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The Presidential
Palace debate
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot
October 6, 2009
The debate on the merit of Jubilee House has shifted
from cost to safety issues. So, the whole point of
moving President Atta Mills and staff to Jubilee House
now evolves on the assurance of safety.
Strangely, the issue of safety did not stop ex-President
J. A. Kufuor from moving into Jubilee House in his final
days.
Nine months later, safety and security are the cardinal
reasons for the Atta Mills administration not to transit
to Jubilee House.
And the excuse has been affirmed by none other
than a National Security Advisor, and a retired General.
“In my personal view, I will prefer the Castle to be the
seat of government,” he offered, talking against the
move to Jubilee House.
I would love to take the retired General’s view
seriously, but for one problem.
The
reason for the move has already been marked as a case
badly handled to the point of overreach.
Originally, there was the outcry that suggested that the
building was too costly and a waste because it didn't
take into account the hardships of the people.
With these excuses preceeding, it is hard to believe
that the General seriously preferred the Osu Castle for
security reason because of the sea at the back of its
walls.
The Swedes, the original builders of the Castle, had
that idea too in the 1650s. They lost the Castle to the
Danes. The sea didn’t move one inch to favor the Swedes.
In 1693, an intrepid Akwamu warrior called Asomaning,
probably someone we should build an edifice for,
overwhelmed the security system of the Castle, sea, and
all in place, and seized it in the only justifiable coup
(if we should call what he did a coup).
Unfortunately, Asomaning was to sell the Castle back for
a pittance, probable for an amount worth extremely less
today than the cost of the security barracks the General
wanted for Jubilee House.
The Swedes and all might have been right in thinking
that the sea could be an effective security barrier at a
time when the only threat could have come from the sea.
That was in the 17th century, and the
fear from wind propelled ships and canons was real.
This is the 21st century, not the 17th when weaponry was
yet to rise to the level of precision science.
Today, the sea
provides a platform to hide that precision from us.
The most likely security challenges to our democracy
have always risen internally, as proven by the coups,
not from invaders from the sea.
Jubilee House is surrounded by streets on all sides.
Any security knowledgeable General can turn this
into an advantage.
Easy to mount surveillance cameras on all
approaches for security’s sake.
The White House, the seat of the government of the
world’s superpower, is in the middle of the city of
Washington, D.C and it has surveillance cameras all
around it.
The sea, unlike the streets, cannot be turned into a
defense system successfully with Ghana’s feeble economy.
Putting warships or frigates at sea for 24 hours a day
tours, all year round is a surveillance program that is
beyond our means now.
And by way of curiosity, how many warships do we have at
seas now as a defense system?
Or should we consider first the internal threat
before we consider investing in warships?
Unfortunately, this
General has failed to grasp the significance that quick
and effective “response” means to imminent danger.
The lack of preparedness for immediate response has led
to successful insurgencies in the past and made our
nation vulnerable to the very danger the General seeks
to prevent with a residency at the castle.
At this stage of our development, our security can be
assured mostly by human response. Ultimately it is the
human factor, not a highly sophisticated technological
means, that matter.
It
must be a human factor with a patriotic heart, courage
and a sense of integrity.
The last time there was a successful attack on our
government was in 1981.
And it could have been stopped but for the lack of the
human factor expressed above.
Despite several warnings by the Military Intelligence
group at the time, and before the coup, every other
institution in Ghana chose to go to sleep in the face of
the impending threat.
What happened after the 1981 coup, when compared to the
responses in the past, was different. The
responses were novel, immediate and brutal; directed at
subsequent attempted coups.
This
difference
should underline how laughable the General’s offering of
the sea as a defense system is.
But there is a more serious case against the General and
it is one of a moral failure.
In recommending the Osu Castle, he failed to understand
that the history of that edifice. It is one that
must not be honored as an administrative center for
governance.
Simply stated, the Osu Castle was once a slave fort; a
cultural memory of that much disgrace must never be so
venerated.
This cultural abomination at the Osu Castle, as a
national administrative center, came to an end on
January 7, 2009, when Ex-President John Kufuor moved the
seat of government from the Castle to the new Jubilee
House.
Shamefully, the NDC party on assuming office after
President Kufuor moved the official seat back to the Osu
Castle or the slave fort.
In truth, the decision to move out of Jubilee House was
a political one. It is something to regret but also to
forgive. However, what should not be forgiven is this
attempt to save face by offering more lame excuses for
the decision.
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publsiher www.ghanadot.com,
Washington, DC, October 6, 2009
Permission to publish:
Please feel free to publish or
reproduce, with credits, unedited.
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