Opinions of Thursday, 13 July 2017
Columnist: Rockson Adofo
Hardly had I declared my intention to quit internet publications on Ghana politics for other urgent calling when a security-related matter or subject of interest cropped up.
Mr Inusah Fuseini, former Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, has admitted to inadvertently bugging the office of his two successors, Nii Osah Mills under NDC and John Peter Amewu under NPP. It will be a disservice to Ghana on my part if I failed to shed light on office bugging.
What is bugging, a person without office building security knowledge may ask?
Bugging by dictionary definition or according to security experts or anyone conversant with judicious protection of office data is “a hidden microphone or other electronic eavesdropping device or a very small device fixed on to a phone or hidden in a room, that allows you to listen to what people are saying without them knowing”.
Such was the electronic gadget Mr Inusah Fuseini is detected to have installed in his office at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources either during his tenure of office or on his departure to make room for his successors.
From a security point of view, talking as someone knowledgeable in the field, Mr Inusah Fuseini’s offered explanation as read on the Ghana internet news portals is pure cock-and-bull story. In one breath he claims to have installed it to check on human movements through his office and in another, he asserts the installation of the gadget was not complete so it was not working.
Who does he think he is fooling if not himself? If the installation was not complete, why was it not completed? Could he attain his intended objective of checking the movements of people through his office or listen to people’s conversations about him while he was the Minister with an incompletely installed audio-visual listening device? If he could not, what the heck did he spend money installing it in the first place?
Who footed the bill for the purchase and installation of the listening device and what was the sum total of the whole enterprise?
For the attention of the public, I can confirm drawing on my security knowledge that Inusah Fuseini installed the gadget not when he was using the office but when he was vacating it for his successor(s). He wanted to listen to what his successor(s) would say about him or how his successor was planning to carry out their duties as might be discussed with their subordinates called into the office or over the phone with other people, especially, their superiors e.g. the President.
Simply put, he is a criminal to eavesdrop on his colleagues. Does his action not amount to the obvious attitude of a person feeling insecure hence trying to spy on their colleagues to find faults about them to justify their bemoaned incompetence, corrupt practices and insecurity?
It will be pointless coming back so soon only to dwell on castigating Inusah Fuseini without prescribing solutions.
Many years back when the Indians were contracted to build the Jubilee House/Flagstaff House for the seat of the President and government, as well as the Chinese building the Bui Dam, I published an article on the possibility of the foreign contractors planting listening devices in the building hence recommending that the offices were debugged after they had handed over the building and/or dam to the government on completion.
The said feature article was published on some Ghana internet news portals including Ghanaweb under their Feature Article of Sunday, 2 September 2007 under the title, “Ghanaian Leaders Letting The People And The Country Down”
(https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Ghanaian-Leaders-Letting-The-People-And-The-Country-Down-129791)
Similarly, I shall suggest to the President and NPP government to ensure all the various offices in Flagstaff House and the ministries are debugged. We have specialised security personnel with special instruments to detect hidden listening devices in office environments. The government should as a matter of urgency engage some specialists to debug (to remove electronic bugs from a room or building) the offices to prevent the NDC crooks from listening to the NPP functionaries remotely for whatever reason.
When debugging, toilets, kitchens and the offices themselves, thus, anywhere that the Minister and his/her subordinates can congregate to have a chat or gossip pertaining to work or policy-making must be checked. I know what I am talking about but I cannot reveal the details for security and confidentiality reasons.
Killing two birds with one stone, may I once more inform the public that the NPP never resorted to anything untoward to win Election 2016 as it is the opinion of some Ghanaians, especially, the NDC faithful, following Hon. Kennedy Agyapong’s vituperative allegations? I can say with confidence that Hon. Kennedy Agyapong does not know more than I do on NPP winning the election genuinely.
Once more, let me please inform the public that when you take a harmless action or measure to counter a crime from materialising, you have not in anyway committed a punishable offence but you will rather be applauded as a hero in the civilized Western world for taking such a positive action.
The NDC by the knowledge of all discerning Ghanaians could be said to be in collusion with Mrs Charlotte Osei, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, to rig the election in favour of the NDC and President Mahama.
If it was not so, why then the public outcry warning her that she would bring civil war to Ghana when she became so obstinate siding with NDC on election policies disagreed with by the opposition parties and many a discerning Ghanaian? Neither she nor President Mahama, the “Husain Bolt” doer, can deny this fact before God and man. Therefore, was it criminal if the NPP had capably devised a means to negate their nefarious plot if indeed they did?
I have all along been sympathising with Hon. Kennedy Agyapong and I respect him so much for showing concern about the plight of Ghanaians and truthfully fighting against the institutional corruption in Ghana but I will not hesitate to beg to differ or challenge him should he in all honesty come out to say NPP rigged the election or took unfavourable means to win the election.
The NPP won the election handsomely massively. Any doubting Thomas can go and review the polling stations results; collate them again to reconfirm that NPP did win the election genuinely by the Grace of God through the Ghanaian electorates coming out to vote massively for a change from the notoriously corrupt President Mahama and NDC to the incorruptible Nana Akufo Addo and the NPP.
The NPP must be grateful to Hon. Kennedy Agyapong. He must be commended for the good job he has done and continue to do for Ghana and the NPP. His recompense should not be death threats and neglecting. And to Kennedy, he must exhaust all the avenues available to him, possibly reaching the President and when things turn out negative all the way to the peak, then he can do what he is doing or intend to do if he feels that is the only alternative left to him to explore.
I advise he remains a bit patient until he has consulted the President about things that bother him. I know he is more worried about Ghana, the suffering masses and the future prosperity of the NPP than about himself.
I leave others to contribute their quota towards the welfare of Ghana while I honestly take time off to do something else. Before I go finally, let me confess that I find a ray of hope in what Captain Smart of Adom FM radio is doing. It holds the key to liberating Ghana from the institutional corruption that has become a canker killing Ghana softly.
I advise Ghanaians to join his “yegye ye sika” movement because he shares the same views with, and has the same aspirations as, His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, when it comes to fighting corruption in Ghana.