Esther Odartey Wellington - PM Profile on JoyNews (18-10-19)

[Music] well hello and welcome to p.m. personality profile my name is NaN Anza quad the fourth chief of the little Republic of Occam Oh Eddie masa and every Friday repeated on Sunday I come to you with a guest who may have a story to share today we're gonna talk history I think it's going to be a history lesson I'm for one person you know I have said that there's an error in our history that contributed greatly to our being to our country however has been wiped off there are people living in dulciman Sakuma note Emma Casablanca for idea Bhagat anga who had it not be in this era probably would have never living elsewhere homeless yet we tell our story and gloss over and today we're going to go back and know relive those moments it's gonna be you know an emotional one but when I come back I am talking to Esther or data Valenti but not about herself I'm talking about her dad Major General Neville Alexander who data quality just before the show I was calling a few people when I was asking what do you know about a data Valenti ah some sizzurp he was back in the rolling school wellness is no no he was against the role in school ah no he was nobody actually knows who this gallant man was why indeed he just got honored by the Ghana Armed Forces just recently giving him a board placard with beautiful writing saying how gallant and how brave and how also just should we exemplify without a volunteer so how come you and I don't know anything about this gallant soldier stage when I come back we're talking history [Music] well thank you very much and let me say thank you very much to crown apartamento once again they give me the ax premises to do our recording so if you want somewhere to have them some leisure to relax remember crown apartment to ride an airport residential area very close to the airport very close to the central business center so it's a good place to hang out and I'll say thank you once again for them you know giving me the Presidency's for this interview but let me say thank you very much Esther thank you very much for having me yes yes yes yes yes I've been looking forward to this interview out of my own curiosity before I interviewed you I called a few people right and I was trying to find out you know what do you know about a data volunteer and it was very vague very vague there are those who said oh he was back in the rolling school the other said no no no he was a gangster rolling school I'm not sure I know some said he got shot and GBC sam says no I'm NEMA that was very vague but what was growing up like as an auditor volunteer member come here yes I was actually born at Michele come okay okay then it's really very big and I remember we lived at labardi villas late sixties we moved to my own barracks our premiums to being second Battalion in Tecate I remember more of that because I was a older thing mm-hmm yeah where my father was the commanding officer okay I remember that then a prelude things were very orderly and he noted and the way inspections okay oh yes there were inspections and they would look under your bed there were in sections for the other ranks and the offices these guys come to inspect the house oh yes I see well it was cleaner oh yeah my father was going around today lines as we called it well he didn't give any notice things were very orderly and it was the whole community it had a Catholic Church they had a Methodists and Presbyterians combined maybe an Anglican I can't remember I had a mosque so there was an imam everything he had a market everything you needed was it was it you guess was that my father I remember he took a keen interest in our schoolwork always found time when he came home to do the homework with us my mum was a homemaker and she would do the nursery rhymes and things like that with us but I remember that he was very keen and so what he he had this strategy where we would be several chapters ahead of whatever I said book the was so by the time we got you know though we knew yeah and I think it had a lot to do with his background he he lost his mother at a very early age about three years of age something like that and it was very difficult for him so and he had money to pour himself you know by his bootstraps I think he was very keen that we did well in life mm-hmm so nothing hunted on a silver platter but who hardwork share grabbed in school work so he was very keen yes that's life in the house was very orderly now it was quite a passionate soldier I mean did he find time to do family time or family work yeah that's what I've said he was very keen on the homework and things like that and in the early years and all throughout but as he assumed more senior roles I think it became a bit more difficult and then of course we were in boarding school by that stage as well so yeah it was only during known again he might come to visit at school and he would find time for the main things like confirmation so Thursday at school or if you had a problem you'd find time to talk to you and then we had the little brother still at home and he always used to file away his little doodles drawings of him and he had time to go through your school report with you when it tape and then talk to you and if you had to give you a talking to do it in there talking to and then it was filed away and then of course his fatherly responsibilities like paying the school fees and doing all those things he was very strong on that yes so I think he run his personal life as he did his work life very orderly yes but he started life as a postman not a postman and now his father was a senior civil servant he was with the post office okay so when Daddy finished school his father sent him to the post office incidentally it was the post office and Burma camp yes and that is where we lived in the last years of his life the house bungalow was round the corner walking distance from the post office okay and by some quirk of fate the army headquarters now it's also a stone throw so you see now you have the complex named after him this building with his name in bold letters and it's just really yeah so anyway I digress yeah so he followed him as a post and telecommunications officer that was what his his title was I've seen in his records and while there he got his hauling to enter the military so when he went to Sandhurst well now we've accessed this record so see from before that his preference was to be in signals to be a signal