Ah, ORAL. The Mahama-led NDC’s quiet little initiative that some elements within the NPP have been mocking with the subtlety of a toddler shrieking in a library. “It’s dead,” they say. “It’s a flop,” they chirp. “Nothing will ever come of it,” they declare with all the confidence of someone who has never heard of patience, strategy, or international law.
Well, dear critics, congratulations. Your mockery has aged about as well as last week’s bread.
You see, ORAL was never about parading arrests like a carnival float or broadcasting handcuffs on the evening news. It doesn’t require TikTok clips, flashy hashtags, or an Instagram reel of government officials grimly wielding subpoenas. ORAL is quiet. ORAL is patient. ORAL is the sort of predator that waits while you dance around waving a stick, thinking you’re the hunter.
And now, that patience has paid off.
The first visible victim of this quiet efficiency? None other than former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, now detained by ICE in the United States. Yes, you read that correctly. A former minister, one of the most powerful men in recent Ghanaian political memory, has found himself thousands of miles from home, behind bars, and explaining why international law doesn’t magically shield high office holders from accountability.
Some will gasp. Others will clutch their pearls. And the NPP mockers? They are scrambling, trying to rewrite their Twitter histories as if ORAL’s accomplishments are a fluke. But fluke it is not. Ofori-Atta’s visa did not merely expire. It was revoked. That detention was not a “paperwork hiccup” or a routine immigration formality. It was the outcome of months of quiet, methodical engagement between Ghana’s Attorney-General Dr Dominic Ayine and U.S. authorities. This is accountability dressed in strategy, patience, and precision.
While critics laughed, ORAL tightened its net. While political talk shows sneered at the so-called “failure” of the initiative, ORAL was quietly gathering evidence, coordinating with foreign counterparts, and preparing a legal trap that could not be sidestepped. Ofori-Atta’s lawyers back home in Ghana attempted to spin this detention as a mere immigration matter, claiming the former minister needed medical treatment, that the timing was coincidental, that nothing was unusual. And yet, as Dr Ayine has made clear, the facts speak louder than their narrative.
This is where satire almost writes itself. Consider the irony: the same people who mocked ORAL as impotent are now watching one of the country’s highest-profile officials navigate foreign detention, extradition requests, and mounting legal scrutiny. All while the quiet, deliberate ORAL operation continues to unravel their comfort zones. It’s almost poetic justice.
Let us be clear: ORAL does not need to announce itself. It does not rely on media spectacles or self-congratulatory press conferences. Its work is measured in results, not noise. It operates like a chess player while its critics are still playing checkers, blissfully unaware that the game is already lost. And those results are beginning to accumulate: ICE custody, pending court appearances, and the unmistakable signal that the era in which political office guaranteed permanent immunity is ending.
This is a warning, loud and clear, if only you listen. ORAL’s power is not in its immediacy but in its inevitability. For the mockers, skeptics, and cynics, the lesson is unavoidable. The initiative you laughed at is systematically dismantling the old assumptions of untouchable political privilege. The former minister’s plight is a mere beginning.
And while we are on the subject of irony, let us not overlook the role of public perception. The very same NPP critics who have ridiculed ORAL are now forced into a strange dance of denial, rationalisation, and selective outrage. They tweet hashtags, post opinion pieces, and whisper about procedural fairness, yet none can escape the fact that ORAL operates across borders, quietly, strategically, and effectively. They mocked a kitten; they got a tiger.
There is a broader lesson here, beyond individual accountability. ORAL exemplifies how governance, patience, and legal precision can yield results that spectacle cannot. It exposes the comfort zones of those who believe in power without responsibility. It demonstrates that international collaboration, careful planning, and sustained investigation can topple assumptions about impunity, no matter how entrenched.
So laugh all you want, mock all you wish, and roll your eyes at the “little” government programme. But remember this: ORAL does not need your applause. It does not need headlines. It does not even need your respect. It only needs time, and when it’s done, the wailing, gnashing of teeth, and frantic excuses will be far louder than anything you’ve shrieked from the comfort of your Twitter feed.
Yes, dear NPP mockers: ORAL was never a kitten. And soon, you’ll discover that quiet patience is far more terrifying than loud arrogance.
By Desmond Darko
