By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. Garden City, New York Nov. 17, 2014 E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The widely reported arrest of a Ghanaian woman carrying a consignment (that was the word used in one of the initial reports) of 12.5 kilograms of commercial-grade cocaine at London's Heathrow Airport, requires more explanation from Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah, minister of communications for the Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), beyond the sort of characteristic denial that the government has already put out into the public domain.

Indeed, as the New Patriotic Party's Deputy Communications Director, Mr. Anthony Karbo tersely and poignantly put it, the apparent escape from detection of the alleged 12.5 kilograms of cocaine from the attention of security personnel at Ghana's Kotoka International Airport (KIA), clearly points to both an abjectly lax security apparatus at KIA and the near-certain possibility of some highly-placed operatives in the Mahama government's being in the know (See "NPP Accuses Gov't of Concealing Facts in Cocaine Bust Saga" Starrfmonline.com 11/17/14).

As of this writing, Dr. Omane-Boamah had reportedly said that "the suspect [Ms. Nayeli Ametefeh, who holds both Ghanaian and Austrian passports] has no links [to] the first family." This follows allegations that the suspect had emplaned to London via the VIP Lounge at the Kotoka International Airport. As of why the Mahama communications minister would single out the family of President John Dramani Mahama in his denial of the suspect's having any links to the first family has yet to be fully explained. The government is also not saying much regarding widespread allegation that the suspect had traveled to the British capital on a diplomatic passport issued by the National Democratic Congress government.

What is not clear from the communications minister's denial is whether the suspect has links to any other prominent member of the ruling National Democratic Congress, or she is herself a key operative of the ruling party. Whatever the outcome of this raging saga shapes up to be in the offing, it would not be the first time that the integrity of both the security apparatus and security personnel at the KIA has been questioned. And here, of course, must be promptly recalled that in the wake of what globally became known as the Wikileaks, the now-late President John Evans Atta-Mills was widely reported to have told the then-American Ambassador to Ghana that the Ghanaian leader had absolutely no confidence in the integrity of his own security personnel.

Also needing highlighting is the fact that the late President Mills is the former boss and immediate predecessor of President Mahama. And both leaders, of course, belong to the Rawlings-minted National Democratic Congress. The foregoing, however, is not to either imply or suggest that the unsavory incidence of narcotic drug-trafficking is either the exclusive and/or unique preserve of the government of the National Democratic Congress. The Amoateng scandal, which occurred under the watch of the Kufuor-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), is too fresh in the minds of Ghanaians for any critic to cavalierly presume the specter of drug-trafficking to be the problem of any one particular Ghanaian political party.

Still, what makes the latest Heathrow arrest significant is the fact that it is the key operatives of the National Democratic Congress who have been the most self-righteous and hypocritical about the problem of drug-trafficking in the country, often pretending as if the erstwhile Kufuor administration had been relatively more lax in its attitude towards this societal menace.

At least two things are clear from the preceding state of affairs. The first regards the need to promptly beef up the level and quality of the entire security apparatus at the Kotoka International Airport and, indeed, at all security checkpoints around the country. And the second, of course, is for the government to seek foreign assistance in the form of the retraining of our security personnel and the prompt introduction of state-of-the-art contraband-detection equipment at all the major entry and departure points around the country.

Ultimately, what all this points to is a crisis in our moral and cultural values and, in particular, the caliber of our leadership, both national and local.

_____________________________________________________________