In the Eyes of the Ghanaian Political Leadership, the Bluish Sky is Always Greenish, and Reality, a Conjured Perception

The spirit of our nation is presently undergoing a painful throe. Despite the bashing that goes on here, I am determined to touch raw nerves when it comes to Ghana’s burgeoning narco-commerce. The recent acquittal of a Nigerian narco-courier whose cocaine mysteriously turned into two balls of “cotton wool” raises serious questions about certain state agencies, and public officials, who are assigned with the responsibility to curb narco-trafficking.

I don’t begrudge the judge who acquitted the said Nigerian. Afterall, he could not have done otherwise, if the agency responsible for establishing whether the extracted pellets contained cocaine, or not, had executed its professional duty, and not play(ed) its bald-faced tricks on the minds of the less-critical Ghanaian public.

If the acquitted was arrested on suspicion for carrying narcotics, which he did, in fact, expelled two pellets to confirm the suspicion of his interdictors, how does the Ghana Standard Board explain the mystery surrounding the contents of the pellets turning into cotton wool? Isn’t this story reminiscent of the many “konkonte-powder” scandals that have badly affected the image of the Ghana Standard Board in the past?

The Head of the Ghana Standard Board must explain to the nation, and the Ghanaian taxpayer, why the state must retain him for foisting on us one of the most despicable deceptions ever invented in the history of nation’s narco-interdiction campaign. Has our nation’s war on narco-trafficking suddenly turned into (an) affection for narco-dollars? I think so, without a doubt.

One of the many problems with our nation’s moral psychology is our inability to evaluate the embarrassment that such stories place to our nation’s international credibility. It also highlights the extent to which narco-criminals have liaised with certain state officials, and agencies, to subvert our laws to the detriment of our beloved nation. Don’t you wish, I was a policymaker too tell the culpable that a crime once omitted against the state, and its people, should be the last, and it surely will?

What message is the state sending to the nation’s youth? That the denial, or the absence, of legitimate economic opportunity justifies the pursuit of anti-social means to achieving one’s material needs? Wouldn’t our nation acceptance of the narco-culture create an environment of lawlessness in the long-term? As a matter of fact, we are already seeing snippets of unmanageable violence, and deepening anomie, in our nation's social environment.

It is not Amma “Momapo-Obenewaa’s sheer imagination to infer that, the Ghanaian public has come to accept the futility of our laws, and the frightening thought that, narco-kingpins can change the destiny of our nation without corresponding punishments, if one has the resources, and the connections, at the upper levels of power.

With many narco-court cases going cold, and never to be resurrected, the proprietors of this evil enterprise are not far from subduing our nation’s psychology, and to pushing us into collective tertiary deviance to reject mainstream socio-moral opinion of cocaine trafficking, not only as criminal, but also as a threat to the sustainable survival of our nation-state.

With some deviant institutions, such as the sex trade, forming a united front to reject social labels, and to seek allies to rationalize the sex business, our nation should not be surprised to see Ghana’s mega narco-corporate entity lobby the Amoatengs within the government, and other peripheral parties, for legislative protection, and the recognition of the rights of cocaine traffickers to form associations. In the “not-too” distant future, we should also be prepared to hear the justification of cocaine-trafficking as a service to our dearest nation, and her underground economy. The Prisoner Extradition Bill is one of many such steps to make criminality part of mainstream culture.

In Obenewaa’s mind, danger lurks, and metastasizes into an inferno, if we shrug off preliminary warnings, and outsource our nation’s security to devious human elements, and their political affiliates. The preceding will happen if we allow Ghana’s dominant narco-minority to steer the affairs of the state. We all share the founded forecast that, our nation’s future is blight, and tumultuous, if we continue to justify the preservation of the unworkable status quo, all for political convenience. I cry for my nation. Hope all is well. Good day and cheers.