Opinions of Saturday, 8 June 2013

Columnist: Impraim, Ato

RE: ‘Galamsey’ being used to fund radical extremism:

RE: ‘Galamsey’ being used to fund radical extremism: Kwesi Annin’ - Ato Impraim

Oh no, Dr Annin. You unfortunately present yourself as just another of these imperialist moles who are spreading what amounts to cheap inferior rumor against anti-western groups.

If you really do know anything at all about the international drugs trade and the laundering of other illegal funds to foreign or local political groups, I dare you, if you are a man enough, to come out with the truth instead of misleading your countrymen with silly rumors and spreading panic and fear for the benefit of other people. You should be ashamed of yourself and you should be arrested to substantiate your false and ridiculous claims.

And who are these people who you refer to as radical groups? Are they Ghanaians? If they are not, have they expressed any inclination in taking any subversive action in Ghana? Be brave and name them or, shut up!

You say that “…Trace the money from galamsey; trace those who buy it and see where the gold and the money go and they will be very surprised”. Does this statement of yours imply that you yourself have done that ground-work already? And if you have, what was the result? And why are you not revealing to us those results but you rather choose to indulge in spurious allegations without any merit whatsoever against imaginary foes and antagonists of other people. This in itself has the potential to draw unnecessary wrath, vengeance and reaction by those people who, as far as I know and is generally evident, really dont have anything against us or towards us. I have not heard of any militant groups from anywhere threatening Ghana in anyway. How irresponsible, undiplomatic and reckless of you.

Even if your outburst was aimed at averting any possible action by your imaginary enemies against us, surely there are more sensible and subtle diplomatic applications that can be employed to avoid any such anticipated crisis - if that is your fear. This step of going out there to make enemies where there are none, is just simply mind-boggling. Why? You think we don’t already have enough problems as it is?

I really cannot understand you. Out of what seems to be a paranoid mind, you make an unsubstantiated allegation based on sheer fantasy and illusions and then you instruct govt to go and find out if it is true and to take action on it. Who the hell do you think you are? If everybody were to be doing that, don’t you think that there would be quite a lot of chaos and pandemonium around here? Isnt the more minor NDC – NPP stalemate enough to make you sick?

I dont think anybody is laughing from the wrong side of their mouths about another equally spurious allegation you claim to have made in 2009 and which, as far as I am concerned, either nobody knows about, or nobody took notice of. If anybody is laughing for any reason, then the joke must be on you.

If you have a personal or political problem with whoever those radical groups you are referring to are, please deal with them yourself - and alone. The rest of us right-thinking Ghanaians dont want to get involved in the unrelated problems and fights of other people - the substance of which we have no idea of, without any provocation whatsoever. This is because, we have our own peculiar problems and nobody - particularly not those people whose fight you have chosen to carry on your foolish shoulders, sees it fit to genuinely help us resolve them without making impossible demands and conditions.

And as a contributor to the report on Ghanaweb rhetorically asked, apart from the talk-shop circuit, “who at all made you a security expert”? What is your educational background, what organizations have you worked for, what is your track-record in security matters and on the assumption that you belong to one of those parasitic self-serving NGO's, who funds your activities and what is your personal pedigree as an individual?

You know something Dr, Annin? 70% of the 25 million Ghanaians (17,500,000) don’t as much as have a common basic facility such as toilets in their homes – or better put, where they live. That’s how bad the situation on the ground is, even without any sign of a military confrontation on the horizon. Considering that those who you are humbly fronting for, seem to have tons of money to spend on armaments for us to kill ourselves, can you respectfully ask them to rather make an arrangement in which our govt can reasonably procure toilets for our badly paid workers at an affordable rate? That at least would be a more respectable effort on your part – as a start, to redeem your image and reclaim your prestige as a security expert – whatever that means.

Dr Kwesi Annin, yesterday, there was another Ghanaian with the same alphabets, ‘Dr’ attached to his name who , politely put, went off- tangent on the issue of homosexuality on Ghanaweb. In recent times many of such people have ‘brought themselves’ into the firing line of Ghanaians who are now fed up with the pompous no-show posture of Ghanaian ‘intellectuals’. Am I right to think that those alphabets, ‘Dr’ indicate that the person is suffering from some kind of virus that prevents them from seeing things in any other way than the right perspective?