Jon Benjamin's comment and Manasseh's defense of it in the name of objectivity

By Stanley Seshie

Jon Benjamin is the current British High Commissioner to Ghana. Once
again, he was in the news for making an unacceptable remark about our
President as he links it to the appearance of the Harmattan. He said
“Oh, that nasty air outside all of a sudden. Did someone inaugurate
the Harmattan already?.

If Ghanaians nicknamed their President the Commissioner General
leading to and even beyond the election as he inaugurates many
projects, it does not mean any diplomat can go public ridiculing our
President. A weather phenomenon has nothing to do with inauguration.

The word, inauguration, gives his implicit intention away and the
furor it generated to put him where he belongs nonviolently is
justified. But Manasseh Azure thought otherwise, to the point of
writing a piece, which to a large extent is a defense of the British
Commissioner's act.

In his piece titled, the undiplomatic diplomat and the hypocrites,
Manasseh went describing Ghanaians who descended on Ben as hypocrites.
In fact, Manasseh filled his piece with so much specious reasoning
that, at first, you might think he has a point if you know nothing
about smokescreens in advancing a case.

Smokescreens are deliberate introduction of certain legitimate points anachronistically intended to conceal the specious reasoning for the advancement of a case, that would ordinary not make it.

In this regard, he used our internal wrangling and if they sway you,
you are likely to see nothing wrong with what the British High
Commissioner's comment. And then tell yourself that Azure was simply
being objective. However, as I shall point out, he only engaged in
erecting smokescreens. Manasseh was more subjective than objective.
Let me quote from his article for illustration.

The smokescreens

“This is the presidency under which the senseless and fraudulent
bus-branding contract was awarded. This is the presidency that
supervised the SADA rot. This is the presidency that attacked and
destroyed the voice recorder of a journalist and when a petition was
submitted to get the official sanctioned and have him apologise,
nothing came out of it.

Further down the lane, “this is the presidency who told ministers not to accept a pesewa or a pin from a business entity but went ahead to accept a Ford Expedition from a Burkinabe contractor who was winning questionable contracts in our republic. And many more in the article. These are diversionary tactics, which sway you off the main topic of discussion, in this case, whether the British High Commissioner’s comment clearly
impliedly ridicules our President or not.

Beggar deserves no respect

Besides, before we compare ourselves with the UK and US and the other
countries, which we often say must stay away from issues, we should
know our relationships with them. Ours is a servant-master
relationship. We go there to beg them for money. We beg because our
government officials, businessmen and highly respected people have,
since independence, been stealing our collective wealth and stashing
them in offshore accounts and buying property in Dubai and the most
luxurious places on the planet.

Until we stop begging, we should not
expect to be treated as equals. And many more in the article.

A beggar deserving no respect is commonsense. And international
relationships are certainly not anchored on commonsense. So that is
very pathetic from a journalist in 21st century, where even a thief is
to be respected and treated with dignity for the fact that he is
foremost a human being, before his status as a thief.

Let us apply the same to a nation, and ask how whether a nation that “begs” deserves respect or not? The sole point of sovereignty of a nation in international relations is respect whether any via their
representatives or not. Every diplomat knew this to guide their
actions and utterances if not every journalists.

Conclusion

Reading his article reveals so much smokescreens, contradictions and
specious reasoning. He was not objective either. Objectivity is not
the absence of bias as most people think. Rather it is the effort to
minimize its influence. As Azure could not minimize his bias against
President John Dramani Mahama led government, even with respect to
this British Commissioner's comment, he imported almost every
unnecessary claims as smokescreens to defend the British
Commissioner's indefensible unacceptable remark whilst tagging those
who think otherwise as hypocrites.