A security and intelligence analyst has analysed to "The Ghana Palaver" that the eruption of the Yendi crisis last week led by a so-called “Coalition of the NPP in Yendi”, is nothing but another orchestration by the National Security agencies to divert attention from the cocaine scandal in which the NPP Government, its security apparatus and the Manhyia Palace have been mentioned. It also seeks to project the Otumfuo in a more positive light in an to attempt to wash off some of the dirt that seems to be attaching to the Manhyia Palace as a result of its alleged association with some of the suspected drug kingpins.
Kufuor/Manhyia Indictment
According to the security analyst, the two critical institutions of state, the Kufuor Administration and Manhyia Palace, have been directly implicated in the ongoing cocaine scandals and are clearly embattled, but the more they attempt to divert attention, the more suspicions they succeed in drawing to themselves. The “ACP Kofi Boakye Tape” and the initial statements of Tagor and the other suspects who initially appeared as voluntary witnesses before the Georgina Woode Committee and were quickly turned into accused persons by the Attorney General in order to give justification for their lawyers to clamp down and impose total silence on them, “seal their lips”, so to speak and declare a position of absolute non-cooperation with the Committee, are all the evidence that one needs. Since then, it has been one attempted cover up or another, or one attempted diversion of attention to other matters or another. All the attempts have woefully failed.
The “Explain it to the Bottom” Speech
The security analyst analysed developments so far in this manner. The first attempt to divert attention was made by the President himself. His now infamous “Explain it to the Bottom” speech attacking the NDC’s Rojo Mettle-Nunoo and the NDC Party of complicity in cocaine dealing was totally unjustified but deliberately provocative. What the President had not reckoned with was the swift and vitriolic counter-attack by Rojo, which sought to drag the Presidency into the very depths of the dirty gutters. When civil society joined in the chastisement of the President, he was forced to eat humble pie and call for a ceasefire. That call has been ignored.
According to the security analyst, next came the gimmick of the launch of the MCA Project on the 6-lane Tetteh Quarshie-Mallam Junction so-called “agricultural road”. Sheikh I. C. Quaye was put up to make a deliberately idiotic speech in which he rated Kufuor above Nkrumah to provoke criticism and draw fire to himself so that poor President Kufuor could be spared.
“My Giselle Yazji, My Hotel Waa Waa”
In the yew of the security analyst, again the gimmick backfired. Instead of turning fire on I. C. Quaye, the critics turned his speech into one of great fun and hilarity and lampooned him as a buffoon. The security analyst said he overheard one such critic saying of the speech, ‘If Kwame Nkrumah said “my Tema, my Akosombo”, Tema and Akosombo are still there for Ghanaians to enjoy them. As for Kufuor, when he leaves office, the only thing he can say will be, “My Gizelle Yazji, my Hotel Waa waa”. Will these be available for Ghanaians to enjoy?”In any case, the MCA launch diversion lasted all of one day and vanished from the media. The cocaine stories were just too juicy to be ignored. The Ada ‘Cocaine Containers Concert”
The security analyst felt that the most ridiculous of the attempted diversions was the “Ada Cocaine Containers Concert” where the entire security apparatus of the country, like Don Quixote, was sent on a wild goose chase after some imaginary cocaine in containers spotted off the shores of Ada. “That scenario was crafted to draw attention from the Chronicle report of the previous day that another cocaine vessel had berthed at Tema without the knowledge of the security agencies. The scheme succeeded, because by the time that the farcical Ada drama ended, the Chronicle story had been forgotten. Asanteman Council is summoned.
The Otumfuo’s organised diversions have taken different forms. First, the Asanteman Council was summoned, kuntunkuni and all, to listen to one of the most diplomatic and royalist of speeches ever delivered by an Ashanti King and which captured the attention of only Yaw Boadu Ayebeafo’s “Daily Graphic” for only one day. When the speech was punctured as answering none of the questions raised by the statements of Tagor and his suspected cocaine accomplices, it was time for another diversion to be found for Manhyia. Yendi was the obvious choice.
The Yendi Crisis
But this time it was not going to be easy to entrap the Andanis into any provocation. So the NPP had to use its own pro-Abudu forces to provoke a crisis. A group calling itself “Coalition of the NPP in Yendi” was made to emerge and made to warn of its intention to invade the Gbewaa Palace. And invade it, they did.The initial announced reaction of the Northern Regional Minister was stupidity itself. According to the news reports, Ghana’s security forces at the scene had been withdrawn because their lives were at risk! At risk? And from a bunch of civilians? Whatever happened to the word, “reinforcement?” Of course, the Regional Minister subsequently sought to clarify that ridiculous statement.
But having successfully orchestrated a “crisis”, now was the time to bring in the Otumfuo in all his Majesty to resolve the “crisis”.
But how did the present crisis, which was between a pro-Abudu, pro-NPP faction and the security forces, involve the Andanis to justify the Otumfuo’s summons to both the Abudus and the Andanis for peace talks?
The answer is nothing. The present crisis does not involve the Andanis at all! But the Otumfuo must be seen to be playing his peacemaker role – so the summons must go to the two feuding factions.
According to the security analyst, in doing this analysis, he is not seeking to fault the Otumfuo in anyway.
In fact, he suspects that the Otumfuo may be acting from the purest of motives. But according to him, “I have been in this game long enough to recognise the crafty land of national intelligence when I see it”.
Then the final icing on the cake. Otumfuo, the peacemaker, in the midst of the crisis, also turns investment promoter.
He is off to Libya at the head of a 38-member Ashanti delegation to seek investment for Ghana! And to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the coup d’etat that brought Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to power. So the Otumfuo can celebrate coups d’etat after all?
His visit, they say, is at the invitation of the Revolutionary leader of the Socialist Peoples Arab Libya Jamarihhiya (SPLAJ), the one and only Colonel Muammar Al Gaddafi himself!
What else can the “revolutionaries” in the NDC ask for? How can such a “progressive” King be involved in anything as scandalous as cocaine dealing?
