John Abu Jinapor
Lying is a shortcoming which reduces the deference of individuals in the eyes of respectable members of society.
Lying is even more serious when it is identified as an attribute of persons holding important public offices.
The mention of some individuals today evokes memories of epic lies they have told, especially when their party was in opposition.
Lies are clothed as propaganda and served the people by politicians who consider it central in their communications strategy, the way of Hitler’s propaganda chief Goebbels.
Lying has appeared in multiple engagements of the government, aberration which is haunting them since they assumed the leadership of this country since January 7 this year.
Lying, according to sages, has a way of catching up with those who cannot look truth in the eye.
Recently when they mounted their propaganda horse and did what they have mastered over the years, spewing lies, their Energy Minister has been left to endure the regrettable aftermaths of the mendacity in the hall of public opinion, humiliated and crestfallen.
It all started when he raised a tendentious alarm which exposed his poor arithmetic. He gave a wrong figure about a supposed number of missing containers at the Tema Port.
The unholy stew of lies he cooked showed that over 3,000 containers belonging to Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) had been stolen or vanished into thin air.
Those behind the theft, he warned, would not be spared. At the time, he sought to present the previous administration in bad light, as he promised the nation an investigation into the supposed theft.
His promise to further investigate the matter to uncover those involved sounded laughable.
Like a dream, Ghanaians and perhaps others outside this country who have followed the weird development went to bed with the incredulous news that over 2,600 containers had gone nowhere and had all along been at the Tema Port.
When sane minds said this simply cannot happen because the port is a security zone with too many layers of control, apologists and party foot soldiers did not listen. How this propaganda fattened minister and his assigns could deceive Ghanaians with such falsehood is simply amazing.
Today, the fact is clear that this minister cannot be trusted to speak the truth. He is earning a reputation of chicanery, especially as he did the same tactic with his Goebbelian spin on that story of a few hours of crude oil being available for thermal plants.
He cannot be trusted on dumsor, neither can he be trusted on ECG containers at Tema Port.
Going forward, no one, not even his constituents, not the president who appointed him, not his wife and certainly not the people, should trust his word.
A word to the wise is in Yapei-Kusawgu.
The return of the containers as it were reminds us about the Return of Shaolin.