Fmr President Rawlings, Bagbin, and then, and then�

The recent outburst by former President Jerry John Rawlings (a k.a , against some members of the President Atta Mills� government, whom he described as greedy bastards, appears to have opened the floodgate for members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to openly criticize the government. After JJ�s tantrums, the Majority Leader, Alban Bagbin, also went on air to describe some of the people surrounding President Mills as bootlickers, and on Monday this week, two National Democratic Congress (NDC) members of parliament - Moses Asaga and Alfred Agbesi - also severely criticized the government over certain policies they disagreed with. The latest to join these criticisms is the Ho Municipal branch of the Cadres Association, a wing of the NDC, which has expressed concern over poor security network at the various borders of the country, and called for urgent measures to control the situation before it degenerates into something else. The Chairman of the Ho Municipal Branch of the Cadres Association, WO1 Roy Kotoka, told a news conference at Ho recently, that smuggling activities were on the increase across the borders of the country, and needed serious attention. WO1 Kotoka said the growing rate of smuggling in the country should be a major concern to all Ghanaians, because it had the tendency of destroying the economic strides of the nation, as people continue to smuggle cocoa, coffee, fuel and other items from the country to neighbouring countries in the sub-region. He stressed that the most worrying aspect of it all, was the alleged involvement of some security personnel at the borders, who are supposed to protect the interest of the state. The cadres warned that if the government failed to take a decisive action on the situation, the path to economic recovery would be a mirage, apart from the international image of the country being at stake. WO1 Kotoka pointed out that cadres in the Ho Municipality, upon a careful study of the situation, had identified the lack of adequate personnel as the cause of the problem. He alleged that the few security personnel at post have also been conniving with the smugglers, because they have overstayed at their posts, and therefore become familiar with the smugglers. He therefore appealed to the government to employ more security personnel at the borders to help reduce activities that sabotage the development efforts of the nation.