TRIBUTE TO JOHN NDEBUGRE

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 The life of Comrade John Ndebugre was not normal because he always defied what was considered the norms of his time and did what was in his view right.

Who could believe that a minister would on leaving office, register his private car as a commercial vehicle and ply the Accra-Aflao route with it as a commercial driver?

John Ndebugre did this and more.

After leaving office as the PNDC secretary for Agriculture, John joined the Kwame Nkrumah Revolutionary Guards (KNRG) and became its National Organizer and a key part of the struggle to restore the multi-party democratic order. This journey took us through the building of an alliance of the KNRG, the New Democratic Movement (NDM) and the African Youth Command (AYC) and eventually to the founding of the Movement for Freedom and Justice (MFJ)

Nde as he was affectionately called was appointed to join a four man team which was charged with responsibility to persuade the two Ghanaian political traditions to join the struggle for multi-party democracy. The team was made up of comrades Kwame Wiafe, Ex-Lt A.Owusu Gyimah, Nde and I.

It was this team which on the advice of Mr. Victor Owusu, apparent leader of the Danquah-Busia tradition at the time, persuaded Professor Albert Adu Boahen to accept the offer to become National chairman of the movement.

Nde had tremendous energy. He drove the leadership of the MFJ in his car to many parts of the country to engage with activists and to spread the message of freedom.

His courage was infectious. At one stage leaders of the movement were threatened that if they ventured into Kumasi for a demonstration their bodies would be brought back to Accra in coffins. Nde ignored this threat and dared the authorities to kill us. He drove Lt. Owusu-Gyimah, Akoto Ampaw and I into Kumasi and we came back to Accra not just alive but without a scratch on our bodies.

For his heroic role in the bold confrontation with the Rawlings regime, Nde suffered dismissal, torture and detention without charge or trial.

Nde and his sweet-heart Sophia were also most compassionate and all of us who were close to them were beneficiaries of their kindness. We ate their food, drank their drinks, wore clothes that they offered us and enjoyed the warmth of their home.

My twin sons, Payin and Kakra were born when I was in detention at the Navrongo prisons. It was Nde who joined hands with other comrades including Yaw Opoku, Kabral Blay-Amihere and Effah Dartey to look after my house and even organized the naming ceremony of my sons.

That today we enjoy some basic constitutional freedoms and are free from the stranglehold of military dictatorship is partly the result of the fortitude displayed by Nde and many others in the rank and file of the pro-democracy movement.

Nde, you will always be remembered as a courageous fighter for freedom. May your deeds continue to inspire us all to build a better Ghana.

By; Kwesi Pratt, Jnr