still have people who are bearing the scars of the June 4 era under the erstwhile AFRC government and these people have difficulty in coming to terms with the fact that patriotic and well meaning Ghanaians have supported a revolutionary government like the PNDC, which they would rather not have seen in power. Several private and state newspapers published that article and even commented on it in their editorial columns. This time, the District Secretary called me on his line phone to congratulate me and told me that I should allow members of the District Secretariat to jointly sign such articles so that it would become the voice of all the cadres in the District including him because he was informed in Accra that he had very strong and progressive cadres at Obuasi and that my name popped up- I told him that I will include the entire cadres next time but I rather stopped writing further articles to the media until he was sacked by the PNDC Chairman in 1985 less than a year in office.

THE ARROGANCE OF POWER

I was a member of the then District Political Education Committee (DPEC) during the PNDC era, 1985-1993 – since the then District Secretary could not drive, I was always the one behind the steering wheel of his Land cruiser visiting villages, hamlets, cottages and towns. There was a bitter power struggle between the D/S and one Madam Mary Ghann, a dynamic, patriotic honest and no nonsense District Organiser of the 31st December Women’s Movement in that year 1985. Prominent chiefs, opinion leaders, women’s groups and even cadres pleaded with this “powerful/District Secretary” to cease fire and stop what he was doing to the lady but he flatly refused to do so. One day. I left the District Secretariat of C.D.R’s and went to his office and gave him a small note to excuse all the people in his office to enable me tell him something confidential and he agreed. I then told him in the face that what he was doing to the 31st December Women’s Organiser was totally wrong, so he must stop it and patch up with her. Do you know his re-action? He quickly rose from his seat and told me that Rawlings knew both of us but he appointed him as the Districts Secretary, so if I was telling him that he was wrong-then I should take his seat as the new District Secretary- what was that? Pure Arrogance of Power and nothing else. One week after his remarks, I was driving his official car with him in the front seat when Radio Ghana reported in its One O’clock news bulleting that the PNDC District Secretary for Obuasi Mr…………………….has been DISMISSED WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT – He was fast asleep in the front seat out of fatigue I simply laughed in my head and pretended not to have heard the news that he should hand over to the Coordinating Director during the 6 O’clock news that evening just because he was heavily drunk. I used to park his official vehicle at the Obuasi Central Police Station and left the keys of the vehicle with the police for security reasons. I completely pretended not to have heard the news of his dismissal from office at all. I drove the vehicle to his residence to pick him to his office the following morning and found him sitting uncomfortably on his sofa, speaking to himself and later singing a revolutionary song thus: Cadres may go, cadres may come, but the Revolution has come to stay? I quickly knew that Rawlings had cracked a revolutionary whip on the buttocks of one of his stubborn cadres who was so intoxicated with political power that he thought falsely that he was next to God until I drove him to office, and he asked me what I have heard since yesterday and today in the newspapers or from the radio. I told him that I had no wireless set and equally had no money to buy any news papers too, but I lied to him since it was on the front pages of the “Daily Graphic” and “Ghanaian Times” and I had all the copies too. Well, said he” I have been dismissed from office as the PNDC District Secretary for Obuasi; by the PNDC Chairman, and I have been directed to hand over to the Co-ordinating Director until further notice. I expressed shock and demanded to know what he had done- He told me that it is his” Nkrabeah, an Akan world for Destiny – I told him that if that was the case, then his “Nkrabeah” was a mad one. That ended the official political career of a political novice – and this explains the fact that when you put a uniform on a goat, it will behave very strangely because it has never worn a uniform before in its life. How could some prominent chiefs in the Adansi District, opinion leaders and even the very cadres including this writer who recommended his your appointment to the PNDC govt. and he got appointed only for him to suddenly grow undeserved horns and snub all of us just because he was the then District Secretary for Obuasi? He deserved that dismissal and that was it – period.

Do you know what? During Dr. Nkrumah’s CPP government era – He used to dismiss his ministers of State at 1 O’clock each time – we used to call it the one O’clock fever – and all ministers of the CPP government would stay glued to their radios to listen to the one O’clock news bulletin before leaving office or going any where- as many were dismissed while addressing durbars of chiefs, addressing school children or addressing CPP rallies between 1957 – 1966 and yet others were dismissed while returning from trecks or week ends. This writer was a Young Pioneer Cadre and I saw it all. My articles are dedicated to all those who risked and sacrificed their lives in the early years of the 31st December Revolution in 1982 – 1984 honestly believing that Ghana would be a BETTER AND SAFE PLACE with equal opportunities for all Ghanaians and to Comrade Kwame Adjimah who was shot dead in cold blood at 5pm. On June 19th 1983, the very day that Cpl. Halidu Gyiwah briefly captured Broadcasting House. As a June 4 member, I had gone there with a member of the Armed Forces C.D.R’s to visit him only to witness his killing together with four others by a PNDC member whose name I will not mention for security reasons. What was his offence? He was campaigning against the PNDC govts move to tow the line of the World Bank/IMF policies which we all kicked against between 1982 to 1983. The revolution had eaten its own eggs – we were all told before we joined the system.

