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No Child Left Behind? No Soldier Left Behind? Yes!
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- Created on Monday, 26 November 2012 00:00
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No Child Left Behind? No Soldier Left Behind? Yes! Then Why Must a Ghanaian Diplomat be Left Behind?
By Alhaji Issaka Issifu
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 chat.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
