Feature: 6 Lives Snuffed Out At Military Enlistment

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal; love leaves a memory no one can steal. Richard Puz

Krrr! Krrr! Krrr! The clock chimed. 20 year-old Esi got up from the students mattress on the floor of her parents’ room at Gbetsile and was glad that the clock’s 3 am had not disappointed her. She opened the door gingerly not to wake up the parents and six siblings sharing the same room. She walked a distance for the public latrine, came back, had a quick shower behind the house (no one will see her at that time of dawn) 4 am and she was ready to move.

Maame Birago lovingly called ‘mommy’ had woken up; “Bye-bye, mommy. Esi, ene nyame nkc… All Esi was thinking about was to grab the job, and athletic as she was, play in the hockey team. At the end of the month, she would earn some 3,000 Ghanaian bucks as she had dreamt the night before… enough to assist her family to run the home and take care of the six little kids in primary school.

5am: El Wak Stadium, thousands and thousands of young men and women her age-perhaps numbering 50,000 in their jeans and white T-Shirts over canvas boots had formed several (not) one-dogo-dogo line(s). But how many would be ‘lucky’? 4,000. 7am: the gates were opened. rushing in, ordered to sit on the ground. The heat! Demeaning, Debauching, Dehumanizing. The military police were around with canes, to ‘groom’ the applicants. Stampede, Panic, hurtle… Some could not stand the heat. Black out, collapsing, fainting, debilitation, exhaustion…

Some wanted to get out of the whole quagmire. They had been trapped and entangled. Coming out was as difficult as going in!

At the end of the day, six lives were extinguished, among five times the number who were on life-threatening condition. The 6 included Esi-all her mother’s hopes dashed. So many questions to ask; why were the interviews not ‘staggered’? Why this dehumanizing treatment? Why no ambulances? Why were the applicants whipped? – and a soldier was calling the applicants ‘idiots’!

No, do not get us wrong: we were students of the Army Children’s School, at Kumasi, later called Ouaddara Barracks Basic School, and we imbibed some of the military traits: “nii wawa ni’’ , ‘nii wawa ni’ when a recruit could not follow the drill; you  yourself calling yourself “wawa -foolish”! The trajectory-to Akosa L.A North Suntreso, Bantama L.A. We, therefore, have a soft spot for the military, so that we will tell Captain Smart to mind his words after his “research” that reveal, among others, senior military officers flirting with the Junior female officers, getting them pregnant and jettisoning them; that there is no stand-by generator in Burning Camp; that there are 79 drinking spots in Burma Camp- that soldiers in Ghana are enslaved, they are given 4 out of 10 of Peace-keeping money paid to them. That Saltpond Barracks were collapsed and now GNAT has taken over the offices; that returning Peace-Keeping officers no longer bring ‘nika-nika’ but rather military boots (used?), that many soldiers die, committing suicide.

Esi’s mother will hear on radio or see on TV, the NDC M.P. for Pusiga, Laadi Ayii Ayamba”…. It was their day to die… There is nothing that happens that doesn’t happen at the right time. This is what the Almighty Allah has ordained for them. Today is their day, no matter what, no matter who was there as what, even if we brought all the Presidents of the world to sit there as ministers or whatever, once today is ordained for them to die, they will… Ei! Words of consolation be this?

Not caused by human intent but divine decree….. Unless you don’t believe in the oneness of God…. “Just like a mourner singing; wamma mannwu a mema wo amo (Thanks to God for not making me die). An Ill-timed statement. Takes us back into the seventies at the Sociology Department at Legon.  The sages who include Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin-their position on pre-destination; and Thomas Aquinas, for example, would integrate Augustinian views with traces of free will, arguing that God’s eternal decree would be executed differently in time, thereby permitting secondary causes (human choices) to apply.

While the religionists would contest God’s role in the calamity, the lawyers would point at the Civil Liability Act 1963 Act 176- and check on “occupiers’ liability”- the “duty of care” and “standard of care” (Tort). They would quote Trifo v Dua Viii (1959) GLR and Manu v Mensah (1963) 2 GLR 311 SC Note that the applicants to the military recruitment were not trespassers spurn… White v Black (1972) 2 QB 651 the doctrine ‘volenti non fit injuria’. (to a willing person, no injury is done)

Does anyone reckon that Ghana is sitting on a time-bomb? You will ask, ‘Are we safe?’ Unemployment; a yearly output of 90,000 students from Ghana’s universities (University of Ghana Legon graduated 15,750 recently). And the SHS for 3 years is producing the students fast, fast.. why wouldn’t people stampede…any better arrangement? Add Nicholson Park. Air force Base, Teshie, Tema. In batches of 600…

Why wouldn’t the students be taught skills (carpentry, masonry, plumbing, mechanics…) at the Secondary Schools and Universities, why focus only on “white collar jobs”? How are the Counselling Departments doing their work? Students tantalized to do galamsey.

The government has announced; compensation packages; These include ‘picking’ a candidate each from the 6 dead girls homes for the army; what about if the homes do not have able-bodied persons who will be interested to join the army? Say the picked person is flat-footed, Kapwepwe-like midget or dwarfish of height 1.47 meters (4 ft 10 in), with F in chains Government will bear all the funeral expenses.

OR Did you hear Dr Palgrave Boakye argue that it is a waste of time to establish an investigation committee to dig into why these things happened? Shouldn’t the compensation package be heavy? Col Festus Aboagye thinks the calculation should look at what the dead children would have earned from their salaries if the victims had been recruited.

Wouldn’t the government appoint a substantive Minister of Defense (Zanetor Rawlings fangered?) to replace the late Affable Dr. Omane Boamah. Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson’s hands appear already too full-the finances of Ghana; trying to plug humongous avenues for corruption, misapplication of funds, improving the exchange rates; the dollar-cedi waltz, cha-cha-cha, dance.

And the Ato Forson’s 2026 Budget… The disgraceful display of partisan analysis of the Budget on TV3- You couldn’t believe a doctorate degree holder, Dr George Domfeh, would challenge Prof. Gyampo’s statement. “Those who destroyed the country would never be allowed to frustrate those resetting it..” Prof Gyampo adds, ‘Thanks to all who have called to appreciate my self-restraint in the face of the little mind attack publicly on TV3 Key points. Dr Donfeh would charge: “Nobody is more political than Prof Gyampo.

Everything about you is political when you were UTAG President, look at what you did…(wodi nkwadaa-nkwadaa-inappropriate flirtation with small girls”). And they call themselves academics? Being so personal? The NPP loss of power in 2024 general elections has apparently dazed some members in such a way that good sense has escaped them. NPP academicians would not admit the success of the present NDC administration, the NPP would pray that the NDC would fail, nkoko-nketenkete, Accra-Kumasi Highway project, notwithstanding.….

The so-called Ghanaians prophets could not ‘predict’ the death of these military applicants. They are rather busy on who will win the 2028 Presidential Election! Galatians 6:7 says: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap’’.

 

Africanus Owusu-Ansah

[email protected]

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