Tug of war?

How time flies is an idiom used to say that, time passes/has passed quickly. For example, when a gentleman was told that a young man had entered the university, he exclaimed, “What? Kofi is already in the university? I was at his naming ceremony! How time flies!”

Recently, it happened to me when I realised that so soon it has been four years since I wrote my August 2020 article “COVID-19: Tug of war results?” in the Daily Graphic and Peace FM. How time flies! Part of the article read as follows:

Nigerian Civil War

In recent times, a picture which has been making the rounds shows two smiling 86-year-olds; former Nigerian Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, and 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka. Under normal circumstances, this picture would not have made news.

However, what makes it significant is that these two gentlemen were once upon a time in their thirties, enemies who were described as being at the opposite ends of a tug-of-war rope between July 1967 and January 1970.

The tug of war then was the Nigerian Civil War, which had Gen. Gowon on the Federal side, and Prof. Wole Soyinka on the other side with Biafran sympathies. They fought a bitter 30-month War during which Gen. Gowon had Prof. Soyinka imprisoned for about two years.

Even though the war ended with the surrender of Biafra to then Colonel Olusegun Obasanjo (later President), it resulted in a weakened Nigeria state, which still suffers from the scars of the war.

Significantly, Gen. Gowon declared the result of the war as “no victor, no vanquished!” In effect, it was a “lose-lose” situation for both sides with the state of Nigeria the loser.

At the end of two-and-half-years of fighting, there were about 100,000 military casualties while estimates have between 500,000 and three million Biafran civilians dying of starvation.

Is this what some Ghanaians wish for Ghana simply to have power? If 86-year-olds who fought a war in their thirties regret the carnage and destruction of their country, why can we not learn from history?

Before I relate this to the tension being created by the increasing use of vitriolic language, sometimes bordering on hate speech, and the violence taking place in Ghana today, what is a tug of war?

Tug of war

Between 1900 – 1920, Tug of War was an Olympic sporting event. It is a contest in which two teams of eight per team pull backwards at opposite sides of a rope until one team drags the other across a central line.

Somehow, tug of war had a life span of only twenty years in the Olympics. The objective of tug of war is for each team to pull the rope along with members of the opposing team to their side.

Harmless as it looked in comparison with boxing, it was soon discovered to have terrible hidden dangers; hence, one of the reasons for its removal from the Olympics.

Sometimes, the force with which the winning team falls backwards is so violent that, the winners end up with more injuries than the losers who are also not spared serious injuries.

In some cases where the rope has snapped in tug-of-war contests, all 16 competitors ended up in hospital with serious injuries.

On June 4, 1995, at Westernohe, Germany, the tug of war rope snapped during a competition resulting in two deaths and five severely injured.

Of the 650 participants in the whole competition, 29 got injured. In addition to injuries from falling and back strain, there is also damage to the body, including the leg, fingers, hands and even arm amputations.

In later English usage, “tug of war” also means a situation in which two evenly matched people/factions strive to keep or obtain the same thing.

Developments

In recent times, Ghana has experienced an escalation of incendiary language and violence against perceived opponents whose thinking does not fall into their mould.

Are the damaging results of tug of war what we want in Ghana?

Why are we doing this to ourselves, considering the respect we enjoy not only in Africa but internationally as a peaceful people?

Conflicts do not just happen, and wars do not break out overnight. Even though a particular event may serve as the spark, like COVID-19, these sparks only ignite existing “underlying conditions”, which include divisive politics, tribalism and greed.

War-torn countries

What we are working towards is, therefore, going the Nigerian 1967-1970 way. West African countries, such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, have all gone through civil wars with UN peacekeepers coming to keep peace and restore law and order.

In Rwanda in 1994, eight-hundred-thousand Rwandese were killed by fellow Rwandese in about one hundred days. Hate language played a major role in this tragedy.

Let no one think Ghana is beyond that! For once bloodshed starts, ending it is difficult.

For the warmongers, probably a trip to one of these conflict areas where Ghanaian soldiers go for UN peacekeeping will educate them about their war cries!

It is amazing how youngsters can threaten the whole country’s security with amazing impunity and get away with it without any adult calling them to order to sanitise their language.

Are they working towards a destroyed Ghana, which they will regret later in life like the two 86-year-olds?

Probably, apart from Rwanda, no African country, which has gone to war, has made a full recovery. Gun-toting civilians terrorise innocent people with impunity.

Discussion

At the University of Ghana 2024 Alumni Lecture on Thursday, September 19, 2024, Guest-Lecturer, Speaker Alban Bagbin, venting his frustration, did not mince words on how disappointed Ghanaians are in the Legislature whose allegiance is more to party than to the people who elected them.

He warned that if the trend did not change, the foundation would not be laid for a military intervention but for a civil revolt, as had happened in Kenya recently.

With galamsey ravaging our environment and destroying our water bodies and rivers, civil revolt is the last thing Ghana needs.

The lesson from the two 86-year-olds who fought a war in their thirties, General Gowon and Professor Wole Soyinka, is that whatever the semblance of victory might be, tug ofwar always ends in a “lose-lose” situation. Need I say more?

Leadership, lead by example! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!

The writer is former CEO of African Peace Support Trainers Association, Nairobi, Kenya/Council Chair Family Health University College, Accra.

E-mail: dkfrimpong@yahoo.com