Are Voices Like These Opinions and High Horses, Professor?

"...(W)e have argued that..."Facts" may be important. But so is "Fairness" that is at bottom of our three values, all organizing principles for our opinions. Otherwise, we may find ourselves operating like the former Black Stars coach, Mr. Kwesi Appiah, who did not seem to appreciate the gully of a difference between a soccer coach and a referee of the game..in Brazil..." (Prof Lungu, 5 Mar 15).


In a final comment on our last essay titled "The Bizarre & Wretched Case of Dr. Adjei Sarfo (Part 2)", Kwesi indicated an interest in "....intervention...sanitizing our discourses...(and)...generous dissent from both opposing camps." Before that, Dr. Kwabena Akurang-Parry cautioned:

"Bad, Bad Approach...We should know that we are all trading ideas and generous criticisms promote scholarship, while on-the-high-horse lectures promote antagonistic and polarized scholarship..."


As it were, we were unable to respond properly before Ghanaweb.com sent the essay to the archives, and have as a result had additional time to reflect on the matter. Kwesi's take on "both opposing camps" is interesting. It got us thinking again about whether perhaps there was not another "camp", the Ghana-centered way, perhaps. Promising as it is, we will however leave that for another day.


With respect to "opinions", we agree that some of our statements in the essay may have been outrageous, even opinionated. In our essays and comments on Ghanaweb, we've always tried to search for context and balance! On the other hand, many contributors and readers on Ghanaweb may agree, though, that on balance, they have been inundated with a lot more outrageous and opinionated statements from Attorney Samuel Adjei-Sarfo with respect to the Dr. Kwame Nkrumah record.


In Part I, we pleaded with our Attorney for a certain amount of "self reflection", "respect", and attention to our shared "TSU tradition", values best exemplified by the Mickey Leyland, Barbara Jordan,and Thurgood Marshall records. In this context, we accept that these are all "Opinions" and "High Horses" rolled into one. The call was based on our judgment that those values have largely been missing from Attorney Adjei-Sarfo's essays (and comments) on Ghanaweb in recent months, again, with respect to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Rather, Attorney Adjei-Sarfo's essays have become ever more caustic. This forced us to conclude that our Attorney is practice abusing the resource that is Ghanaweb.


We will note that closely related to our three "values" (self-reflection, respect, and tradition), is "Fairness". This, we will return to, shortly.


We all know that the Ghanaweb forum is not a Court of Law. We also know that it is very easy, in this age, to show a document to the masses, if one holds "the" key card. A copy of that so-called Dr. J. B. Danquah prison letter ought to be shown to folks who want to see it, of only because they spent their time reading that essay. So, failing that, for all it is worth, we must maintain our position that the SAS-extracted "letter from prison", is bogus. (In fact, in any other political-economy, the letter, if it actually existed, would be worth a lot of money on account of its historical value, and would cry out to be seen by a lot of people, no matter what camp they "belong").


Moving on, compared to many professionals and intellectuals at or near our age, we profited modestly from the legacy of the Nkrumah regime, as represented by the CPP of old. Fact is, we left Ghana at our own cost not too long after completing Form 5 (Secondary School). Thus, all our higher education, professional training, and work experiences were achieved outside Ghana. On the other hand, there were thousands of people in our cohort age group who continued to 6th Form or similar commencements, then to one Ghana university to another, then to one Ghana college to another. This includes those who, in addition, may have also received other major public funding and benefits (i.e., overseas scholarships, professional training, medical care, support for their siblings and their friends' children, etc.), all facilities and programs constructed or first initiated and/or programmed during the CPP-government era (no colonial government freebies available)!


"Elite" is a fitting characterization of these beneficiaries, if we may. This includes Prof Lungu as we've noted. As such, total benefit to each individual or family, versus cost to the public all those years, must all be considered in the proper bucket(s) if we should begin to assess the legacy of Nkrumah's CPP. It is certainly not simply a case of figuring out different ways of looking at national productions and concluding that what you think was bought, could have been more, way back then, if only...

We will suggest that individual elites did not have to accept those public benefits during the Nkrumah era, only to turn around to condemn Nkrumah when legacies are being polished after they have been already positioned. In fact, remarkably, just yesterday, we learned about the story of Ms. Martha Bissah, Gold Medalist at the 2014 Youth Olympics in China. In a rather bizarre story now developing involving Professor Francis Dodoo, Ghana Athletic Association (GAA)1 chief, Ms. Bissah may or may not have declined a government scholarship for overseas studies. Regardless, our Nkrumah-bashing elites and their families had every right to decline those benefits, or having failed, to be gracious enough to acknowledge their appreciation to Ghana, as was represented by Nkrumah's CPP, of yester-year.


On the other hand, across from the "elites" and moving forward, are the millions still living in Ghana, and the other millions now gone, who by the stroke of birth, luck, or geography, never benefited as much, either from the CPP-Nkrumah legacy, or from any number of institutions and programs, after that fateful coup d'état of 1966. That, we submit, is a self-evident fact, and to them, we owe a lot. It is to them that we must provide reasonable, balanced, and fair alternatives to conceptions of public policy and administration whenever we have a medium. We ought to do this through discourses and practice, as suggested, so all will know that there are alternative world visions that promise better, faster development opportunities for Ghana, and the communities in which they live. This directly touches on the role of education and the vantage position of the so-called "educated" Ghanaian man or woman (the elites), scholar or not.


