THIS IS NO FAMILY AFFAIR (OCT 19, 2010)

WE have talked extensively about indiscipline, which has permeated every facet of our national life and is steadily eating away the fabric of society. Indiscipline has been a subject of discussion on radio and television and dominated newspaper publications while many pastors have used their pulpits to draw attention to this national canker.
In spite of the sermonisations and protestations, the country is still engulfed in lawlessness and acts of indiscipline are becoming a normal part of our national life. The indiscipline on our roads is now phenomenal and it has been sadly accepted that for every road, there is an unofficial one purposely for the use of commercial drivers, who use the shoulders of our roads as speed lanes to show their personal aggrandisement.
The daily carnage witnessed on our roads speaks volumes of the type of drivers we have in the country – drivers who use more of their legs and hands and very little of their heads when behind their steering wheels.
Politicians and their hirelings who describe themselves as political and social analysts and commentators have turned the studios of radio and television stations into gutters, into which they all descend without any sense of shame to smear themselves with filth in the name of democracy and one of its fruits – freedom of expression.
Students are prepared to go to battle against school authorities who dare to enforce the Ghana Education Service ban on the use of cellular phones on school campuses.
Indiscipline has matured and now knows no bounds. It has extended its tentacles to the building sector, where people build anywhere anyhow without regard to laid-down regulations. Accra, the capital city, is virtually a floating city after the slightest rain because flood waters have no drains to follow and so discharge themselves into the streets and homes.
Even religious leaders, who in the past inspired the rest of us by offering good counsel, have strayed into worldly things and are now virtually on the same level as others when it comes to breaching the law or exhibiting undisciplined behaviour.
One way or another, either as individuals or groups, we have all shown one strain of indiscipline or another. Since we are human beings and harbour the weakness to occasionally stray off course in our endeavours, a few infractions here and there could be tolerated, but it becomes dangerous for society if state institutions that have been mandated to maintain law and order become instruments of indiscipline, thuggery and lawlessness.
On Friday, June 4 and Saturday, June 5, 2010, there were some nasty incidents which were widely reported in the media. It began on Friday, June 4, 2010 when some soldiers from the Fourth Garrison went on rampage and brutalised more than a dozen policemen at various duty posts in the Kumasi metropolis, leaving three of them unconscious.
In that incident, it was alleged that a man riding an unregistered motorbike and without a helmet was stopped and questioned by two policemen on duty. The rider, according to the story, later identified himself as a soldier. We all know that it is an offence to ride an unregistered motorbike and equally an offence to ride a motorbike without a helmet. The law does not grant any concession on account of who the rider is.
The police said in the course of the interrogation, the rider got annoyed and sped off but before issuing a threat that he was going to bring more of his colleagues to assault the policemen. True to his threat, a military vehicle packed with soldiers drove to the duty post of the policemen at Cedar Crescent Traffic Intersection and attacked the policemen, tearing their uniform in the violent orgy.
From there, like sharks that have smelled blood, the soldiers went on rampage and attacked any policeman on sight. The victims included Inspector Jacob Gyekye, Lance Corporal Opoku Agyeman Prempeh and Constable Hannah Serwah, who were on duty at the Bekwai Roundabout.
On the same day, another policeman, Lance Corporal C.K. Mensah, stationed at Nkawie, was assaulted by some military men at Sofoline while he was driving to his station. The carnage continued when another group of military men attacked policemen at the Suame Police Station and vandalised their radio equipment and other property.
By now they were in top flight, enjoying the game so they proceeded to the Suame office of the Ghana Water Company Limited and attempted to attack policemen on duty at the barrier nearby, but the policemen who saw blood in the eyes of the soldiers fled for their life.
The adrenaline was still flowing, so on the following day, Saturday, June 5, 2010, the soldiers continued the attack on some Motor Traffic and Transport Unit officials on duty at Sofoline, this time using hammers, and left their victims unconscious after the brutalities. The victims were later conveyed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for treatment.
