Military Brutality In Ghana Must Stop Now

Korsi Blafo

It was reported this week that some military men allegedly assaulted a Mr. Jasper Amuzu, a driver’s mate together with his boss last Tuesday in the environs of Hohoe. About six months or so ago, six soldiers were alleged to have brutalized a driver in Accra. Perhaps a year ago, it was reported that some soldiers beat up three police officers (from their names, two female and one male officer). Here we go again, I say.

Almost every few months we hear of soldiers brutalizing someone. This is decades after the Ghana army unleashed an unprecedented orgy of brutality and bloodletting on the defenseless citizens of this country with the active connivance of a bunch of ill-advised cabal of failed pseudo-communist students, civilian collaborators and charlatans in the name of some so-called revolution. But that they say is history.

In more recent times military brutality, certainly now isolated, rather than systemic, has crept back into the country with some predictable certainty. This must not be allowed to go unchecked. And to add insult to injury, there is a shameful, deafening silence whenever the military brutalize civilians. This must stop. Of course, there are decent soldiers. But there are clearly too many bad apples. Clearly, the army must have a culture that permits this sort of behavior. In typical Ghanaian fashion, most will simply sigh and say, “Fama Nyame,” and so we learn no lessons, no restitutions are made and the arrogance of some in the military, some of whom can’t beat a school yard bully without their guns, think they have a right to continue their despicable behavior. Indeed, this cowardly reaction may be emblematic of our general malaise as a nation.

The government itself has usually offered weak response to military brutality. For example, about two years ago at the height of military brutality in the North, then Vice President Mr. Mahama issued a tepid statement saying cases of military brutality were “regrettable.” So, whether it is a result of our moral cowardice or a lack of courage, we may seethe in anger individually in the comfort of our homes and minds. Collectively, we remain silent as a people when our fellow citizens are brutalized by those who are supposed to protect them. Therein lays an even greater danger: silence in the face of brutality only goes to embolden the aggressor. The fact is this sort of abuse of power sets this nation back and does little to assure this reader of the stability of our democracy.

Of course, the situation is worse in some other African countries. For far too long, the military across the length and breath of Africa has taken the privilege to have a gun as a license to brutalize, maim and kill the citizenry. It is about time that we speak out forcefully against this evil. In Ghana as everywhere else, brutality of the army (yes, I know it’s just a few bad apples some would say) destroys the legitimacy of the army, and in our particular case renders the Ghana Armed Forces much publicized performance in peace-keeping operations a mockery. Charity, they say, begins at home.

By its very nature, any military is built on clear lines of authority with well-defined chain of command. The roles and responsibilities of each rank/person is clearly defined all making it possible for the military as an institution to develop a culture based on disciple, and unquestioning respect for authority. In the case of Ghana, I am perhaps right when I saw that the military ought to be perhaps one of the very few, if not the only, disciplined institutions where people know what their purpose is or ought to be and work singularly toward that purpose. I am unable, as an outsider, to know how much discipline there is left in our armed forces. It is no secret though that the AFRC/PNDC era was one in which the structures of discipline within the army broke down completely. Indeed, Mr. Rawlings who happened to have presided over that time, and probably bears some responsibility (not all) openly discussed this breakdown in discipline within the army. It is clear that much work remains to be done. I doubt if the current crop of leaders who incidentally happened to be junior officers during the Rawlings era are up to the task. Clearly, the evidence suggests that this remains an ill—disciplined force. It is fine to have a great reputation in peacekeeping. Yes, go off abroad and be nice because you are paid in foreign currency. Then come home and brutalize your own people, including beating up police officers. What cowardice, what hypocrisy.

Perhaps a brief history on the nature of the army may shed light on the pervasive culture of violence that defines most African armies. Under colonialism, the colonizers sought to strip the colonized of all their dignity. From the time of the Local Authority Police in Ghana for example, the native law enforcement personnel were trained to do their masters bidding. Of course, it was easier to use the natives to brutalize their own people. All across the colonies, natives recruited and trained were used to deal harshly with any political dissent.

All through Africa and Asia, including India, one saw the same pattern: native soldiers and police brutalizing their fellow citizens to please their white masters. In India, the British sought to use the caste system in its recruiting, tried at some point in time to use one social class against the other in the ranks as it pursued its odious “divide et impera” (divide and conquer) doctrine. As any student of history knows, colonial armies were formed as tools for conquest of native peoples and their subsequent subjugation. What we got after independence was the same army with a colonial mentality. To borrow Frantz Fanon’s words, what we have now are “black skins with white masks.” So what we have now is that instead of the army answering to their colonial masters and white officers, we have black officers presiding over the other ranks, and the mindset change that should have happened after independence never happened. It is the same situation across the length and breadth of this continent. Indeed, the situation is not different from neighboring sister countries such as Togo, and Nigeria. All over Africa, one sees a troubling pattern: armies very incapable of shedding their repressive mentality towards the civilian population. Whether in peacetime and certainly in war, most African armies have a reputation for brutality, and so years after independence, what we have are soldiers who because they have a gun think they are above the law and can do us they please. This arrogance of the armed forces must stop. The army ought to hang its head in shame.

As far as I can remember, the Ghana army has never fought any wars to defend this nation from any real external aggression. But plenty of guns have been fired during this time. If a tally were made of the number of deaths, that number will overwhelmingly reveal that helpless civilians, have withstood the brunt. We cannot, as a nation look on unconcerned when soldiers brutalize people, no matter how difficult the assignments we give them. This is a volunteer army. No one was forced to join. Announcements of recruitment to the army draw thousands of potential recruits. With no jobs available, the forces remain one of the few employers. So when taxpayer money hires you, pays you, the least you can do is be civil in your attitudes. The military brass needs to realize that the military as an institution loses its legitimacy when it allows the miscreants in their midst to turn their guns and fists on people whose very sweat and toil buys them their free uniform, boots, guns and feeds them.

The much-vaunted reputation of Ghanaian soldiers in international peacekeeping operations is meaningless when some of them behave as a bunch of rowdy and ill-disciplined posse. The UN ought to take a second look at using Ghanaian soldiers for peacekeeping if they cannot exercise discipline at home! Enough is enough. Jasper Amuzu deserves justice. The military must set up an inquiry now and tell us what happened. Give this hardworking Ghanaian his justice, now.