No Child Left Behind? No Soldier Left Behind?

NO CHILD LEFT BEHING ? NO SOLDIER LEFT

BEHIND? YES! THEN WHY MUST A GHANAIAN DIPLOMAT BE LEFT BEHIND?

Mr. President,

Your Excellency John Dramani Mahama;

Vice President, H. E. Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur;

Madam Speaker

and Honorable Members of Parliament;

Chairman and Members

of the Council of State;

Your Excellences; Former President J. J. Rawlings, Former President J. A. Kufuor;

Distinguish Kings, Chiefs and their respective Elders; The Diplomatic Corps in

Ghana and the world; Honorable Presidential & Parliamentary Candidates in

the 2012 General Elections in Ghana; Fellow Ghanaians, Ladies and gentlemen;

Accept our condolences on the departure

of H. E. President John Evans Atta Mills. He was truly a father. Last

September, 2011 our hope to seek audience with the late President, Professor Mills was deliberately refused us and himself denied some possibilities to have heard

directly from a displaced Ghanaian diplomat, with whom his presidency had

communicated severally including a personal telephone chart. Vulnerable as

September seems to be, for most diplomats, September 2012 became our next

targeted time for a more public protestation in New York to seek attention.

Since no Press Release or communication yielded the attention necessary for a

diplomat claiming protection from the very government for which his life was

threatened. Not even radio discussions warranted the care to rescue a homeless Ghanaian

diplomat.

The passing of His Excellency, John Evans

Atta Mills, therefore became a double agony to me and my displaced family in

our quest for fairness, freedom and justice from the Republic of Ghana. In honor

of his passing and legacy as an honorable leader, and indeed in respect to the

grieving former Vice President and our newly sworn President, John Dramani

Mahama, we coiled back our protestations. May Our Passing President and all

those who passed before and after him, as we languish in exile, rest in perfect

peace.

One thing is certain; but for the fatherly

concerns and care of the late President, a lot would have gone worse for us and

the Presidency might never even have communicated with me as a distressed

Ghanaian diplomat. So even in passing we see in President Mills a true Ghanaian

leadership, worth emulation across our perceived dark continent. He was a light

and a shiny one as such he remains.

Our grieves notwithstanding, the

struggle for fairness, freedoms and justice never expires. It did not expire

with our ancestors who were forcefully taken into slavery; it did not expire

when blacks fought against discrimination in Europe, North America and the

Caribbean. Peoples fight for fairness did not expire for those slaves on the

Amistad. The quest for fairness continues in independent and unified South

Africa for both blacks and whites. These fights for fairness never expired as

we fought for independence and are seeking economic prosperity. Yet, fairness

was denied us by our country, Ghana, the black star of Africa when it celebrated

50 years. Ghanaians then acknowledged the essence of our independence banner “Freedom

and Justice,” but as a nation, Ghana watch its diplomat ridiculed, displaced,

abandoned and threatened with death just for his genuine official services, and

perhaps his cultural origin and religion, from the hands of a serial abuser. The

abuses of Ghanaians by His Excellency Dr. Bafuor Adjei-Barwuah, then Ambassador

at Ghana’s Mission in Tokyo, Japan are adequately recorded as committed under

the flag of the Republic of Ghana. This even CHRAJ claims it cannot handle.

This is when government is most needed.

A deliberate attempt to arrogantly and

repeatedly disrupt the social mobility in Ghana particularly amongst targeted people,

in specific regions and with a common faith in our country is unfortunate and

worrying. We can strengthen our nation only with a strong moral responsibility,

when each acts as a brother’s keeper in a strong and unified Ghana.

Can we say putting a female official

secretary in one’s matrimonial bed caring for the brethren? Can we say human

traffic is patriotism? Do we consider sexually abusing these victims of human

trafficking Ghanaian? Do we consider administrative abuses, denials and financial

sabotages as service to the homeland? Must someone retired take salary while he

denies others at work theirs? If you said yes to any question above, then you

can vote Dr. Adjei-Barwuah as next President of the Republic of Ghana (even as

we know he is not a registered candidate) because you are about to hear him

admit it all. None of these “attributes” are tribal, religious, political or

even reasonable for human sanity. The victims had one common characteristic

which the subjugator attacked always; Ghana.

