Nkrabeah Effah Dartey Writes: A Soldier Collapsed?

The year was 1981, January 20^th or there about. The event was annual memorial flag raising ceremony to remember the battle of Myohaung, schedule for El Wak Stadium Accra.

His excellency the president Dr Hilla Limann told the Minister of defense Riley Poku that he will arrive as guest of honor at exactly 10.00 am so the Soldiers should be on parade latest 9.30 am. The minister did not want problem so he told the chief of defense staff that the president would be coming So the soldiers should form up latest 0900hs. The CDS did not want problem so he told the Army Commander Brigadier Amoah that the parade should be ready by 0830hs.

The Army Commander told the brigade Commander, then Colonel Abana, that the Myohaung Parade should form up by 08:00hs and the Brigade Commander told Col Eric Asare Djan CO 5BN that the contingent For Myohaung parade at El Wak should be in place by latest 7.30 am.

The Commanding officer of 5Bn, then Col Asare Gjan, told the Adjuntant that the contingent for the parade should be in place by 07:00hrs and the Adjuntant published in Part One orders that the vehicles for the parade will set out at 06:00hrs for El Wak.

I was then a subalternin 5BN and on that day. I woke up at 04:00hrs, got ready and was at the parade exactly by 05:00hrs. We sat in vehicles from Burma Camp and by 06:30hrs we had firmed up at El Wak stadium, waiting for the program to begin.

Never before then, not even at the Graduation Parade in Sandhurst nor since then, have I stood at ONE SPOT continuously not fidgeting, standing still, from 0630hrs to 10.30 when the siren announced the arrival of his excellency the President.

Reports from Koforidua say that on Wednesday 6 March 2024 during the Independence day Celebrations, so many casualties were recorded by those on parade…..students, firemen, security persons, including an Air Force Soldier…. Flight Sergeant Nii Armah collapsed… and….. the soldier subsequently died moments later.

Reports from Tamale say that as many as 66 casualties were recorded and the health workers on standby had a hectic time.

A Soldier collapsing on parade……………

All over the world, one distinguishing feature of the military is physical fitness. No wonder you see a 70 year old retired soldier and you will think he is 50 or 45. They are always running, walking, jumping obstacles, no time to eat or sleep, on duty twenty-four hours, leave is a privilege, not a might.

So, for a soldier to collapse, on parade, and subsequently die moments later, is the serious indictment of the standard of fitness especially of the unit he was drawn from.

Reader, in the year 2006 in my capacity as Deputy Minister of Interior, I travelled to Asin Fosu to perform the graduation of some Ghana Immigration Service Officers. I remember during my speech, which was only four pages, one of the officers on parade collapsed. I ignored him and continued reading my address …….. after all I have been a soldier before and enduring parades is one of the hazards of the security service.

If you have read this article with any seriousness, you will ask that why should soldiers be sent to El Wak as early as 6:30am when the president will come at 10:30am? Why? Four hours, doing NOTHING. I am sure the soldiers at Koforidua were at parade by latest 07:00hrs if not early, possibly on hungry stomachs.

The current CDS is an infantry, Army Officer. I am sure he will not blink an eye on this issue.

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