Comment on "The June 4 Libation" by Kwesi Adu

Comment: A very great libation to the true heros of June 4 and a strong indictment to a living charlatan!

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The June 4 Libation

By Kwasi Adu

(Holding an open bottle of Henkes Schnapps in one hand and water –for those who do not take alcohol- in the other).

Nananom, Nsamanfo, mo ngye nsa nom. Here is your drink. LAC Osei Tutu, here is your drink. Lt Agyeman-Bio, a drink! Cpl. C.C. Addai. a drink!. Sgt. Matthew Awaar, Drink! Cpl. Halidu Giwa. Drink!. Sergeant Malik; your drink! Pte Sylvester Tanti Adamogire, Drink! Pte Abdulai Gamel, Drink!!  Ekow Bonard, have a drink! Bartels; here is your drink. Kwame Adjimah, come and take your drink. We cannot mention all of you; but to all our departed friends, come for your drink. Tomorrow is June 4. On a day like this, we remember all of you. All of you who rose up in the name of probity, accountability, anti-corruption, abuse of power, impunity, defence of truth, and protection of the poor and disadvantaged.

LAC Osei Tutu; have a drink. You were the first one to fall. That was on May 15. You did not live to see what happened three weeks later. But when others heard of the reason behind your move, they rallied and took action to continue what you had set out to do. When you fell, your wife was pregnant. Those with whom you moved on May 15 did not ask about, nor even visit your pregnant wife.

Lt Agyeman-Bio! Have a drink. You are the real hero. You fell on June 4 even before the battle was won. It was your bravery and decisiveness that made you lead the troops that very dawn. You led from the front, not from the rear. What an Osahene! The ideals that you held, that spurred you on to make that decisive move will live on. It does not matter that some of those who you thought held the same views as you have turned into something else. They have turned their backs on the very things that you thought they stood for, and because of which you were prepared to lay down your life. They have now done very well for themselves, doing the very things that you stood against and which you thought they also stood against.

Lieutenant, in this world, there are people who for their own selfish reasons, would pounce on other people’s noble ideals, own them, and make everyone else think that they believe in them; when in reality they do not believe a jot of those ideals. What they do is to ride on the back of those ideals, and also on the backs of people who share those ideals, while scheming to have personal advantage.

Now that you are on the other side, you know them more clearly now. That they should have made you to think that they believed in the same ideals with you and you exchanged you life for theirs is unacceptable. But now you know the truth.

I cannot possibly mention all the names of the fallen heroes, because if I start, we will not finish this libation. So collectively, all of you on the other side, come and take your drink. You are the unsung heroes whom very few people know.

The heroes that died later, all because you were betrayed, should come for your drink. Cpl. C.C. Addai. Drink. You died while in exile in Lome in a gruesome way. As you lay dying, you kept saying that you did not want to be buried on foreign soil. You wanted to return to Ghana even if you would be shot in your sick state.

Sgt. Matthew Awaar, (the very handsome one). Drink! Cpl. Halidu Giwa. Drink!. Sergeant Malik; Drink! Pte Sylvester Tanti Adamogire, Drink! Pte Abdulai Gamel, Drink!!  They told you that 31^st December was to redeem the masses from poverty and want. They told you that although you were from Northern Ghana, it did not matter if you overthrew a Northern President, because the struggle was not about ethnicity. In good faith, you agreed. Now, look at what they did to you later. Before you were murdered (for that is what it was), you were called “bows and arrows carriers”. What a turn-around! You paid with your lives, not knowing that they only wanted to join the elite.

Akatapore (Saarge) is still alive. Zaya, Napoleon, Atamps, Gariba, Yen, Explo, Nubuor, Braimah, Adabuga, Mambisi, Ali Yemoh, Okpara are all alive. They all remember you. It’s been some time now since you departed, at the hands of those for whom you had initially risked your lives. Drink! You were all shot in the back, against the rules of the military, by people for whom you fought to bring about 31^st December. After you were shot dead, your lifeless bodies were dragged along the ground in a manner that even a sheep will not be treated. But you were soldiers, who should not have been treated in that way. You were the foot-the soldiers, who were not just abandoned, but murdered in cold blood by people that you originally trusted.

Private Abrokwa, you died while on duty, thinking that you and people in the leadership were following an ideal. Today, come and see. The ideal has been abandoned and replaced by self-seeking escapades. Cpl. Frimpong, while on duty, working to achieve the ideal, you drowned on Nzuleso, in the Western Region.

Dzakpata is here. Steiner is here. Your premature deaths meant that you could not build the many mansions that the others have built; you could not send your children abroad to have their education. You just died; just like that. Very few people remember or know you. But as for us, you are always in our hearts.

Bartels, another ultimate foot soldier. We remember you as if it were yesterday. Dzakpata and Steiner salute you. After foot soldiering for so long, you managed to get yourself a fishing licence. With the help of some foreign investors, you acquired fishing trawlers to undertake fishing to contribute to the economy. However, he came, took away your licence, and gave it to his mother. You then became poor again, eating roasted groundnuts like we used to do before. When you were diagnosed of diabetes, you did not even have the money to pay for health services. Your leg was amputated; and you finally died. How can a person be so callous to his fellow man, especially one who was supposed to be a friend? But that is how they treat their foot soldiers. These days, they have resurrected the foot-soldier trick again. Strengthen the hearts of those you left behind to be bold.

Kwame Adjimah, here is your drink. On the morning of 31^st December, when several people were hesitant to come out to support, you accompanied me to the June 4 farm at Kantamanso, to bring back the members of the Nungua June 4 Movement branch to hold the first demonstration. Later, they shot you, first in the legs; and as you fell down, you held the feet of your PNDC assailant and begged him not to kill you. What he did was to point his pistol to your head, and pressed the trigger, blowing your head apart. Now the Nungua branch of June 4 Movement is dead. Alex Bolabi, Naa Adjeley, Stephen Borquaye etc. are all now “missing in action”.

To all of you, soldiers and civilians, we know that you were well-intentioned. Even in spite of the betrayals, we plead with you to forgive your killers and those whose “thank you” for all your work for them was to murder you. Have a drink.

On such a day, our fond memories of you come to the fore. Be calm. Don’t haunt your traitors; because if you do, you may be blamed for any calamity that might befall them. Leave them to their own devices. They will meet those with larger toes along the way. Send our greetings to the others. One day, the truth shall be known. Nsa, nsa, nsa, nsuo, nsuo, nsuo!!!!