Opinions of Tuesday, 31 May 2016

Columnist: Fadi Dabbousi Samih

British Airways must be truthful to Ghanaians - Why tow lies & denial

Opinion Opinion

It would seem as if a big conspiracy against Ghanaians went on with the cover up of the British authorities, ludicrously defended by their High Commissioner, Jon Benjamin, in a paradoxical show of anti anti-corruption endorsement. Or is Jon Benjamin as "incompetently compassionate" as our "compassionate" incompetent President, John Mahama?

British Airways Flight BA 078 had a security incident on board upon arrival at Heathrow. It was confirmed by many sources that four police officers, one of whom was a female, accosted Allotey Jacobs. The scare was so much for him that he could not control the jittering of his humongous flaccid lips.

Tweets by Heathrow airport referred to it as an incident. The problem is that we are being fooled by the same Brits who taught us the English language. The use of the word incident, with reference to the Police and robber story on board British Airways, is a confirmation that something of the sort happened.

British Airways, what have you got to lose by unveiling the truth? Will the safety of your flights be compromised if you did? Have you been threatened? If yes, by who? How do you expect to maintain a good hold of the market now that you are branded as "Flying Liars"?

Coming out with the truth would save British Airways a lot of money that it would soon be losing. Many aggrieved passengers have stated ,categorically, that they would not patronise their services anymore. Passengers can no more trust British Airways, and as such cannot trust the honesty of their personnel.

British Airways has dented its credibility by towing the lines of deception, lies and denial. Just because the British High Commissioner's impish attitude seems to compromise the truth about the Allotey Jacob's brouhaha does not mean that BA must follow suit. It is worthy to note that the character of this British High Commissioner is in question. He had had to apologise to Chile and others in South America for his unsavoury insults on them. So following him will only lead British Airways into the depths of a quagmire where its image becomes a sitting duck.

Ghanaians demand to know how Allotey Jacobs was accosted on board a British Airways flight at Heathrow, and how much cash he had on him. How did they count the 500,000 pounds sterling that he was allegedly carrying? We cannot trust such a despicable character as Allotey Jacobs who finds nothing wrong with the inanity of insulting Ghanaians on air by saying that a question that they craved an answer to was STUPID!!!