Highlighting The Fault-Lines

The fault-lines in local politics could not have been better highlighted than in the aftermath of the Ruby cocaine saga. The banter which has characterised the propaganda-driven responses from government circles in a bid to deflect the insinuations that the drug smuggling-gone-bad was state-facilitated, has raised the political temperature to an all-time high. A leading politician/businessman locked horns with the owner of a small newspaper which, like others in its category, depends upon the amplification of their usually unsubstantiated and warped contents on the many FM stations scattered across the nation�s capital over the Ruby cocaine scandal. The engagement and the accompanying polemics were so heated that we could tell how both parties were ready to go for the kill. The Ruby cocaine scandal is still developing and as the Americans would say, �We aint seen anything yet.� Those Ruby spoke to just before she was whisked away by the border security agents are already making the rounds in town, triggering apprehension in some privileged circles. The intelligence units of the major missions in the country must be busy listening and recording the snippets from the media for the daily files to their home countries�fantastic supplements to the quarry at their disposal. The three mobile phones being held by the border security personnel after their prize catch when the BA airliner touched down at the Heathrow Airport have proven highly valuable. The details, we have learnt, are so revealing that these would�when the appropriate analysis are done�be shared by the major countries constituting the frontline of the anti-drug war to the detriment of Ghana�s image. As for our local authorities their inefficiencies and arguable complicity having been exposed, they can only relish the ongoing banter between their players and opposition elements praying that public opinion could eventually turn in their favour. They have lost it diplomatically, the repercussions of which are far-reaching. For now they can only pray that the British extend the period before the details of the diplomatic blunders entailed in the scandal will be kept from media view. We doubt though that the ever-curious British media will miss such details in the coming months, given the quantity of narcotic drug involved in the scandal and the diplomatic faux pas. The German newspaper which gave the subject a front page treatment has already paved the way. The demeanour and the sensitivity of government players including President Mahama at the mention of the Ruby scandal is telling. As for the damage the drug bust has wreaked on our national image, its magnitude can only be imagined under the circumstances and can come in the form of Ghanaian passengers being asked to strip naked in major airports abroad and diplomatic pouches losing their confidentialities.