officer because he had been a post and telecommunications office song it was their natural yeah yeah exactly but somehow he found his home in infantry and that is where he belonged they couldn't have been a finer infantryman because he was I have seen some of this reports from Sandhurst that he was a people's person and the people just warmed up to him did you get that no sometimes you read about your dad anything really was he like that I mean did you see him like that or these are the things that you read about he could be very stern and not and very keen to give you a good blaster I have met offices now and some of them yeah offices now who always have a tale to tell me about how maybe they didn't do this or didn't do that and they were summoned and and then they will go through the whole procedure and tell me and they would say it with humor and warmth and say well I deserved it oh I learned a lot so he was very stern but firm but but very fair he was very fair and he was not at all pompous and he was very could be very jolly and had a very good sense of humor hmm if you saw him with his military bearing and the massage pitching up and down you'd but he really was a lovely word person he didn't like nonsense he was very strong on discipline but he was just he was very sociable also yeah and he went through the rhymes to literally become an army commander that's correct probably is a silly question but what what was it like going through the rising because you you you would have seen him you know rise through the army you know when we moved to talk rowdy he went as the commanding officer and actually so when I really was able to discern things I think I always saw him in a position of authority mm-hmm so now King back he was in his thirties but to me he seemed very old you see he seemed very old he wasn't that old and he just had that aura in that berry from the second battalion he then left at the end of his time there and went to the Staff College at cumberly in the UK and then he came back I said left in unkennel if I remember correctly and then we move from there to quarter so to Kumasi for four BN where again he was the commanding officer but we didn't stay there long you know we came down to Accra and then he went to Matt's the Military Academy yeah and he was there and then we didn't stay long there and then we went back to Tecate but this time in a civilian role he was appointed the chief executive of garnet in burma cotton board okay and in those days maybe it still is the case I don't know timber was seen as the poor cousin to cocoa mm-hmm it didn't make us much money but he went there with great Drive and enthusiasm in with the same military discipline that he is well known for and he turned things around yeah and even got an office in the UK to be profitably no he turned things around so timber was good here into good office in the UK as well we stayed there I can't remember a couple of years then we came back down to Accra and he went one brigade brigade commander so again that was a very senior role then at some point she became a full colonel and then he did that for a I can't remember for how long off the top of my head and then we went back where we were still in the camp but then he was a commissioner for agriculture so I had a great roles this was then the SS MCA NRC first and then it became SMC one SM said true so I think that might have been NRC leading to SMC one he became yeah Commissioner of Agriculture so played a very big role in operation feed yourself project of general trample she knows was very successful Ghana was exporting food and so on and self-reliance was a big thing and then from there he moved an agriculture that maybe still it was not very popular health wasn't popular and so from agriculture then he moved to health ministers helping so he did that and then returned to barracks to one prelate and then from one Brigade the natural progression was army commander which he became in 1978 I think it was July that's right this is just to a bit of appreciation feed yourself because I remember plantings and coke ooyama and not the operation feed yourself I mean everybody even it was a flower pot just put a couple of that's correct amazing yeah everybody was encouraged to jewels of something in the ibaka area and it was all self-reliance we can do it the country spirit and the corporate you know feeling the team effort the team work which sadly seems to be missing in these days when it's me myself and I I see so I never knew that daddy was in charge of a Greek then yes yes yes yes so becomes a my commander in 78 that's correct June 4 79 mm-hmm that is Waterloo I'm going to take a quick break and come back don't go away now it's gonna get excited [Music] thank you very much for staying and I'm talking to está Dottie Wellington that's not June 4th 1970 nights probably the saddest day for for your family do you do you recall that day I do I was in school at the time in the middle of my exams and I remember that morning another's old Nobel's box radios and then we heard there was something and then at some point I had my father on the air very calm saying there's been this that in the other direction has been quelled everybody should return to that very calm so that was reassuring sorry tune to get back yeah what I find amazing is that he said that even if you were part of the in session it's ok just come back to barracks we'll deal with it yeah I was expecting him to say look robotize anyone who was part of this yeah you know but he said even if you're part of it you just return to post we'll deal with this yeah bye see that is the mark of a true general the safety of his troops was paramount was very important to him the safety of the population at large because imagine if he had gone out and said you'll be dealt with visit they were going to run amok and the civilian population was willing to bear the brunt of it he was very very key that casualties avoided or to be kept to the barest minimum and that is why on that day he called for a truce and as you might have had on the broadcast he said return to barracks everybody should go about their normal duties and I will meet these people listen to their grievances any other alleged crimes or misdemeanors and whatever so Daddy was to him keeping casualties that was the most important thing at that point so after the cool was announced in the morning he then went to GBC to make the announcement yes what had happened he