When the interceptor becomes the defender: The fall of a self-styled anti-corruption crusader.

There was a time in this country when one man built his entire political career on one title: The Interceptor of Documents.

In opposition, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa was everywhere. Every leaked letter, every contract, every flight manifest, every scholarship list - he intercepted them. He engaged the press, he went on TV, he wrote epistles on Facebook. He told Ghanaians that he had a nose for corruption and that no document could hide from him.

He was loud, he was convincing, and many Ghanaians believed him.

But power has a way of exposing pretenders.

Today, the same Interceptor is Ghana's Foreign Affairs Minister. Today, he controls the entire foreign service machinery. He controls the High Commissions, the Embassies, the protocol, the confidential files, the intelligence briefings, the financial records.

Yet under his watch, Ghana spent GH¢49.72 million to evacuate 1,964 Ghanaians from South Africa, and the records cannot add up.

According to JoyNews analysis independent review, about GH¢16.4 million is in dispute. Fifteen evacuees were recorded as having been born in the future - 2027, 2028, 2029. The Ghana High Commission in Pretoria later admitted these were "clerical errors" - that passport expiry dates were mistakenly entered as dates of birth.

Really?
So the great Interceptor, who could intercept classified documents from the Akufo-Addo government while sitting in opposition, cannot intercept and verify a simple Excel sheet of 1,964 names while sitting in government as a Minister?

So the man who once demanded that every cedi be accounted for now tells us that paying GH¢5,500 reintegration plus GH¢500 transport to people born in the future is a "minor administrative error"?

So the same man who called every government expenditure under the NPP as corruption now calls his own expenditure "propaganda"?

This is the tragedy of needless equalization. When they are caught, they say "it is propaganda." When they are exposed, they say "the NPP did worse."

Ghanaians are not fools.
We remember how you built your reputation. You built it on accountability. You told us you were different. You told us you would protect the public purse even in your sleep.

Now the purse is leaking under your own ministry, and you are defending it.

You cannot be the Interceptor in opposition and the defender of errors in government. You cannot be the whistleblower yesterday and the one blowing propaganda today.

If indeed these are mere clerical errors, publish the full, corrected list. Publish the biometric verification. Publish the MoMo or bank records showing who received the money. Name one evacuee who did not exist, or keep mute and account.

Until then, history will record this simple truth: The Interceptor who could intercept everyone else's documents could not intercept his own scandal.

Shalom!
By: Abdulai Abdul Razak
Columnist/Youth Activist
[email protected]