The inclination of recent arguments by both apologists for as well as litigants against the justification of June 4 (J4) uprising creates a vacuum that needs to be filled with values directed towards learning and correcting history’s perniciousness for generations yet unborn. The most important issue that we need to grapple with is how the J4 uprising has ultimately transformed our nation and the benefits we stand to gain whenever we celebrate its anniversary. Though, on one hand, I see the various arguments about J4 as superfluous, especially with regards to its impact on the nation and the ultimate aim of correcting the wrongs of the past, setting solid foundation for nation building and transforming younger generations. However, on the other hand, with the hindsight of history’s lessons for the younger generation, I tend to believe that we need to celebrate J4 with the aim of facing the realities of issues and to deal with them in clear-eyed terms. Why should Ghanaians celebrate the 28th February shooting of the ex-service men and not the J4 as both were involved in the blight of killings of loved ones? Why should the Jews celebrate the holocaust of the Nazis? Again, why should countries in Europe also celebrate the atrocities of wars in the past for their respective nation’s history? In trying to dispassionately advocate for the celebration of J4, let us rule out the personality of former president Rawlings now for sake of conceptualization, who by providence has become the chief protagonist and benefactor of the revolution. Has the moral authority of the J4 uprising been weakened because of former President Rawlings’31st December coup, and what if there was no 31st December movement, will there be a justification? The most important question is, if we want to celebrate J4 revolution, WHAT do we celebrate and for which reasons and lessons do we want society to be reminded about and more importantly to guide and guard against? Who were the architects of J4 and what training do they have? How will they execute their thought patterns and are they in any movement exhibiting the same characteristics of which the younger generation must be watchful and learn something from? The litigants on one hand, mostly focus on the excesses of the revolution in terms of atrocities meted out to innocent civilians. Others who were perceived to be rich were made to suffer unjustifiable swift extra judicial killing. The victims included past Heads of States and high ranking military officials under the guise of ‘house cleansing exercise’. My illiterate mother’s goods were sold at “control price” whilst my aunt was whipped mercilessly naked at Kumasi Kejetia. My father was picked up by a military person to the barracks but was lucky to have been set free and my father frankly holds nothing against former president Rawlings. Some women were raped by indisciplined military men and fear loomed over the nation for a period of over three months in what I term as the “DIM-PERIOD” in the history of Ghana (in our infantile governance disposition as a nation). The affliction of pain borne in the hearts of affected families who lost loved ones, and consequently, lost track of life’s development cannot be overemphasised. The litigants therefore are of the view that the yearly celebrations of J4 will always open the scars and wounds of the afflicted ones and therefore the celebration does not foster cohesiveness in our society. Consequently, they argue, J4 should NOT be celebrated at all. In the wisdom of Parliament and the Supreme Court, however, the state will not use its resources in celebrating the J4 uprising which to me is a half-loaf of bread decision for the society; a typical play of the ostrich to hold the bull by the horn and set the foundation of growth into maturity towards nation building and learning how to practice rule of law as one of the most important principles of democracy. The defenders and believers in the ideals of the J4 on the other hand, would rather have opprobrious celebration of what they believe had turned the tide of the fortunes of our nation and a great lesson of constant reminder to leaders in authority than to swipe the ideals in a slot of invisibility. One defender queries,”how do humans use the laws to remove a non-performing leader, especially if he assumed power or office with the gun? Only the gun removes leaders with guns, and that is why J4 stands out, so far as they don't link it to Dec 31.” No one can undoubtedly deny the exuberance with which both the masses and the knowledgeable in our society cried for the blood of leaders at all levels and the affluent personalities in our then society. The raising of consciousness in the then society and the demonstrated capacity of the citizenry to rise up to their social responsibilities and protest against the perceived social injustices were the zeal needed for nation building. Some believers are pleading for forgiveness while others have regretted because the tenets of the uprising have not had a lasting impression in our society. The dire hearted believers however, think that J4 should be celebrated