he wanted broadcast and secured for him so as I understand it he asked a recce regiment which was under the command of major Suleiman are in those days to secure the broadcasting and that task was given to Major reader who was one of the squadron commanders there so he went to the broadcasting house fast he secured it and he made an announcement so I think that was signaled to the general that Asia and then he went and I have been told that when he arrived there his first question was are there any casualties so that was always paramount and he was told that they had been no casualties I think so when you hear people say things like he arrived there guns blazing it's totally false and that is when he then made his announcement which was very calm as compared to the lead of the interactive insurrection who was very excitable and excited and was screaming and yelling daddy was cool and very calm so then he gave his announcement and after that he moved to the police headquarters to strategize and what's with the tape and while he was there I think the this ought to kill him so there were planes flying over shooting and again he was concerned for his officers in his name so he decided to leave and they remonstrating with him and said sir do say we shall protect you but he said no he could have had their protection but I'm sure that he didn't want to live at the expense of these young officers so he decided to leave to the NEMA plane station and he was there with his ADC captain Opoku and his bodyguard bento and the commander's office there and why Dyneema playstation well I mean I don't know what he I can't answer that but it was a forces office wasn't it the police force it was perhaps a small place which nobody perhaps exactly pay attention to ordinarily think that the Army Command would go in there you see sir but so I think that is why he went there but in any event he wanted to distance himself from all the troops there to save that really and even when he went to the NEMA police station he told the bodyguard and the ADC that they were young men and they did not he didn't also go in mufti in civilian way he was in his full military uniforms oh he was identifiable he left in the police more work small armored car there and while he was noting some people saw and then they were hunting for him I think in a chap called gotcha coup gang torturing wielding drunk maybe under the influence of marijuana I don't know went in there my father got hit well window while he was lying this man in others best an NB a DC said to him time honored military fashion the general is hurt let's get medical helpful you will do that even to an enemy combatant you know that people have been arraigned before courts afterwards for more treating prisoners of war and this soldier I will not call him a soldier a proper soldier doesn't do that this man took out his rifle and he just executed my father in cold blood so the story above this gunfight what he was shooting and spraying and shooting and spray no it's not true if anyone was shooting because look let me go back when the troubles started the brigade commander at the time who had access or who had to give instruction for the armory to be open refused to do it or was nowhere to be found or whatever that is one of the tragedies of that day however the mutineers managed I don't know how at some point to get hold of Sundance and they were distributing them to people who had no business Karina's the military the gun is a big family it's got cooks it's got doctors as go god it's got old sauce in it a cook it's not trained to carry a rifle they were just given out these things willy-nilly and so they were done toting people all over the place firing indiscriminately but I will repeat general of the archer Wellington was very keen to avoid casualties and in effect he sacrificed himself because if he the the murderous rampage actually reached a crescendo once he died if he had sought to protect himself there would have been punished because he could have ordered his men to exactly and you would have spilt into their larger population so garner owes a great debt to general Dodaro Wellington I mean you spoken to it's a major reader some of people who were close we why didn't he at that point say you know something fact see because even at that point he was telling people oh yeah the C's for my father was a very decent man and he was a true soldier you know oh he was the sodium the true sense of the word and also let's look at the history of Ghana 3 1979 what happened on June foo was without presidents it had never happened before so and I shouldn't try to secondly I don't know what what he said was in his mind but I'm just with all the facts that I have to hand apart from avoiding casualties also what happened was with our presidents and I don't think anybody ever imagined that these boys would go to the extent that we did it and frog-marched their generals it was without precedent so I don't think general Daugherty Wellington and imagine if he had given the order and these armored cars and imagine what would have been imagine the country owes him a great debt well why didn't he put an M of T and the usual thing head of to toggle a general a soldier cowards when you take an oath to protect your country now let's assume that it was an a foreign force enemies from outside coming how did he know at that point c1 why didn't know it could have been an invading foreign force so he did what he had to do protect his country he was a patriot he exemplified sacrifice immense courage and valor it would never have entered he said no when he was hold by one of his commanders he wore his uniform and he left and went straight off to take charge of things because the Chief of Defence Staff adapter was nowhere to be seen when he resurfaced later it was to announce himself as the liaison officer between the government of the day and the mutinies what did mom say that morning when he was leaving home when I was in school of course but I know that he was in touch with her over the phone so I think the head will hold mom call him never know Alex Alex Monson all I forget about this thing don't go you know when you when you marriage through a military man or even when you're a child of a military person you know it causes through our veins we didn't know any better don't forget daddy had seen active service in Congo there had been various operations where he had you know participated so what do you do you