For the first time in the history of diplomacy in this country, one of the dominant political parties has been compelled to write to a foreign mission about ‘diplomatic and service passports for sale’ and to demand a suspension of courtesies entailed thereof until an audit is undertaken.
In the past few weeks, the story about diplomatic and service passports for sale landed on social media, adding to the visa scandal which swatted our national image earlier.
Followers of social media read the emerging story with glee even as they expected a convincing denial from the appropriate quarters to no avail.
Perhaps the emerging scandals to afflict the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of late, overwhelming as they are, have made it impossible for the appropriate response.
The Minister is busy nursing the wounds inflicted on him by the disturbing scandals.
On the other hand, it could be that there is nothing to deny about a damning reality.
World Cup visa, South African evacuation and diplomatic passports sale scandals are anomalies which do not present our country in good light in whichever direction we look at them.
Is this government under a spell for which reason it is engaging in inappropriate practices which under normal circumstances it should steer clear of?
In the correspondence of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to the US Embassy, the largest opposition party pointed at the unusual acquisition of the security travel documents and the need for immediate action.
Until a probe is ordered into the anomaly which would never take place anyway, we can conclude foreign suspicious characters have managed to ‘buy’ the passports.
Under the circumstances, inappropriate channels are in operation for the acquisition of the special travel documents, something which cannot be done without the connivance of persons closely associated with the corridors of power.
Such criminal means of obtaining diplomatic passports is another pointer to the bad and criminal conduct of government appointees.
Names have been mentioned, one of whose alleged relationship with the President calls for an immediate interrogation to establish the truth or otherwise.
We can bet though that with a crocodile-skinned President, such a probe, necessary as it is, won’t come on.
Names have been presented for the passports of persons who do not hold the positions assigned to them. In other anomalous instances, persons have been presented as belonging to agencies when the truth is that these persons are unknown to the staff of the agencies.
Non-existent positions have been created and assigned non-staff applicants for the diplomatic passports.
It would not be long before drug barons, some of whom are already operating here, would lay hands on diplomatic and service passports, if they have not done so already.
That this happening at a time when we have a major unresolved cocaine scandal on our hands says a lot about how governance has degenerated in the hands of those at the helm today.