Our tolerance for years is no weakness;

we will remain sane until our adversaries are insane. The losses however are now

too much to bear. To recall but a few lost sympathizers on our course Abdul

Majeed Umar Sanda (aka Acquah), Mohammed Umar Sanda (aka Baban Lami), Mr. &

Mrs., Henry and Sophia Abruquah (Saltpond), Amina and her mother Hajia Adisa

Awudu King (Bawku), the numerous sisters, brothers and friends, We also recall

late Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama’s sympathies, then a father of the

nation, late President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills did stand with us but they

all are no more. We were robbed the joy of Ghana@50 and are about to miss the

company of alumni of Bawku Secondary School at Bawsco@50. The time for

explaining, spinning and finger pointing is running out. We shall no more allow

the conspirators of our doom to be in their best game; their words against ours.

We shall put out the words of our adversaries, against themselves. Thence we

shall release all the necessary and any available materials for the public to

know, prove our innocence and those of other victims in a bid for a closure.

Varied as we are victims, it is certain

I was targeted, humiliated, defrauded, abandoned abroad and threatened with contract

killers not to return home

because of my cultural origin, religion and whatever social vulnerabilities.

Unfortunately State, Ministry, Department and or Agency officials and means,

were deliberately misused to torture our consciences and threaten our lives. A

reason why we are in this excruciating exile raising a daughter, the fourth of

our four children who was forcefully emplaned at 2 years, now asks where is

Ghana? A daughter who was denied simple bed for almost a year after the

purchase of investment items including furniture was approved but the money

designated never utilized because Ambassador

Dr. Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah so desired to tortures us. Until her sister

started to rehearse going to school with an oversized backpack, this daughter

thought life was just home because no one schooled for more than a year at post.

This was a family dispatched as diplomats to serve their country, Ghana, a

nation considered the Mecca to freedom fighters, the gateway to African

democracy and rule of law.

Our subservience, quiet, restraint and

respect to Ghana which cannot be over emphasized, is justified. In no doubt

just for the oath of office, we will sacrifice further for our country but not

in the quiet any more. As and when the world hears us loud and clear, those

death threats will become unnecessary, we shall have closure and our children will

adequately understand the reasons they still must think as Ghanaians.

Otherwise, death would be peaceful as usual, now that my children reasonably

know their father better. A father, who stood by them, irrespective of the

difficulties, as they did when they were emplaned for duty, denied every customary

and departmental option. This is when citizens need governance and we expect

government at least to understand this cry is faked or not.

It is honorable to be a Ghanaian and to

serve my country as we raise another generation of Ghanaians in exile, living

in a great nation without the pride of citizenship as “diplomats in exile.”

Countrymen, in your cultural diversities

and political preferences do vote your conscience because we still have decent

candidates. It is easy to say NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND! Great to hear NO SOLDIERS LEFT

BEHIND as

both our Presidential and Parliamentary candidates of all Political Parties sell

their intensions. Nevertheless,NO ONE SEES WHY WE SHOULD COMFORTABLE SAY

NO DIPOLOMAT LEFT BEHIND!

However, as teachers, workers and

soldiers, single mothers and those “walking to school” students, particularly

those with “gari” in your pockets, mouth or down the throat as we speak, you

are not alone. In whatever situation, we find ourselves now; those meandering

reptile infested footpaths to school were my best decisions.

As a Ghanaian, you may share the same religious

faith with me or not, but as a Muslim, I love you as I do to the mother of my

four children, my Christian spouse. You may hail from another corner of Ghana

but you are my brother or sister, a mother, father, or an uncle and a Ghanaian friend

for God sake. This was how I served Ghanaians. In the same vein I expect you to

accept these materials as they may appear where ever with the feeling that you

could be next, targeted, tortured, abandoned and or threatened citizen. It is

enough to be in the quiet.

Thank you and May Allah Bless our homeland

Ghana.

Alhaji

Issaka Issifu

Ghanaian

Diplomat-In-Exile

11/25/2012