Relatedly, as the Ghanawb Forum is not a Court, so is the forum not an academic journal, or a process of that sort - with peer reviews, organized libraries, and restricted/high cost for access, etc. In fact, daily, many readers comment that this or that essay is a bit difficult to comprehend. We are attuned to those needs. Further, to the extent we are practitioners in the field, we really do not have a need, nor are we as interested in publishing in alternative media, including scholarly journals. But, we've always hoped that through reflective, and Ghana-centered opinions and comments on Ghanaweb, we all may influence one and many, and be influenced in turn, in the important matters about Ghana and its development processes and priorities.


Significantly, we suspect that many more contributors and readers on Ghanaweb are outside the academy, than inside. It is these people, including those individuals and families that have profited so little from Ghana, really, it is they, that are of interest to Prof Lungu. They are part of the segment of the population to whom we reckon we owe so much. This may sound patronizing, even "high-horse"-y. All should understand, still, that this is one of the ways we've elected to contribute towards a larger situational awareness grounded in Ghana-centeredness, on the path toward development and empowerment. It is just the way it is with us, with essays and activities going back more than a decade on Ghanaweb (and on www.GhanaHero.com), and in other arenas, both private and public.


So, with respect to the Dr. Nkrumah legacy question at least, we do not come to this forum as experts in the history of Ghana, or even, as scholars of Ghana, per se. That, we leave to others in/from/outside the academy who have access to a lot more sources, data, and important facts, than we could even begin to cry "Fairness." On the other hand, the way "opinions" go, when others in/from/outside the academy who have access to equal or more sources do not contribute, and are still aware of an on-going "antagonistic" discourse, we may in fairness conclude that they are expressing an opinion, nonetheless. (We will note here that Dr. Akurang-Parry is not among this group).


Nevertheless, how do we then compare the voices missing in action (VMIA) to voices on Ghanaweb that are plainly or minutely opinionated, outrageous, even; voices on the record that may even be "high-horse"y? Let's for a moment think about the numerous Chairs of Departments of History, Government, Law, City Planning, Business, Administration, Journalism, Education, Philosophy, etc., and all their deputies, deans, lecturers, and professors; and their success or lack thereof, of inspiring the thousands of students under their care to contribute to this discourse about Ghana, or any other.


All this to say, whenever we can, we will not now vacate the Nkrumah legacy discourse entirely to those who appear to, or in fact, approach that question from the position of birthright, privilege, location, or personal/financial advantage. Nor do we intend to vacate the discourse at this point to those who benefited massively from the Nkrumah-CPP legacy, but are now turning around and persistently dogging that legacy out of all proportion to their own achievement, the benefit they received, and the achievement of their favored political tradition. That tradition, we must say, has thus far been markedly peculiar in its absent-mindedness for balkanizing of Ghana (a fact!), and as we posited in another essay recently, no important legacy was ever created by man that had no warts, as is the case of a flea on the back of a natural born African elephant of that generic type.


That, we believe, is the essence of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and what he ought to represent to objective Ghana by way of a "legacy". As such, opinions must/will always matter, necessarily! The Nkrumah legacy is surely contestable as opinions go, particularly given the purposeful destruction of that legacy immediately after the coup d'etat in 1966. But, even so, that legacy is irrefutable in its wide ranging and enduring beneficial impact on Ghana.


To be specific, that legacy is grounded in context and in millions of records all over the world, from "Northern" Ghana to Accra-Tema Metroplex, from the United States of America to England, from China to South Africa, from Ethiopia to Vietnam, from Russia to the Cameroun, from Morocco to Nigeria, from Guinea to Egypt, from Jamaica to Japan, and all places in-between. And should the records be scholarly facts out-of-sight (as they generally are, in books, dissertations, and journals, etc.), those records ought to be made accessible. We will assist in making them accessible to the People by way of analyses and opinions presented to the average reader, to precisely those who matter to us most, in accordance with our expressed purpose, to which there is absolutely no financial gain or expectations of a reward or position (official or otherwise), as we are sure many on Ghanaweb have same.


In closing, we have argued that in this Ghanaweb forum, "Facts" may be important. But so is "Fairness" at bottom of our three values, all organizing principles for our "opinions". Otherwise, we may find ourselves operating like the former Black Stars coach, Mr. Kwesi Appiah, who did not seem to appreciate the gully of a difference between a soccer coach and a referee of the game, in Brazil.


All that said, if anyone can show us examples/case where we have been vastly unfair to Attorney Samuel Adjei Sarfo, we will seriously consider their opinion. In that case, we will reflect on rendering an appropriate apology to Attorney Samuel Adjei-Sarfo, and will do so at a time of our choosing.


So, we await responses from whomever cares and/or have a comment or two!


'Nuff respect to all, to the Ghana-Nation, to all Ghana supporters! Thanks especially, also, to Dr. Kwabena Akurang-Parry, for encouraging us to reflect a bit more.



NOTE
1Per a report sourced to citifmonline.com and reported on Ghanaweb 5 Mar 15, Ms. Martha Bissah is bewildered. The way the young athlere explains it, Professor Francis Dodoo, the Ghana Athletic Association (GAA) chief simply asked her if she wanted to go to the US to further her education. The wise young lady, surprised by the talk, replied she would have to think about that because "it was a bit too soon." That was in 2014. The young athlete has since not heard from the GAA. Seems to us , Professor Francis Dodoo and the GAA should have followed the talk with a formal letter to Ms. Bissah and her parents, as part of conducting the business of the GAA, something they have neglected to do.


©Prof Lungu is Ghana-centered/Ghana-Proud. Prof Lungu is based in Washington DC, USA. Brought to you courtesy www.GhanaHero.com©5 Mar. 15.