Former President, John Agyekum Kufuor has recounted his incarceration at the Ussher Fort Prison many years ago.
He describes as humiliating, the 15-month period he had to be imprisoned together with other members of the Busia-led government after they were overthrown in 1972.
Kufuor who was a young politician at age 34 and a deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs during the time he was arrested and detained for no reason moments after the coup d’etat.
Revisiting the sad story 48 years after on Foot Prints on Citi TV, the ex-president said the experience will go down in history as one of the shameful moments of his life.
“We were kept there and I stayed there for a year and three months. The Senior Ministers were there for 18 months. We all lived in there with no charges. It was such an experience so humiliating. I was there on 13th January 1972 but I didn’t come out until March 6, 1973. With all due respect, some of the big people [who are humans] had to [bath and attend to nature’s call] in the open. Can you imagine? Humiliating that was what it was,” he told host of Foot Prints, Samuel Attah-Mensah.
According to the former statesman, he is yet to come to terms with why a government with many intelligent and knowledgeable members will be made to bristle with indignity after their forceful removal from power.
“I wondered why all these well-meaning and brilliant people couldn’t hold power and we allowed ourselves to be kicked out by someone know body knew,” Kufuor remarked.
Source: Citinews
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I don't think you know what you are talking about. You are just blowing jazz and have no slightest idea what condescending comment is. Mr Kufuor is proud of his achievements and life which probably you will never get near that sort of achievements. You don't even understand what inequality is and the causes of inequality which encompasses personal choices, state policies and even family circumstances. Listen to me, inequality can never be eradicated because the variables that caused it cannot be fully managed by a government. I hope one day you will see how humiliating going to prison is to some people who have spent time doing everything to help their country. However, to some, they go to prison to eat cassava they planted while in prison some time ago. Get yourself educated in social and development economics.
It is such condescending comments which sent you there and it is a pity you have not learnt any lessons! What do you mean by "... brilliant people couldn't hold power and allowed ourselves to be kicked out by someone nobody knew"? You really think you were more brilliant than the "unknown someone" who kicked you out? The proof of the pudding is in its eating, they say! When you create an unequal society where only a few benefit at the expense of everyone else and others are made to feel less human then there is only one outcome and that is what you got! You claimed you were "brilliant"; what did you use that brilliance for except to siphon public money and enrich yourself and your cronies? And then you covered your tracks to avoid detection: that is what you refer to as brilliance. Well, hear this: you were just a "klever" "teef" and Ghana is currently ripe for another purge of corrupt politicians and their cronies in business who have ensured nothing works for the ordinary Ghanaian! People are collecting bribes at registration centers in order to register people! If this does not sicken anyone then I don't know what else is! Corruption now permeates every fabric of our national life!
Hmmmm, Ex president, such is life, sometimes is difficult to comprehend what actually went wrong, but consider it as life experience, am pretty sure a lesson was learnt from the place. You couldn’t have learnt those lessons if you hadn’t been there yourself, would have still remained a hear say in your ears. Thank God you even came out stronger to become a president. Nelson Mandela was a clear example.