Therefore, I am ABOVE INTIMIDATION BY ANY POLITICAL NOVICE OR LATTER DAY SAINT WITHIN THE NDC. YOU LIE BAD- Because when the PNDC wanted young men and women to stick their necks out to be counted as P.D.C’s of W.D.C’s in 1982, I think by now, my numerous admirers and enemies alike would now be in a position to know very well that it has really not been so easy TO BE A COLUMNIST in the media at all.

This is because, the least mistake you publish can easily land you in court for libel to be given a heavy fine and ordered to RETRACT what you wrote and this is what I hate in my life and have never done or will ever do such a thing because my articles are always FACTUAL.

My pen cuts BOTHWAYS across the political divide as a you have read from part 1-3. Why is it so?

It is because I started politics at a younger age in 1959 as a Young Pioneer cadre actively in politics and became a constituency secretary of the CPP in 1962 – 66 when Dr. Nkrumah was violently overthrown and the mere possessing of his picture was an offence punishable by 5 years imprisonment without the option of a fine as a result of NLC Decree 345. When the phoney general elections were organized by the NLC government in 1969. I voted for Mr. Gbedemah’s National Alliance of Liberals (NAL) which won that election but General Afrifa said that an Ewe will become Prime Minister over his dead body and rigged that election for the thick lipped Busia in 1969. Mr. Gbedemah later won his parliamentary seat in the Volta Region but he was prevented from taking his seat in parliament by Dr. Busia’s Progress party government in 1969, so the way I write my articles, no member of the NPP will ever write such articles, especially when his party goes wrong or his Presidential candidate or even their party’s sitting President like J.A Kufour from 2001-2008, what did we see? It was all Praises to the High Heavens even though he was a non performing bad luck president of Ghana. Having said this the NPP can never compare itself with the NDC in terms of democracy as shown by this writer from part 1-3.

I really went through Hell amidst threats and intimidations insults threats of court actions, but I have a very tough skin and even grow fat always whenever I write facts and the punks in the NPP pour insults on me since I do not need any false history book to quote my articles from them because I was an active politician who saw it all since 1959 to date when your mothers and fathers were not even born – so how dare you?

I successfully passed through the mouths of poisonous snakes, lions, tigers leopards, elephants, bees, wasps, dogs, cannibals and war mongers as a no nonsense columnist who is feared by all the Asante/Akyem politicians now leading the NPP today 2013 – one may ask the reason why? The answer is very simple. They have been deceiving the Youth in Ghana by hiding their sordid past from them since 1951- 2013 and I have been exposing then without fear or favour since 1992 to date. They will never tell the youth that their fore bears crippled Ghana and send her backwards through the bloody coup de’tat on 24th Feb. 1966. They will never tell Ghanaians that whenever they are in opposition, they support strikes burn power installations, burn markers, smash cars and kill innocent people, sabotage the government in power lest their tribal party will collapse, they simply hate the truth, however when this writer exposes them, they threaten court actions and I rather add more articles when they do so and dare them to go to court.

If it were my clan members, they will cheer me up my saying this “Chetuu kaabamba niena” Jaanbie Iwaii, Naa mwini na sumii. It is easy and very sweet like something to always write FACTS after all. Let’s tell the children the TRUTH to set their minds FREE

POWERFUL ARTICLES

Most people have been saying that my articles are always powerful and the main reason is that P.D.C’s and W.D.C’s which were later renamed C.D.R’s in Sept. 1984 had hundreds of their members shot dead in cold blood between 1982 – 1983 by dissident soldiers who wanted to overthrow the then PNDC government. The cadres confronted them with their bare hands and were all shot dead by those dissident soldiers who used powerful weapons like AK 47 assault rifles, G3 rifles and sub-machine guns in killing my fellow cadres, so when I decided to write, I always remember the fallen cadres who were killed and nobody cared for their widows and orphans to date 2013, this is the reason why my articles are always very powerful to the annoyance of even some people within my own political party – How sad. In the next article I will tell readers the reason why the Peoples Militia was formed by the then PNDC government in 1984-1992.

The spirits of hundreds of cadres who were killed by dissident soldiers between 1982 – 1984 have always entered the ink in my pen resulting in the writing of powerful articles because whenever I take my pen to write, I can see them crying for justice on a clear screen urging me to fight on so that their painful deaths would not have been in vain. Twenty years of democratic governance some few politicians across the political divide have the penchance for destroying hard working cadres in order to amass wealth. Well, we live to see. I did not see you there at all during the revolutionary era, you must learn from the cadres. I shall return when the need arise. “Jaanbie Iwaii” Aluta Continua!

…………………………

Clement Sangaparee

Municipal Organiser

United Cadres Front

Obuasi

Distribution

All Media Houses

Accra/Ghana

e-mail: clementsang@yahoo.com