Loose Talk Leaks

Although largely frivolous and unarguably gossip-like, the bombshells being dropped by Wikileaks, as they continue to take their tolls on us as a country, are showing no sign of a letup. In spite of its many shortcomings as stuff worth respecting, it represents the indiscretion of some Ghanaian politicians, public officials and even media practitioners. Their garrulity has undoubtedly impugned on our national interest in a manner too glaring to be overlooked. Many heads have been hit against each other, with some victims licking the wounds sustained from the spewed contents of the gossip leaks as they make their stormy rounds on the media and political turf. Even media persons, who should know better the effects of unguarded and indiscreet release of too much information to total strangers, could not steer away from the temptation to talk too much. The strangers, their benefactors, too grateful for the Manna of information from Heaven could not be more excited about the generosity of the �natives�. Gratis lunch and, perhaps, a promise of some favours, can do much to extract a lot of information from many Ghanaians, politicians and media persons alike, an amazing and appalling reality. Until the abrasive Wikileaks ado sweeping across the country like some wildfire in the harmattan made landfall and stinging mostly politicians, we perhaps did not appreciate how far our loose talks could cost us. Most people will find it difficult to turn down an offer of a beer-supported lunch and it is during such an engagement that their tongues loosen up and they begin to offer extensive answers and gossip-laced details to questions posed by their white hosts. Out of complex and the age-old colonial mentality about white-skinned persons, we appear to be all-out in our presentations, mostly giving more than we are even asked for. It is so easy for total strangers to tap information from us that there is nothing, no matter how confidential, beyond their reach. Not that the Wikileaks issue is something gospel in quality, but that important personalities are purported to have engaged in loose talk, a blemish not commensurate with their standing in society. That it is a compilation from motley of personalities from society is grounds to regard it as a compendium of gossips from mostly tipsy or drunken Ghanaians who, nevertheless, hold or held important positions of state. For a beer-starved Ghanaian, two tots of Red Label Johnnie Walker are enough to extract information about the location of the armories of the combat units of the Ghana Army or the health status of the president. It is painful to observe how our political leaders can stoop to such depths and give out important information, some of them highly personal, to total strangers in their diabolical bid to undo each other. The lavish smearing of some political figures with cocaine is now the favourite refrain of so-called political commentators doing the bidding of their paymasters in the corridors of power. Their unguarded tongues have turned Ghana into a hub of cocaine of sorts when indeed the country does not come near such a description. We have successfully presented the country in a bad light for the rest of the world via the high speed world of the internet and social media.