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Let the records show that on Friday, November 8, 2013, President John Mahama dismissed Ms. Victoria Hammah, then one of the two Deputy Ministers of Communication. Let the records also show that in line with previous practice, President Mahamah and his government have so far not given any reason whatsoever, for the decision to dismiss Ms Hammah. Was it pure coincidence that President Mahamah�s dismissal of Ms Hammah immediately followed the disclosure of the contents of a tape, in which Ms Hammah was reportedly heard making controversial and disparaging statements about other persons, the judiciary, etc.? Since government spokespersons and some National Democratic Congress (NDC) members have underscored the point that no one can force the President to give reasons, we, the members of the public, are also free to speculate. But, first, the taping of Ms. Hammah�s observations or comments. No matter how you may hate Ms. Hammah, you should be concerned about the clandestine or surreptitious recording of her conversation. What was done to Ms. Hammah is like stripping yourself naked in the privacy of your bedroom, only to discover that a peeping Tom is looking at your naked body, or, even worse, that pictures have been taken of your naked body and splashed all over the world through the internet. Ms. Hammah contested Mrs. Ursula Owusu Ekuful for the Ablekuma West parliamentary seat. Mrs. Ekuful has been heard stating on radio that if what happened to Ms. Hammah had happened to her, she would have been �livid�, that is, extremely angry. Mrs. Ekuful did not gloat over the misfortune of her political opponent. If she had said something like, �It serves her right�, she would have displayed insensitivity and myopia. Whoever did the recording did not even have the excuse that he or she was doing it in the public or national interest to prevent the commission of a crime. Was it idle curiosity? Was it a desire to put Ms. Hammah in deep trouble for personal reasons of seeking revenge or destroying her? Whatever the motivation was, this secret taping of people�s conversations should not be encouraged at all. After all, how many of us can cross our hearts and say that we have never indulged in backbiting our fellow human beings? Raise your hand, if you have never indulged in that evil practice. But, while I condemn such deplorable invasion of one�s privacy, let us sound a note of warning, especially, to public figures in one capacity or position. Ministers, in particular, not to talk of the President, must know that in reality, they have no privacy. The position they occupy and enjoy comes with �liabilities�, one of which is an invasion of their privacy. No one has put it better than Mr. Kofi Totobi Quakyi, one-time Minister of Information. Taking its source from the Ghana News Agency (GNA), the GHANAIAN TIMES of Thursday, April 24, 1997, reports Mr. Quakyi as saying: �Although a minister has a fundamental right to privacy, it would be unrealistic to expect that this will not be restricted. Because, as long as the minister�s private life is within the same societal environment in which he holds the high office of minister, it is not possible to divorce the minster from the private man. Every major decision he makes becomes a public choice to be reported and discussed in the media.� I am sure that Ms. Hammah has learnt a bitter lesson. Still, I quote below for her benefit the Holy Quran�s caution against defamation, gratuitous insults and back-biting. The Holy Quran says, �O ye who believe, let not one people deride another people; perhaps they (the derided people) may be better than they (the deriders); nor let one group of women deride other women, perhaps they may be better than them. And do not defame your people nor call one another by abusive names. �O you, who believe, avoid suspicion, for suspicion in some cases is a sin. And spy not on one another, neither backbite one another. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Surely, you would loathe it. And fear Allah. Surely, Allah is Oft-Returning with compassion and merciful� (H.Q.99:12-13). I have heard the women�s group, �Women In Law and Development in Africa� (WiLDAF), introduce a gender element by accusing President Mahama of ignoring similar statements by men in his government. WILDAF has also condemned public discussions of the Victoria Hammah issue, as tending to denigrate women. That is rather thick. Let WiLDAF listen to the unidentified woman whose voice is on the tape: �Ladies are like that. Anywhere three ladies meet, there is trouble. You were lucky to have been sent to a place where a man is the head, if it were to be a lady or an office for two ladies (incomplete voice.)� A woman on her fellow women! What about Ms. Hammah herself? She could even go as low as to describe Ms. Appoh�s father as �wretched.� With the merciless ferocity of a pack of hyenas tearing flesh from their living victim, Ms. Hammah was catty, insulting, boastful, supercilious, everything nasty, arrogant and self-conceited. There is irony, as Ms. Hammah thinks that lack of humility will destroy Ms. Appoh. She says �Rachel�s problem is humility. It won�t take long. It will destroy her.� Now, see who has been destroyed politically and socially. WILDAF, please shut up, or, rather, go after that loose cannon called Victoria Hammah. I treat with absolute contempt the porous and futile attempt by some people, including some in the NDC, to water down the serious side-effects of Ms. Hammah�s outburst on the tapes. Oh, it is nothing, but gossip. If she says she wants to make a million dollars, it does not mean she has the money? Well, she can work even as a Deputy Minister or even she can receive it as a gift. Oh, she used the expression, �I learnt� and, therefore, one should not believe her statement about Nana Oye Lithur or her husband going to the judges to influence them. And so on and so forth. If Ms. Hammah did not do any damage to the Mahama-led government of the NDC, why the swift action to dismiss her? Yes, I can hear the assertion that Ms. Hammah�s dismissal had nothing to do with what she reportedly said, as captured on tape. As Mr. Abdul Malik Kweku Baako would put it, �Tell that to the Marines�. The truth of the matter is that, whichever way the cat jumps, Ms. Hammah has done damage to this government. She has also chipped away at the credibility of the judiciary in general, and, in particular, to the credibility of the justices who heard the election petition of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I do not mean to say that I believe or not believe Ms. Hammah on everything she has said, as captured on the tapes. (I understand that there are more tapes). I merely wish to state that it would be the height of stupidity to simply shrug off the effects of what she has done.