Before that weekend’s two days of madness in June, on May 20, 2010, a group of soldiers had attacked MTTU officials at Suame for arresting their driver who was driving without a valid driver’s licence and log book. Then on May 22, 2010, a soldier went berserk when he was cautioned for driving carelessly and dangerously at Asokwa, another suburb of Kumasi.
What had gone into the heads of those soldiers who decided to operate outside the law and administer their own brand of justice to police officers who were only performing their lawful duties? The June incidents in Kumasi were widely reported and brought to the notice of all those who matter in the military hierarchy and the political apparatus. They include Lt General Henry Smith, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Interior and Brigadier-General Chris Ocran, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) the Northern Command of the Ghana Armed Forces.
The impression they gave the Ghanaian public was that this was a small misunderstanding between family members and, therefore, the Military High Command and the Police Administration could meet to resolve the matter amicably. Is that how we treat those who breach the laws of this country?
Even on the battlefield, under the Geneva Convention, enemy combatants have rights and soldiers who are deemed to have breached international protocols are punished, how much more those who, without any provocation, go on the rampage and attack the police for going about their legitimate duty? Should such soldiers be welcomed with warm embraces back to the barracks bytheir superior officers? What happens if other professionals or organised groups begin to resist the arrest of their members in such a crude manner?
Since that Kumasi incident was treated as a family affair, it happened again. On Friday, October 8, 2010, a police corporal, David Dzokoto, stationed in Ho, allegedly came under physical attack from some soldiers of the 66 Artillery Regiment, who were returning from a military exercise in a convoy of vehicles.
The soldiers did not deny the allegation and justified their action by saying the police corporal was drunk and was behaving irresponsibly. Come to think of it! Remember the Asokwa incident which took place on May 22, 2010? A soldier went berserk because he was cautioned for driving carelessly and dangerously. Surely Corporal Dzokoto had not done himself and the Ghana Police Service any good by his irresponsible behaviour, that is if we are to take the word of the soldiers.
However, the soldiers must be told in clear terms that by their action, they have behaved more irresponsibly. They could have proved otherwise and shown the way by apprehending Corporal Dzokoto or reporting his conduct to his superior officers and wait for the reaction of the Police Command for future reference.
By taking the law into their own hands, they have either exhibited ignorance of the law or proved to be above the laws of the land. In both cases, they have not endeared themselves to members of the public, especially those who still see soldiers as a bunch of people who know nothing beyond exhibiting brute force.
Some of us know more than that. We know that in the military, especially among the officer corps, are some of the finest, most disciplined and well-trained persons not only in the military sense, but academically and intellectually such that the country can boast of them. That is why it would be a disservice to the institution if the authorities continue to gloss over such acts of misconduct on the part of a few soldiers. We need not wait for a violent confrontation between soldiers and the police before we come to terms with realities.
Infractions such as the ones exhibited by soldiers in Kumasi and the latest in Ho, should not be treated as family affairs that must come under arbitration from the family head. The law is quite explicit and there is no room for concessions. As soon as you condone one act, you create a situation where similar acts become justified. Under normal circumstances, members of the military, like their counterparts in the police, must be seen to be the most faithful adherents of the laws of the country, since they could at anytime be called upon to defend the country and its laws.
The Kumasi incidents and similar ones were cases of blatant disregard for the law. They amounted to treating the police with contempt and subjecting them to public ridicule. Very often, the police look the other way, when men in uniform breach the law, especially traffic offences, in apparent recognition of soldiers as counterparts. It is only fair that the soldiers reciprocate this goodwill and identify with the police in the maintenance of law and order in the country.
The Ghana Armed Forces have a reputation which must be guarded jealously. It is an institution made up of disciplined officers and men who have served with distinction in different parts of the world. This is an image that must be built upon and not undermined by acts of lawlessness.
We have come a long way from those revolutionary days, and we do not need to descend back into the jungle of old, where might was always seen as right.

fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com