Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso – Naval Captain Baffour Assasie-Gyimah (Rtd) has raised a powerful question about Africa’s future and its treatment of visionary leaders who seek to transform the continent.
Speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Thomas Sankara and His 12 Companions Mausoleum in Burkina Faso on Saturday, May 17, 2024, Captain Assasie-Gyimah expressed deep sorrow over the assassination of the iconic revolutionary leader, Thomas Sankara.
“It’s a sad day because one week before the assassination, I was with him and the brother who killed him. I was with them because we had heard in Ghana that there was something going on. But they denied. The two of them denied,” he revealed.
Reflecting on the tragedy and broader continental issues, Captain Assasie-Gyimah questioned the future of Africa and its persistent cycles of betrayal and suffering.
“So, when I see the statue, the monument, I say, Oh, Africa, for how long are you going to suffer the way we are suffering? If, by chance, God brings one person, one leader to change Africa, and the people gang up, fellow Africans gang up, under the instrument of the colonialists, and they get rid of our people. How long can we continue like this?” he asked passionately.
Drawing a parallel between the late Thomas Sankara and Burkina Faso’s current leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, he called on Africans to unite and protect those working to liberate the continent from neocolonial influences.
“Look at Traoré. He has come to continue the work of Sankara. But how long can we have it? Africa? No. Sad. Sad. Just for the interest of the white man. Just for the interest of somebody who is interested in our gold and our everything. We do not even think beyond that,” he said.
Captain Assasie-Gyimah concluded by lamenting the tragic pattern of Africans turning against their own leaders, which he believes is a major reason the continent remains stagnant.
“And we get rid of ourselves. We get rid of our leaders. And then the continent remains as it is,” he added.
Story by: Emmanuel Romeo Tetteh(#RomeoWrites
) / Ahotoronline.com | Ghana 
