By Margaret Jackson

Ghanaians are normally known to be very hospitable people. In fact this act of hospitality is even extended to peoples from other countries without consideration to religion, sex or creed. As a result, it has become a common feature for people to burst into the scenes in Ghana and overnight found acceptability in the eyes of Ghanaians. This dangerous scenario which gradually has become the norm has allowed people with shady and problematic characters and past to cash in at the expense of the dear people of this country.

Today we have multiple of those under the tree characters headlining in politics, religion and other social activities in our dear country. That is why it is not uncommon to see armed robbers, drug barons and pushers, rapists, swindlers, and many more, driving on the streets of Ghana with all the arrogance and impertinence. The danger only comes when this acceptability by Ghanaians provide these dappled people a blanket opportunity to lord themselves over people and eventually unleash irreparable pain to them. Many a time, it is only when the true colours of these reprobates eventually show, that leads people with upright minds to have serious doubts about them and question their actions and reasons for their tolerability. But it is sad to say that, the pain and anguish these out of the sun people unleash on people before being exposed leads to permanent irreparable pain.

Many Ghanaians have not forgotten about “Jesus Christ of Dzorwulu” during Rawlings’ days. This social miscreant got the nerve, and on camera, informed Ghanaians that he is the true Jesus Christ who has emerged from the heavens. And since many Ghanaians are at times gullible, some found themselves pitching camp with this horrible guy who had Rasta on his hair. And when atrocious stories began to emerge about this man, it came out that some of his followers were drinking his urine. Ghanaians became so horrified and angry that Efo Rawlings has to move in to disband the group. End of story.

In our social circles also, we have seen some people who out of the blue have emerged with wads of money. You know what I am talking about if you just heard about the arrest of Asem Darke, the wonder man behind the missing 77 parcels of cocaine on board the MV Benjamin vessel which berthed at Tema on April 26, 2006. And since people always found love with money and money givers, Ghanaians normally swell around such people to enjoy bits of their monies without even thinking about the source of that wealth.

Ghanaian politics, likewise, has also not escaped from these malefactor people who parade themselves as tin gods and walk over people as if everybody sends their plates to their houses for their daily rations. Otherwise, we would not today see the likes of Kennedy Ohene Agyepong, a reputed drug dealer, who incidentally and painfully is a lawmaker of our dear country, daily sitting on radio and television stations insulting everybody including himself, and thinking that he is the saint that God suddenly released from the heavens to judge everybody for his/her stewardship. Or we would still not see Agyepong who has been fingered by “Limping Man”, Asem Darke, as one of the beneficiaries of the missing 77 parcels of cocaine blatantly refuse to address the issue by denying the allegation, but continue to limp on the Woyome issue just to deflect attention from him.

But not to deviate from what I promised my growing readership, I will devote the rest of my thoughts on Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, the one-man think-thank of the so-called Danquah Institute. By the way have you seen, read or heard anybody talking or even issuing a common statement on behalf of that discredited Danquah Institute other than Gabby? Just check the offices of the institute at the Nyaniba Estates and you will find out that the offices have remained closed for a long time.

Gabby wants Ghanaians to believe that he has a faultless character, and that he is “The Man” who has been anointed to hold President Mills’ government to account. This is fair enough. It is his Constitutional obligation to do that. But it is equally important to note that people who portray themselves to have sterling characters and enjoins others to follow suit are equally not found wanting when they are put on the radar. I am not going to talk about Gabby who struggled with his law exams and yet wants every Ghanaian to believe that he is a top lawyer, but I am going to talk about his best known hidden secret which he has done well to keep away from Ghanaians all this while.

Do you remember that Nana Akufo-Addo, the NPP flagbearer for the 2012 elections, has been accused variously of surrounding himself with people of dubious character? Many of these unconvinced characters running errands and acting as mouth-pieces for Akufo-Addo are known to be either drug barons or pushers. But Gabby is none of those. In fact he Gabby was arrested with some friends in the United Kingdom during his youthful days when they attempted to rob a supermarket with toy guns. Ladies and gentlemen, the Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, who has been running riot on radio and television stations in Ghana and trying to let Ghanaians believe that he is a morally upright person attempted to rob a supermarket in the United Kingdom, therefore, he is no different from the apprehended armed robbers we see on television and in the newspapers.

I am imploring Gabby to forcefully come out to deny this statement of fact I am making or shut up. I am daring him to come out so that I can release the rest of the story. The likes of Gabby who have nothing to offer Ghana are just throwing dust into the eyes of voters by trying to sell a dead horse like Akufo-Addo as a blazing chariot to Ghanaians. Ghana has come a long way and it’s about time we open our eyes and flush out these nonentities parading our streets as think-tanks.

Akufo-Addo, to me, is not a serious politician who wants the highest office of the land, because he has refused to learn and purge himself of these sheltered characters. Readers should closely look at his campaign team of 2008, and it would not be far from wrong to conclude that he is still harbouring moot people in his 2012 campaign team. Why Akufo-Addo is doing that has one simple reason. Both his 2008 and 2012 campaigns are largely funneled by drug barons who have a lot to cash in if Ghana makes the terrible mistake of electing Akufo-Addo as president in the 2012 election.

Gabby should henceforth not waste the ears of Ghanaians because he does not qualify as a competent credible person who should hold a government to account. His place in the country, to me at best, is the Nsawam Maximum Security Prisons where he would find the likes of himself languishing there. I am waiting for him to comment on this article if it should be published so that I will conclude with the rest of his shady past.

Ghana is coming a long way in her democratic development, and it’s about time we do due diligence of loud-mouthed people like Gabby to find out about their past before we put the approval of stamp on their actions in the country. If Ghana had done due diligence on would-be politicians and political commentators we would not be seeing today this mad man Kennedy Agyepong running around like a mad dog on radio and television stations.

NB: By the way does anybody know the whereabouts of Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku, the 2008 Campaign Manager of Akufo-Addo? That man was alleged to have swindled Akufo-Addo of millions of funds meant for NPP foot-soldiers during the 2008 campaign. As a result, Apraku lost favour with Akufo-Addo and has since been marginalized hence his missing-in-action attitude in the 2012 campaign.

magjackson80@yahoo.com