AFRICANEWS

Ghana

Political exiles now returning home

Human rights

The election of an opposition party into office has brought along in its wake the feeling of genuine freedom, if not for many. But for victims of the former regime of Jerry Rawling it is a blessing.

'Positive change' was election slogan of then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) as it tried to wrestle power from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC). The elections of December 2000 have come and gone and the results are known to all. The NPP, which had been in opposition for 20 years, is now in control of the affairs of the country.

During inaugural address, President John Agyekum Kufuor threw an olive branch to all Ghanaians living in exile and those seeking greener pastures in other countries to return home to help in the reconstruction of the country. Ghana has vast natural resources, but has remained underdeveloped because of extreme politicisation of developmental issues for the past two decades.

Since president threw an open invitation to all Ghanaian exiles to return home, a number of people who fled the country as a result of political victimisation have started returning home. And to buttress the seriousness of the government to harness all human resources for development, a 'Homecoming Summit' scheduled for May this year is in an advanced stage. The summit aims among other things to draw all Ghanaian professionals working abroad to come home and invest in the economy to create jobs for the unemployed and launch the country into a middle-incoming earning country by the year 2010. High-powered government delegations are already touring the United States, Canada, Britain and other European countries to market the idea.

A.F.G. Coffie, 65, a retired army officer is one of the political returnees. For the past 19 years he had hidden from the former regime of Jerry Rawlings for fear of being killed. Coffie was one of the few who were lucky to have escaped the icy hands of Rawlings security machinery in the early 80s and has been in exile until January 7, 2001 when the new government was sworn into office. As one of the six Ghanaians to form the nucleus of the military intelligence after Ghana attained independence in 1957, Coffie enlisted into the Gold Coast Regiment in 1955. On retiring from the military in 1973, he formed the Anti-Coup movement in 1979 after Rawlings staged a bloody coup and executed ten former military generals including three former heads of state. The aim of his movement was to rid Ghana of any more coups. But luck was not his side. On December 31, 1981, the Rawlings staged his second successive coup in which he overthrew the civilian government of Hilla Limann, which he had handed over power to in September 1979. Coffie and his friends became the immediate target of Rawlings and his 'Revolutionary boys'.

Narrating his own story to the media, he said after the 1981 coup he was persecuted on daily basis until he fled the country in 1982, fearing for his life. Several of his colleagues, including serving military officers where arrested and either detained or killed on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) government. Like many refugees fleeing from Ghana at the time, his destination was Togo, where he initially had support from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and some friends, but after a while, he was left on his own. While in Togo he worked as a security man, but was later dropped because age was not on his side.

He then ended up as a teacher, but he was dropped after a while because his employers said he had no previous teaching experience. Out of frustration he took on every job that came his way. Despite having very little to eat the aged man resorted to donating blood to hospitals for a pittance to keep himself going. He said the change in the government came as a huge relief to him because after nearly 18 years in exile he had lost contact with his family and relations and could not wait to see the day the Rawlings government would be voted out of power. In his first week in power, President Kufuor, probably, aware of the Ghanaian refugee situation in Togo visited that country to ease the frosty relations between Ghana and Togo, which borders to the east. But the visit coincided with the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the ascension into power of Togolese President, Gnassigbe Eyadema, who came to office via a coup after overthrowing the civilian government of Gilchrist Olympio. President Kufuor was loudly condemned for double standards.

His critics argued that he had no business celebrating a coup with Eyadema, while he condemned Rawlings' coups in Ghana. But to Coffie and his colleagues in exile the visit couldn't be more timely. He said the visit by the president inspired him to pack his few belongings and head for Ghana. But Ghana was not a haven as he learnt on his return. Life was very unbearable for the average Ghanaian. On his arrival, he took shelter in a friend's house, but had to look for another place because his friend's body language suggested that he was no longer welcome. Coffie moved to a suburb, 18km outside Accra. There too, life was not easy, as he had returned from Togo with nothing. Now quite unemployable, he is contemplating what to do with the rest of his days. "As for employment with another government agency, it is going to be difficult with my age", he says.

The newspapers and the radio stations carry pathetic stories of political returnees on daily basis. Unlike his colleagues, luck was however on Coffie's side. Days after the local media publicised his plight; an insurance company operating in Accra hired him as a front desk security man. Today, Coffie, like many others who suffered without any just cause can force a smile, which he never dreamt of during his exile days. The issue of the returning Ghanaians from exile has been one of heroic, but also pathetic one. Though already overwhelmed with a number of inherited problems, the new government cannot afford to ignore them for humanitarian reasons. Their lives have been shattered and only government assistance can mitigate the fears they are harbouring, as they face the days ahead. To them where the next meal is going to come from is a dreadful thought and this is no fault of theirs.

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