The passing of and the case for the late Colonel Winfried Annor Odjidja (rtd)

February 19, 1940 - May 26, 2009

Col. Winfried Annor Odjidja, who died at age 69, had an illustrious military career in Ghana until December 31, 1981.
 
He died in exile in the UK. The reason? For his stance against the coup of 1981; his illustrious military career was cut short by the coup.

Col. Odjidja rose to the post of Director of Military Intelligence and was cited by many as a highly competent military intelligence operative and administrator.

He was born on February 19, 1940, to the late Winfried Tettehwayo Odjidja of Baarmiyee House, Korletsom, Krobo Odumase, and Margaret Adukwei Brown of Sempe, Accra; also of blessed memory.

Col. Odjidja is survived by his wife Betty, nee Oye Wilson, with whom he had two children, Tettehwayo and Caroline Odjidja.

He is also survived by his brothers and sisters; George, Wilhemina, Elias, Judith, Duddley, Sheila, and Alpheus.

His first marriage was to Efua Taylor and it produced one offspring, Bernard Odjidja.

One salient fact, long known about Annor, was his academic brilliance.
 
From Bana Hill Presbyterian Boarding School, through Presec at Krobo Odumasi and Prempeh College, Kumasi, he excelled academically and was acknowledged by peers and teachers as a top scholar.
 
Annor passed his examinations with ease; scoring absolute “A’s” for subjects at both “Ordinary and Advanced” levels, before being accepted at the Military Academy at Teshie.

That academic brilliance of Annor would continue to be exhibited throughout  his career with the military.

He was to receive among his class on graduation, the coveted Academic Award at the Teshie Military Academy and thereafter to be commissioned as an officer on September 14, 1963.

Col. Annor Odjdjia took several military courses overseas, starting with the School of Military Intelligence, Maresfield, UK.
 
His experience at the Staff Officers Training College at Camberley, UK, where his brilliance was again well noted, was a memorable one.
 
He was later in life to earn a BA degree in history; a course he had earlier abandoned at Legon University, in preference for training at the Academy at Teshie, for a military career.

His first military assignment was with the Intelligence Service of the Ghana Army, during the time of the first President of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
 
Those were times of adventure for Annor, the young military intelligence officer, when Ghana was embroiled in various political stratagems; actively supporting and directing actions of freedom fighters at various corners of the continent. Annor was running some of those operations.
 
Whatever assignment Col. Annor Odjidja took on, military or civilian, he arrived on the job with his unusual academic brilliance and practical sense intact and ready to work.
 
And his superiors at headquarters knew that, with Annor at the wheel, the mission would be accomplished, and the responsibilities and goals carried out to a point within the perfection circle.

In 1972, Annor was seconded from the intelligence division to the Ghana Tourist Board to the post of the Managing Director.
 
And a year later, another assignment would be added when the new Ghana Tourist Development Company was established, to make him the Managing Director for both companies.

After successfully guiding the fortunes of these two companies, the army recalled Annor back; his potent administrative skills this time were needed at the Directing Staff of Ghana Military Academy (Junior Division) from 1975 to 1976.
 
Shortly after, he was moved again to the post of the Directing Staff for the senior division of the same college. He served from April 1976 to May 1977.

In May 1977, Annor was sent back to a civilian job, at the post of the Managing Director for State Hotels. He served in this post from May 1977 to May 1979.

In 1979, Col. Annor Odjidja was back on military duties again as the Deputy Director, Military Intelligence Service, and shortly thereafter, as full Director; a position he held to the end of the aborted presidency of the late President Limann in December 1981.
 
The coup of 1981 dealt a severe blow to Col. Annor Odjidja in several ways.
 
It was to send him and his family of young children into exile and end a carrier that until then he had devoted his entire life.
 
It was on his watch that the coup of December 1981 happened, a coup he knew with certainty would come and tried in several legal and constitutional ways to stop from happening.

Unfortunate for Col. Odjidja, the civilian regime of President Limann, under which he served, was certain in the belief that of all the previous regimes that had gone down with coups, it alone by divine promise would be spared.
 
A few hours in December, just before the 1981 coup, the colonel was at the Osu Castle, standing in front of the head of state of Ghana, President Limann, pleading with him not to honor the invitation to a New Year's party scheduled to take place on the last day of that year.

Tension arose when the president refused the Colonel's request.

The impasse meant the Colonel had to translate his request into an unconstitutional order, which could place the President under house arrest by way of a coup.  This was a privilege he could not grant himself and a line he knew by discipline he couldn't cross.
 
He could have committed a coup at this stage. He would have been the next president after Limann.  The opportunity was there.

Colonel Annor Odjidja withdrew from the encounter, preferring to respect the constitution; his training, and upbringing held him back from crossing that unconstitutional line.
 
He knew that coups usually full of spoken promises always came up empty in fulfillment, the only foregone conclusion being its proven use as vehicles to power for the vainglorious, as the history of coups in Ghana has demonstrated.

A few hours later, the 1981 coup happened. And the normalcy that was in place, under the prior constitutionally elected government, was thus shattered and it ushered Rawlings into power, a power that would wound up in atrocities within and last for 19 years of his rule.

Col. Odjidja acted constitutionally and with honor but was the least rewarded or remembered by the army.
 
He saw early threats to national security that others didn't see, threats that he knew had to be stopped. But he was hamstrung by the ineffectiveness of the then civilian administration under President Limann.

Neither the Limann administration nor later the courts showed any zeal in wanting to pre-empt the danger posed by the potential coup-makers, plans of which had been in preparation long before December 31, 1981; all of which Col. Odjidja had brought to administrative attention.

Rather, as the coup plotters' acts became more suspicious,  they pleaded to the courts for protection of their rights under the law and the constitution.

The Limann administration's response in the face of the mounting treason was to hide its colossal head and assets in the sands of the time, despite the several warnings from Col. Odjidja.
 
Rather, for raising the alarm, the Colonel, in the eyes of the administration, became a Jeremiah, issuing several and frequent warnings about a coup, which, in their eyes, never could happen.
 
Then the 1981 coup happened.
 
That under the Limann regime no coup happened before December 31, 1981, should not mean there were no attempts. Several attempts were made.  But due to the diligence of Col. Annor Odjidja and his men of the Military Intelligence, all were foiled.
 
The 1981 coup happened because of the nature of the Ghanaian and the circumstances of the mix of characters and personalities who were brought into the intrigue and encouraged to deliver the coup.

How could one, for instance, have prevented the 1981 coup when President Limann was rumored to be part of it?

For instance, a case on surveillance actions was brought earlier to court against Col. Odjidja by plaintiffs, Rawlings and his gang of subverts. The ruling went against the Colonel and the Military Intelligence service.

An injunction followed, as a result of that court ruling, which then severely restrained surveillance activities on suspects who happened to also be the plaintiffs.
 
The date of that injunction was August 04, 1981. From that date to the 31st of the same year allowed enough grounds to be gained for the Rawlings' second coup.

The court decision of August 4, 1981, should be recognized as a case of coup plotters' dream; using the instruments of the constitution to grease the path to power.

In effect, the conspirators, in the absence of effective surveillance, were able to successfully remove a constitutionally elected government from power on the fading night of December 31, 1981.

Col. Annor Odjidja knew that a coup was in the offing.  He got no thanks for his efforts.

Col. Odjidja escaped from the country shortly after the coup of 1981, intending to fight back to help restore the constitution and the overthrown government. His group was infiltrated by men he mistakenly thought had a good will for constitutional governance.  He passed away at home in Milton Keynes, in the UK on May 26, 2009.

E. Ablorh-Odjidja
Ghanadot
June 14, 2009