Jerry John Rawlings’s death in November last year reminded me once again of the memorable times we spent in Ghana. For the not so well versed, in 1979, Jerry John Rawlings, then a young Flight Lieutenant, led a coup-d’etat against the ruling military regime and became Head of State. He handed over power to a civilian regime but later, not satisfied with their way of working, returned via another coup in 1981 and remained Head of State till 1992. Having laid the foundations for a democratic transition, he contested elections in 1992 to become a civilian president. He was elected for a second term in 1996. It was on 10th December 1996, the day of his re-election as President of Ghana, that I first arrived in Ghana for what would turn out to be a 14-year stint. While there are questions being raised about the disregard for human rights during his regime, most believe that it is his tough no-nonsense hands-on rule that transformed Ghana into a buoyant nation which is considered a model democracy in Afrcia, a continent mostly ruled by military regimes.
JJ was President when we arrived in Accra and his official residence was the Osu Castle (or The Castle as it was simply known). The Castle is actually an old Danish Fort (Fort Christiansborg) which looks directly onto the seafront on one side and is approachable by road from the other. In Nigeria, where I had spent the previous decade, the approach to Dodan Barracks (Residence of Nigeria’s Head of State) is an absolutely NO GO zone, with speed breakers, metal barricades, tyre busters, and heavily armed soldiers visibly stationed several kilometres before. A slight mis-entry and you risk getting shot at with no explanations or apologies. The approach to The Castle in contrast was quite different. The road was serene, with beautiful trees on both sides, completely traffic free, no barricades, nothing, and except for a few signs saying High Security Area, Entry Restricted there was nothing threatening about it at all. I was pretty new in Ghana and had never ventured too deep down that road.
Shortly after our first Sony Centre opened in Accra in 1998, we had some Singaporean visitors from Sony Singapore, young managers, and I was taking them around in my car, giving them a guided tour of Accra. One of them had a Sony 8mm Video Camera and was happily filming the sights, again something you could do quite freely in Accra, but in Lagos could end up being arrested for ‘spying’. As we passed Castle Road, we decided, hey, lets go down this road towards the Castle, we’ll go carefully and if we are challenged at any stage, we’ll just turn back. So we drove slowly towards the Castle, unhindered, we passed one or two roundabouts, and now we could clearly see the entry gate. We stopped here briefly, planning to go around and return from here. The Sony guests continued filming, getting great views of the Castle.
And then suddenly all hell broke loose. About half a dozen gun-wielding soldiers suddenly came running towards us and surrounded our car. They wanted to know what we foreigners (Obroni people) were doing in this restricted area. We explained to them that no harm was meant, we were just admiring the sights of beautiful Accra, and fortunately, they were quite understanding. However, they wanted to take away the 8mm Video Tape which was being used for filming, but when we showed them what was on it, they let it go. As for us, whew, we were relieved that things hadn’t gotten out of hand.
The Castle is no longer the Official Residence of the President of Ghana. Since 2007 this has shifted to a new building called Flag Staff House (later called Jubilee House). The Castle is now a museum, open to the public. Flag Staff House was built by Shapoorji-Pallonji under a US$ 50 Million Grant and is a gift from the Govt. of India. Besides the residence, it also serves as the President’s Office kind of like our own PMO. We supplied large numbers of Sony TV Sets to the staff of Shapoorji-Pallonji while they were stationed here for the construction, and later also to some of the Ministries once they moved to their new premises.
Fond Memories of Ghana as always.