with emotionally charge atmosphere with the aim of possibly justifying the acts and tenets of the uprising on public officials who are perceived to have unjustifiably governed the nation’s resources just like the protracted bad governance of the military rulers of SMCI and SMCII. The catchy phrase of “probity and accountability” is still relevant in our maturing democratic society and therefore J4 has come to stay. J4 is timeless, especially the manner by which the revolution organized the citizenry against corruption, incompetence and denial of basic social needs by the public cannot be over emphasised. So WHAT do we celebrate and HOW do we celebrate J4 as a memorial? Does the nation gain anything by celebrating J4? I will say, the nation stands to lose the opportunity to mature out of the holistic lessons of the J4. Social thinkers need to open up their minds like a parachute in order to keep floating in order not to crush on the ground of emotional rumblings of wounds that could be healed permanently for future fitness of society. The Christian Apostle Paul wrote in I Corinthians: 13: 11, Paul said, “when I was a child, I spoke like a child, I reasoned like a child and I acted like a child but when I grew up, I put the childish things away.” Can the future generation look into the labour of J4 and wrought substance of them and say, see!! This our fathers did for us? So far as humans are imperfect and normally humans turn to become what they hate, we always have to be careful to restrain our perceived action of justice at the barrel of a gun. The rule of law must be upheld. There is NO justification EVEN for any military government to be overthrown by another. Simply, the military must and should stay out of politics. The ultimate action of justice must always be taken at a competent court of jurisdiction. If we do not see through from hindsight as at then 31 years ago, can’t we still see through that we do not need violent to call for justice, probity and accountability on our leaders? J4 was a populist action acclaimed due to immaturity in our democratic disposition. My ultimate point is that, we do not need the barrel of a GUN nor any violent means to fight injustices and corruption. The first coup of 1966 to the last during the PNDC 11 years, I term them as eras of GUN Dictatorship. The 4th republic democracy of NDC, NPP and NDC, I term these as PEN Dictatorship. However, in as much as people in authority are using their pen to kill and to destroy future generations’ opportunities, it is better than the latter with a gun. The latter always assumes a messianic outlook but again practise the very same things that they had earlier condemned. This is human being for you after tasting power, compatriots. The fundamental question is how best can we handle the social disorderliness and injustices that are likely to prevail in our societies? Mahatma Gandhi said, “I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life”. Every human being is a potential selfish being including former president Rawlings, you and myself. That is why we have laws to regulate the level of selfishness in the form of thieving state resources and ones actions and inactions in a society. Most Ghanaians now think that the same injustices and social disorderliness we experienced prior to J4 still exist, and can it therefore justify the ouster of President Mills’ government? NO. Rather, let us build structures that are sustainable with our anthropological make-up to set the foundation of our development as Africans. Some key architects and benefactors (the protagonists) of J4 have had their minds programmed and see their only influence in society as emanating from that point of history in Ghana. They refuse to see that dynamic society will have no option but to mature out of populists acclamation and look for better methods of approaching a seemingly scenario of the past. Governments will always find themselves in distress situations and democracy will always be exploited by selfish and disgruntled politicians and leaders. Such exploiters will always use the power of pen to dictate, kill and steal from the nation against the tax payers sweats. Nonetheless justice can never be found at the barrel of the gun but with right structures and we must always guide and guard against populist acclamation, and resist those who might want to capitalize on such situation to cause avoidable commotion with our maturing democracy. This is what we must celebrate J4 for through series of decentralized lectures with students and basic school learners and public institutions, with the ultimate lesson of NEVER AGAIN will we cause unnecessary pain in our search for justice. NEVER AGAIN as usual, will the educated ones be quietly engrossed with analysis paralysis and complaints against social injustices and corruption but will NOT rise up to their responsibilities to challenge such status quo. If the educated fail to act and talk wisely and boldly, those whose minds have been oriented to cause weapons to speak will sadly act for us. By Jacob Osei Yeboah - An Engineer, Entrepreneur and social thinker