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