give him the support and then you look after the house and he goes knowing that there is a stalwart woman in the house looking after the family so that is how it had always been so she wouldn't have no he wouldn't have listened anyway but she wouldn't have tried to stop him no I don't think it entered into know we are coming straight back don't go away [Music] well thank you very much for staying and that's a posthumous personality profile things that probably would have want to speak to the general about but thankfully his beautiful daughter is here to do that on his behalf see do you think history has dealt that is era the SMC one and two you know hard blow because you know they did quite a bit but he seems to have glossed over I don't know coming from that culture if you feel the same you are absolutely right there in Anna constantly amazed at the ignorance of people that I talk to they don't know anything about that era 1972 to 1979 they don't know anything at all and I think that there has been a systematic and deliberate attempt to wipe out that part of artistry the achievements of big generals or the NRC and recency governments because when you look at the seven years what they achieved in seven years I don't think any country government in this country has been able to achieve as much in that space of time could it be that because they overthrew a constitution and therefore we say well the over to our Constitution so we don't want to talk about it look at the end of the day it was a completely bloodless coup these were not junior offices ill-educated no they were the cream of the crop now even if they overthrew a constitution what did they do with the part that they had snitch was started by general a chance for Social Security Bank general example you mentioned operation feed yourself condom to supplement a Kosovo there was this energy whatever line to Togo Dahomey electricity was to supply vanina's electricity their utilization wage Adam you mentioned dancer man they had lots of low-cost affordable housing in all the regional district capitals don't talk about that what about successfully changing over to drive-in on the right-hand side of the road what about successfully implemented metric system taking over the imperial system what about Kumasi the medical school there and various VI irrigation project tunnel irrigation project donor what about electrification not in Accra outside Accra various things that they did yeah yeah for weed well what can Oh mini like it there what cannot simply Asante did with sports Oh stadia in all the regional capitals floodlit Accra and Kumar say what can i link ever did with education introducing the national pledge national service Secretariat the list goes on and on and yet we are made to believe that our fathers did nothing and that is in a space of seven years and don't forget they were actually spearheading upon Muncie by iron in still works working with dr. R P bar on that then that was to launch a major industrialization program and that is when you know they were killed now 14 years down the nine I see something in the press about some few words somewhere with a foreign company now this was going to be wholly Guinean run gave me an old there was also a concerted effort to ensure that we Ghana had majority shareholding in all extraction of natural resources so that I think the government managed to get was a majority shareholding from tight Tony tiny Rowland is Lebanon yes one so you see a lot was that and all these things have been swept under the carpet and the that I think that there I don't know why but perhaps it makes people feel better because then they can justify killing them when I say that no level of national interest justifies sending a section of the population into such misery and I would like to say that the National Reconciliation Commission came out with a report and you try finding getting hold of a copy of a of the executive summary try getting hold of a copy of the white paper they have been systematically taken out of circulation and it's very important that the country makes peace with its past when Nazi Germany was overthrow the Third Reich for the first ten years they were silent and then gradually in the sixties people started asking their parents grandpa grandma mummy daddy where were you what did you do what happened until forty years later in 1985 when the then president Richard von what's his name vice striker now I don't speak Dutch so they should forgive me for mispronouncing he made a speech and you know you really and he accepted what had happened and said that a country that is blind or refuses to examine its past is going to be blind to its present and its future it is very important that we acknowledge and there is hardly any country in this world which hasn't had problems or hasn't had any scandalous so we have to accept it for what it is it was a blight on this country's history and we have to accept it and we learn from it but if we don't learn from it and we have people who you read the report and these are not apocryphal stories but names are given when somebody is accused of hoarding flour and so a soldier gets gunpowder and chili powder mixes a concoction and douches hair with it and that person is not brought to account or we don't teach our children and our grandchildren this is what happened it should never be repeated then what we are saying is anything goes and we live in a society where anything goes and it's unacceptable finally the army you know has given I think a baby fitting memorial commendation recommendation for daddy was a satisfactory was a working no years ago we heard nobody approaches we heard that are not secured and is caught somewhere had we lived after him that is laughable this time round and I pay tribute really to the current army commander major-general Surya Londo for his courage his courage and standing up and saying something has to be done for general Adachi Wellington and he has done what is within his power to do which is to name this block the complex after general dirty Wellington so of course we are grateful to general I am due for doing that this is long in coming and I hope is the first of many things thus a country that doesn't recognize these heroes is not worth dying but a big question but short time to answer and I know some people are saying oh it's been 40 years why are you still going on about in general when people say that I think it's their own collective