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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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