The Acquittal and Conviction of Alleged Coup Plotters: All You Need to Know about Coups

Almost everybody might have heard of the word Coup. Coup d’etat in the simplest term means a hostile takeover. Though that hostile takeover is mostly in the affairs of governance, it can also be in business, family, school and every organization of people that has a leadership role or office. The word hostile in this context means a surprising and unexpected move; and a coup d’etat is not always bloody.

Attempts of coups are made out of greed, or to rescue a failing state. It is out of greed if the coup plotters only want to seize power so that they could enjoy the vast wealth of the country that will be at their mercy. If the attempt is unsuccessful, the alleged plotters will in rare cases be saved by taking to their heels but in most cases of being caught they suffer the death penalty. If successful, that is if a counter coup is not staged to reinstate the deposed leader, one should expect the dissolution of government. Power then becomes concentrated in the hands of the junta, especially in their leader. One man becomes the god of the nation and everyone has to do whatever he directs without any sort of opposition – that is if you at all value your life. You must also speak well of that one man in public places because you speaking ill of the supreme leader or the ‘revolution’ warrants your execution. Coups are normally called revolutions because they promise radical positive changes. It is infact the destiny of the nation that is changed forever, either positively or negatively; but in the most cases negatively to the extent that the country never recovers from the looting and atrocities committed. The destinies of the citizens are subsequently affected in a way.

The most important part of every coup d’etat is the announcement. To gain the upper hand in most cases, all points of entry/exit have to be seized. All important government buildings and the national broadcaster have to be seized as well. The process of coup d’etat becomes very easy with a centralized government. In that case, the entire power is invested in the leader of the government so the coup plotters only have to target that building and office that hold that great power and leader. In the process of a decentralized government with strong separation of powers, it is extremely difficult to stage a successful coup. That is because you will have to plan and takeover the executive, legislative and the judiciary. By the time you go few steps into the planning, you will wonder how Military Intelligence got information on you and they will take you before you realize it. You cannot go far in such settings as we have in Ghana because at least one nationalist will be mistakenly brought onboard and he/she will do that which is required of him by the state by reporting to Military Intelligence, in most cases. Coup plotters usually try to win over officers in senior positions of the security services because they have the operational command.

To stage a coup d’etat, you must first be sure that the public will receive the news of the takeover with great joy. If the public fail to support your coup then you are as good as dead. You don’t have to wait for a counter coup either by the Military Intelligence or another opportunist as yourself – you only have to commit suicide to make things easy for yourself. Ghanaians are neither ready nor willing to support any coup d’etat. We as a country enjoy the peace and stability we currently have. If that becomes fragile, we trust the military to conduct operations in line with the provisions of the constitution to restore calm and order. Our honorable men and women have we the people at heart.

In the case of the ruling on January 24th 2024, a lot was taken into consideration by the most honorable judge. By now you know how important the announcement is in every coup attempt. Since the state broadcaster, GBC, has become a ‘military barracks’ with very sophisticated artillery systems and nationalist soldiers, one could only attempt to jam a broadcasting to make such a broadcast. What was not considered by the coup plotters was that a mere broadcasting would only result in the disruption of the peace in Ghana, as their attempt would never be a success of a takeover.

Coups are very dangerous because a lot of people will surely die. An officer who has a problem with your late father or mother could even come to your house to ‘fire’ you. Your stores could be looted. All your properties could be confiscated by the junta or the supreme leader or even an officer, using the name of the state as a cover-up. The supreme leader is the ‘controller general’ of everything in the country and has access to the monies in the central bank; and also the foreign exchange earners like gold, cocoa, bauxite etc. He can empty the national vault if he decides to;and the unsuspecting citizens will have several decades to suffer financial woes as a result. Most coup plotters are complete criminals. As sincere as I am, I must admit that looting of state funds occur in both democratic and undemocratic governments but the extent in the undemocratic is higher because there is no one to put a check on the spending as parliament does in the case of a democratic government. Coup plotters always smile, lick their lips, hesitate a bit or stress on the part that says parliament has been dissolved. Though few countries became better as a result of coup d’etat, the majority failed as a result.

What follows coup d’etat is frightening. Even soldiers fear for their lives because anyone can accuse anyone of anything at any time and open fire. If the soldiers are not contained early, the bloodshed and atrocities are just out of reason. The economy suffers a lot as embargo is placed on trade especially. It is in light with all these that coup d’etat is not only a criminal offense but the highest criminal offense in any country under the sun. It is a high treason, punishable by death.

It is treasonable to put the capital of your country under any sort of attack or attempt to. The capital has to be protected at all cost. If you conspired with anyone to or has knowledge of such attack or even participates in the attack, in all cases you have committed a treason against the state. It is therefore the duty of every citizen to report not only coup plotters but also every suspicious person to the appropriate security agency. It is very honorable for a family to disown any of its members that attempts to disrupt the peace in Ghana.

In this current state of peace in Ghana, we all have to do our part in maintaining the peace. The police service should be very responsible in their work because that seem to be the only headache of we the Ghanaians. The police, especially, should be mindful of their associates and lifestyles – both personally and professionally. Every report should be taken seriously as proper action must first be taken before being lenient. Majority of those who associate with policemen are mostly lawless. The reason rather to be very law abiding is because they deal with the police: so as to protect their image.

Instead of planning coup d’etat, let us work our way to influential positions in politics and business so that we can make the positive changes we hope to. Effective channels should be created for citizens to send their grievances to the central government: because the existing ones of that of the members of parliament and District/Municipal Chief Executives seem not to be working at all. Some MPs do not even visit their people in years; and if they finally do, they spend less time with them. The media should also be very responsible in putting out reliable information and news that could benefit the country by exposing the bad people and schemers in our communities. Ghana should completely be for Ghanaians – no foreigner should be part of our political struggles as that could spell doom. The principle of nationalism should also be promoted to the extreme.

It is better for me to be ‘managing’ financially in a peaceful Ghana than filthy rich in ‘Afghanistan.’ What about you:

By Sylvo BEN-AFA