guilt or I don't know what it is because look 400 years when the fair slave landed in Virginia and what we do we call their descendants come back home 400 years and 40 years when we take our generals and tie them to this fate not only dead generals best civilians are tortured in indescribable ways 40 years how can that be true long mind you it took 14 years for a German president to stand up and say let us do some self introspection be always to ourselves to examine what happened and I have been waiting for somebody here 40 years online to be the guardian of the country's moral conscience and say we did things we should not have done it's about time we looked at it it's about time we educated our children and our grandchildren it's about time we wrote history as it is and not try to change it it doesn't do anything if you don't confront your past you are not likely to make a good future or a good a better future a better present anyway so I don't think 40 years at all is too long the time how many years down after the world war and we still sell more celebration by commemorating you know this day Memorial Day Remembrance Day so that we don't repeat the things of the past but if we carry on putting our head in the sand like ostriches ostriches what are we going to do we we are going to repeat the past mistakes and we're going to think mob rule is the way to go and anything goes and I want to say today that you cannot run a successful country with the mantra anything goes it's not the way to live it's about precedent it is indeed about precedent it's very unfortunate but you know there I say this but you know history is either the dunk or Busia a bit of an coma or the NBC rolling history that's so in anything aside so Lamar you know the SMC guys have all been wiped out but they have play the parts how do you mean I don't have the power to know you who has the power but how do we rewrite and incorporate all these things into our history I think when we begin to accept that we did some terrible things look where Germany is today they didn't get there by pretending the Hitler didn't live they pretended for a short space of time but eventually they realized that they really had to make peace with your past we haven't done that and I don't see anybody wanting to do it you go to Kigali and they've got a museum they've got all the skulls and things that the people some of them who cause those things they're still there but then they disgusted they go together be punished we're punished but you are in a country or we are in a country where people the way let me take a small example there was something called the pitch the pre-trial investigation team which operated during the air Farseer and they were a wicked bunch of named then it will be tied you if you went before them some of them are still in places of authority some of them run for Parliament so what are we telling our children anything goes that is the problem when we confront it and there is nothing like collected national guilt politic individual guilt that is what it is and people we don't know what happened people have deliberately seared their consciences so that they don't remember or the feign ignorance if you want to know you will know many people were around when they were spray do women's legs and came in them in between their legs and pushing children there to shout area Chania hey hi it happened people turn the other way able thrives when good men say or do nothing it's about time we accepted what happened and dealt with it that is the only way forward and 40 years is not too longer tonight 400 years down the line we call in descendants of slaves to come down and we can't deal with our own problems 40 year down the line it cuts both ways Wow Wow Wow wish we all have daughters who stand and defend us not when you're dead but while we're still while we are still alive while we are still alive do you tell that is storage to their grandchildren who their grandfather was yes I don't have any children myself okay but I've got siblings who have children here and I'm very careful just to lay the facts there as they are yes and not try and locate any hatred or anything like that then give them the facts as they are and I do that you also two young people that I come across because a lot of them are very ignorant what happened there are new books for them to look at nothing though sometimes I go abroad and I mentioned my name and people say oh such and such you know and when I mentioned that the personal Saturday we are very short and yeah so he's recognized who you know elsewhere but here people try to downplay yes because if they didn't do that then they wouldn't be able to justify you know what they did the mistake has already been meant we can't undo the wrong but at least we can begin to rehabilitate the memories of these gallant men not many people like general Adachi Wellington he has been described by his peers as the greatest Kenyan general in our contemporary times and that is no mean feat and he deserves to be honored at the highest level and indeed the national reconciliation commission recommended that he be honored and we are still waiting for Ghana to do that they haven't done it well I'm sure to happen well then I hope hope happens while you were arriving kicking so that one day when you meet him you can tell him that hey it finally it finally happened that would be great to see them but I was a bit of history I thought we all share a great part of our history that's been glossed over but as we said you know if you're blind to your history we're blind to your present and your future I want to say big thank you to ask our data volunteer for granting me this interview for educating me and yourself most of you have bits and pieces of the story but this was you know a part of it no the whole of it but a part of it which was factual until I come to you again with another fine personality I want to say thank you thank you so much for watching and as the thank you so much thank you very much now it's been a real pleasure [Music]

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Keywords: todays news in ghana, ghanatoday, ghana news today latest, myjoyonline news today, Entertainment News, Ghana Business News, Ghana Sports News, ghana news, Joy News Interactive, MyJoyOnline, MyJoyOnline TV, PM Profile, Esther Odartey Wellington

Id: hq-98j-m9Kk

Length: 49min 12sec (2952 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 18 2019