Even as we nurse the cancerous wound of the national cocaine scandal, the worst to hit the country in her existence as a nation, another one outside the narcotics industry has made landfall.
Unknowing to the nation, Ghana’s participation in the just ended World Cup Tournament was fertile grounds for visa fraudsters involving government appointees.
The Minority’s press conference a couple of days ago opened the Pandora’s Box of the saga, the contents of which are worrying.
Presenting visa applicants as employees of the National Sports Authority (NSA) when they are not, raises a very serious moral shortcoming, brushing aside which would not help our already tattered image in the international community.
That a government reluctant in taking actions against its own did not live up to its billing by sacking the NSA boss, Yaw Ampofo Ankrah, is indicative of the seriousness of the subject in our hands. If the government could, they would have saved the sacked man.
Now we are faced with the challenges of redeeming ourselves from the image dent inflicted not only by the unresolvable cocaine scandal but also the sports visa racketeering.
The Frauds Unit of the US Embassy had cause to raise queries as did the Canadian missions, both of which have put us in bad light in the diplomatic community. The Sports Minister has important questions to answer, unless the President wants to shield him.
Ordinarily, bad persons get involved in visa racketeering, but when state agencies in a seeming coordinated fashion are entangled, then there is a conundrum which must be dealt without fear or favour.
The dismissal of the NSA boss without doing same to the Sports Minister and the CEO of the Ghana Tourism Authority scratches only the surface of this major scandal.
Of course many big names are involved in this scandal just as the cocaine saga. Here is the challenge facing government which would do all it can to douse the fire so ignited.
Government has been offered a rare opportunity to prove that when faced with moral issues such as what we have on the plate of the nation today, it can take decisive actions regardless of whose ox is gored.
There is dearth of such stoicism on the part of the President to deal decisively, we can bet. We want to be proven wrong on this score even as Ghanaians look forward to an action by the President which should send clear and unambiguous message to all his appointees that he would brook no nonsense when issues of morality crop up.
The Special Prosecutor and even the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), including other relevant agencies, have not heard about this scandal, it would appear.
Now that the Minority has peeled the top layer of the scandal, there is no acceptable excuse for the aforementioned agencies not to act.
Many former appointees of the previous administration are guests of the investigative agencies such as EOCO. It would be morally absurd if the subject under review is ignored as the agencies continue to pursue their investigations of vindictiveness and vengeance. Tomorrow is pregnant.