By
Sizwe Bansi

For the last two days Akrasi Sarpong, the head of the Narcotics Control Board, has been threatening fire and brimstone. He promises not to let any political party or politician use what he calls “narco money” to fund their campaigns in 2012. I am not very good at the use of words and therefore I am unable to be diplomatic. So I hit the nail on the head. Akrasi Sarpong’s rantings show a man who is totally confused as to what his mandate at the Narcotics Control Board is.

It may not entirely be his fault. He is a product of the group that produced him: the NDC. The NDC has never been used to logic and sound reasoning. The NDC believes that politics should be fueled by falsehood, propaganda and name-calling. Perhaps their belief that this type of politics works has been strengthened by the victory that they chalked in 2012 no matter how slim and unstable that victory is. Otherwise the brazen manner in which Akrasi Sarpong has been about, trying to smear imaginary opponents, beats my imagination. In 2008, the NDC made the politics of narcotics, the central plank of its campaign. It tried hard to drum home the fact that Nana Akufo-Addo’s campaign was being funded by “narco money” and that many of the people on Akufo-Addo’s campaign were junkies.
I guess the Akufo-Addo campaign at that time did not respond hard enough because they simply believed in the intelligence of the Ghanaian people and their capacity to discern truth from vile propaganda. Besides, everybody knows the profile of a junkie and I guess therefore that the Akufo-Addo campaign assumed that every Ghanaian could tell that there was no junkie on that campaign. So they did not try hard to answer that charge. Even as the NDC saw a bunch of junkies on the Akufo-Addo campaign, I saw very smart and intelligent people, passionate about Ghana and having the right program for the development of our country. But the NDC insisted that these were a bunch of cocaine sniffers whose only agenda was to turn the Presidential Office into a den of cocaine. To what extent they succeeded, I am unable to tell. But I knew, that evil would prevail, but only for a little while.

So when they came to power, they
within six months put out the silly joke that suddenly Ghana had become a cocaine-free hub. Another blatant lie! Again I knew that it was only going to be a matter of time when they would be exposed for who they are: liars! Then the United Nations recently released the world-wide report on the use and trade in narcotics. Bum! The NDC propaganda came tumbling down. The report actually has it that Ghana is still very much a transit point for narcotics. So we know officially that the NDC nonsense about wiping Ghana of cocaine with a wave of the finger is absolute bunkum. Instead of answering to that question, Akrasi Sarpong jumps in with that silly joke about not allowing people to campaign with cocaine money. As if to say that they can do anything they please with cocaine money except campaign to dislodge the NDC.
So what does he mean? That as long as the barons will spend their money in peace and allow the NDC to continue to run down this country it is okay? He won’t arrest them until they attempt to campaign with their money? I am sorry but what rubbish is this? Why? Akrasi Sarpong knows the cocaine barons? He actually says “we are watching them.” This is incredible! Was he appointed to arrest cocaine barons or watch them? Akrasi Sarpong actually thinks Ghanaians are stupid. Just before getting home this evening to write this article, I stopped by a shop to buy a few tins of milk. Now I can’t buy a carton as I used to do under the NPP. Anyway, the woman was listening to Asempa FM. There was an argument about this crap by Akrasi Sarpong. Her comment in Twi was that the NDC is trying to dilute the feat chalked by Kufuor with this nonsense.

Let Akrasi Sarpong and the NDC be advised. This nonsense won’t s wash any more. He has been allowed too much latitude to use that office funded by our tax money for political tomfoolery. If he can’t arrest the barons, he should quit. Henceforth, we, the ordinary supporters of the NPP will take up our pens and in their own words, “set the records straight.” I guess the incompetence of the President has somewhat infected his appointees. The degree of incompetence is just unfathomable. Look at the poverty and depravation all over the place. Look at the levels of corruption. See how they are eating nyafu nyafu with their hands and feet.
Let me end by quoting Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings in her recent interview with Africawatch. This is the June 2011 edition of the magazine. “There is great despondency, not only in the NDC, but across the country. We got elected because we promised people that we were going to do things differently; that we were going to stop the corruption and provide them with amenities to make decent living possible. The people have not seen any improvement and there is massive corruption all over the place. As I speak to you, Accra is experiencing an acute water shortage and the electricity situation has worsened…” (p.21).
Let the NDC fix the problems and stop the stealing. They have stolen enough for the owners to notice. This crap about watching cocaine barons is not why Ghanaians voted them into office. I shall be back to prove the case of massive corruption against officials of the NDC. I shall start from the north all the way down. Bye for now.