Donald Agumenu: Papavi’s death should serve as a national awakening

The mixed feelings emerging from the death of Charles Komi Kudzodzi, also known as Papavi Hogbedetor, leader and founder of the Homeland Study Group Foundation (HSGF) should not be lost on us quickly.

While we mourn with his family in these trying times, it is important we subject the activities of Mr Kudzodzi and his group to some critical scrutiny in the larger context of the administration and governance of the Ghanaian statehood towards maintaining peace, national cohesion, development, and sovereignty.

His activities should not only be seen from the point of dividing the country and distorting the stable peace we pride in as a nation. It should rather provoke and challenge leaders across all sectors of society to rethink and do some introspection of the journey so far from pre-colonial to colonial, through independence and post-independence epochs.

In my first encounters with Papavi about a decade ago, he sought to find out from me the position of President Jerry John Rawlings on the agitations of his group. I told him, he( Papavi) was dealing with an issue of serious national security ramifications.

I asked him if he would like to have an audience with the former President. He replied, saying he had tried several times without success. I confirmed he might have been dealing with the wrong contacts as the office of the former President was open to all and sundry.

I was very plain to him not to forget the nationalistic stands of JJ Rawlings. What was revealing as I gleaned from the actions and inactions of the late Mr. Kudzodzi was a determined soul in search of justice. A quest that must be properly defined and catapulted into how we handle the future of all Ghanaians who might be agitated for one cause or the other and needed redress. It is also important to underscore the need for deepening the understanding of WHAT MADE US GHANA to every citizen of the land and the entire world.

Unification movements that began in the days of Adam just like the quest for independence [be it oppressive or free] should be recognised as an intrinsic value of humanity. That was what I saw in Papavi Hogbedetor.

We should not be seen to be jubilating over his passage as if an enemy of the state has fallen but rather adopt some sobriety and reach out to his followers and all others with secessionist agitations to reorganize their thoughts and propagate the message of national cohesion that the territory Ghana should be entrenched and protected by all.

This should go along with deliberate policies to distribute welfare equitably as well as state machinery deployed to harness fairly both natural and human capital resources.

I urge his followers to remain calm and honour him with a legacy of peace, not conflict. May he rest in peace!

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Dr Donald Agumenu is a Certified Professional Trainer, leadership and management Consultant, Certified Programme Planner, the President of Direct Leadership Institute and the CEO, International Association for People and Performance Development, IAPPD in charge of Africa (48 Countries).