Payments in the name of National Security
How often have we, the over-burdened, innocent citizens of Ghana, not wondered why in every four years, a number of Ghanaians emerge, some from total obscurity and some from political hibernation, to file as presidential candidates, either as independents or leaders of some nondescript political party, though they themselves know, and all Ghanaians know, they cannot garner even 0.0001 per cent of the votes?
Their motive? We dismissed the possibility of money laundering. Could they be suffering from delusions of grandeur?
Now we know. Thanks to the trial (so far, in the court of public opinion) of former National Signals Bureau Director-General, Kwabena Adu Boahene and his wife, who have been accused by the Attorney-General of misuse of public funds, we now know that these candidates are no idiots Momo.
On May 5, Adu Boahene issued a memo from EOCO cells, in which he disclosed that the bulk of the funds were “legitimately spent on sanctioned national security operations”.
Among these “legitimate” expenditures, it is emerging that ruling parties or incumbent Presidents did authorise payments of large sums of money to certain presidential candidates or opposition parties to fund their campaigns.
Since it is inconceivable that a New Patriotic Party (NPP) government would fund National Democratic Congress (NDC) electoral agenda, and vice versa, we are being invited to look with suspicion at the minor parties.
So now we know, these candidates are no mere presidential hopefuls, after all. They are smart businessmen.
All they have needed is a certain amount of noise —with posters, press conferences, hyper-criticism or hyper-praise for the government of the day.
Their vituperations or praises, well-orchestrated, are carried by the media, including Tik-tok, loud enough to attract a certain amount of interest.
Voilà, they garner some following, and presto, they qualify to be considered for secret funding by national security!
The question may never attract a reply, but it bears asking: is that how our taxes are spent
Is Ghana this rich, and yet, we are on the verge of another dumsor, contractors are owed in billions of cedis and school feeding caterers have not been paid for over a year, etc.
Of course, from the day we are born, everybody is told that national security budgets are unknown and unknowable,
As far as democracy is concerned, it is enough for national security to claim that so-and-so amounts of money have been spent chasing “enemies of the state”, such as, coup plotters, and on “high-cost operations”, including counter-terrorism programmes, anti-kidnapping campaigns and election security efforts.
Classified
Meanwhile, from his cells at EOCO, Adu Boahene has let it be known to the government, through the Attorney General, that “I have tried to withhold classified information from my interrogators, but I deem it prudent to inform your good office that in light of the current developments, we run the risk of public disclosure of … National Security and Intelligence operations expenditure items”.
How yours truly itches to set eyes on these threatened disclosures! It will help Ghanaians to understand why rent for a lot of the high-rise apartments in this country is priced so immodestly high, yet they continue to attract so much custom.
Those who know will tell you that there are buildings and bank accounts in the USA, UK, France, etc., whose ownership no-one can tell, save the government agencies in charge of registering such properties and the bank managers. Who are these unknowable landlords and account holders?
Meanwhile, throughout the world, no invoices or receipts are supposed to be demanded or issued to cover covert transactions.
Otherwise, it should have been possible to know which Special Aid of President Mahama received on his behalf, those huge sums of money which Adu Boahene allegedly paid, as well as vehicles which were supposedly bought for Mahama. Who authorised the payments or purchase?
Smoke
As Bright Simons has intimated, a lot of smoke may be entering our eyes.
What makes these operations “unquestionable” is the oft-unspoken justification that the spy-world keeps awake at night so that citizens can sleep well, safe from terrorists.
Ghanaians are supposed to be grateful because supposedly, without these secret payments,
Al Qaeda or Boko Haram would penetrate Ghana with guns and bombs.
No pro-forma, no receipt
With that kind of justification, who am I to continue to insist on knowing every detail of national security operations!
O, yes, even America funds presidential candidates.
Under the Presidential Public Funding Programme, eligible presidential candidates receive federal government funds to pay for the qualified expenses of their political campaigns.
But these payments are not covert and are not at the discretion of the incumbent President. It is a match-up fund and the individual candidate is supposed to apply for it.
Meanwhile, back in Ghana, Adu Boahene has threatened the National Security Coordinator that he might be compelled to break his oath of secrecy, if what he calls false accusations from the Attorney-General are not withdrawn.
The things they do in our collective name!
The writer is the Executive Director,
Centre for Communication and Culture.
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