Dear Prof. Gyampo,
I have read your response to me which is laden with innuendos and materials which hardly satisfy the very issue I opined in the piece I wrote.
I enjoyed the rather verbose expressions and long-winding statements that were captured in your piece even though the response suffers some deficiencies in terms of substance.
Let me zero in on the substantive issues you highlighted in your response.
You asserted that you were probably the only individual from academia who mounted a spirited defense and support for Jean Mensa and Bossman Asare when they were named as Chairperson and Deputy Chairman respectively. This begs the following questions:
- Did they write any application for these portfolios for which reason you needed to mount spirited defense and support for them?
- Were the positions even advertised for which reason the two had to write application letters for consideration which would require your advocacy for them to be given the positions?
- Did you petition or go to Akufo-Addo to lobby for them to be considered for their positions?
- Did any of them come to you to go and speak on his or her behalf about these positions before the President?
- What exactly did you mount the spirited defense or support for?
It is not as though they needed your support or spirited defense to be able to sail through before a panel of a sort before they got their positions.
I am racking my brains to decipher the rationale for a spirited defense and support for Jean Mensa and Bossman Asare on your part.
If you did mount a spirited defense and support for them at all, then it was for nothing because they didn’t need your so-called support and spirited defense for their positions.
Let us come to the other aspect of your piece. While I do not take away your right to express your views on the publication of the meeting held between the EC and the leadership of the NDC which included the teams from the various aspirants, I believe strongly that your target was the EC even though they did nothing wrong.
My dear friend, you did not accuse the EC, NDC and the various representatives of the aspirants together. You were only baying for the blood of the EC (Jean Mensa and Bossman Asare).
What you wrote was an accusation against the EC as though they took an arbitrary decision to publish what transpired at the meeting.
In case you are not aware, letters were written to invite the NDC and the representatives of the respective aspirants to attend the said meeting. Before the meeting even commenced, the invitations had been leaked.
JoyFM/JoyNews had reporters at the EC before the meeting commenced based upon the leaked invites. The EC had to walk these reporters out since they were not part of the meeting.
Do you also know that immediately after the meeting, representatives of Kojo Bonsu and Dr. Kwabena Duffuor granted interviews to media houses? Your haste to be the first to express your opinions on this matter blindfolded you about this.
Whatever headlines media outlets assign to their stories are not to be determined by the Electoral Commission or any other entity for that matter, so stop blaming the EC for same.
You still don’t get this. The NDC, just like any other political organization in Ghana is seen to be a public entity.
The general public has an interest in the NDC as a party. The EC is a state agency and cannot be faulted for publicizing such a news item assuming it even came from them.
If the EC is being transparent about its affairs with political parties, what is wrong with it? It is much more healthier for the EC to do this than to keep such meetings in the dark.
You seem to be crying more than the bereaved. Who in the leadership of the NDC has come out to chastise Jean Mensa and her outfit for making the outcome of the meeting public? No one!
In your haste to be the modern day Tarzan in our political landscape, spare some time to review some of the things you write out there. As your friend, I would be failing in my duties to draw your attention to the fact that you are no Jesus Christ or Einstein to know everything. You are only human with flesh and blood. You can’t know everything, please.
Stop acting like you are the repository of every knowledge under the sun. Accept your flaws and show remorse when you get it wrong, it won’t kill you.
You say Bossman is your friend. I prefer to use the past tense of IS. He WAS your friend because no friend worth the salt would make it a hobby to berate or chastise his friend publicly.
How many times have you called Bossman or Jean Mensa to clarify certain issues you may have challenges with before writing dissertations about them? You don’t do that. What sort of friendship is this, Sir? With a friend like this, who needs an enemy, as they say?
You are the Lone Ranger in this needless battle for the opposition NDC. They are not so keen on this matter because they are okay with it. You, – non-stakeholder in the NDC, are on this crusade simply because you have seen a window of opportunity to go after the two people you love to criticize even when there are no justifiable reasons to do so. I still remain your friend.
P.K.Sarpong,
Whispers from the Corridors of the Thinking Place.
Richard Koomson| mediacentralonline.info |Ghana
kindly send us your stories on our WhatsApp line 0500004727
