Oh, Hoo, Ben Ephson!

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

I know for a fact that Mr. Ben Ephson is a junk-pollster as well as a junk-journalist. And my reason is very simple – barely a week ago, this comical media operative predicted that the certification of the Konadu-Agyeman-led National Democratic Party (NDP), by the Electoral Commission (EC), was almost certain to significantly detract from any chance of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) defeating the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) at Election 2012.

But for my extremely busy teaching schedule and other extracurricular responsibilities, I had intended to fiercely challenge the radio-talk entertainer. First of all, both the National Democratic Congress and the National Democratic Party are ideological clones with strikingly the same agenda of inexorably fleecing the Ghanaian taxpayer, even while hypocritically pretending to be upholding the high moral principles of “probity and accountability” in governance. Indeed, about the only difference between these two clones founded by the Rawlingses essentially hinges on the degree of political vindictiveness harbored by the key operatives of these two parties, with the splinter NDP seeking nothing short of the jugular of their common ideological nemesis, the New Patriotic Party.

Anyway, I was going to fiercely challenge Mr. Ephson because common sense, alone, ought to have informed this quite versatile comedian that in terms of its electoral support, the National Democratic Congress draws from almost exactly the same pool of eligible and potential voters as the National Democratic Party. In sum, the EC’s eleventh-hour certification of the NDP to fully participate in Election 2012 was far more likely to split the traditional supporters of the NDC than any significantly cut into the core supporters of the New Patriotic Party. Predictably, as I have suggested several times in the past, the NDC-leaning Mr. Ephson was too dishonest both with himself and his audience to acknowledge the same. Very likely, his thick and heavy palms had been generously greased by the Mahama-Arthur posse at the time that he made his rather soft-headed prediction.

And now, in the wake of Mr.Rawlings’ alleged endorsement of President John “Paradigm-Shift” Dramani Mahama’s bid for a retention of democratic power on his own merit, the shameless Mr. Ephson is now telling his audience that the apparent withdrawal of Togbui Avaklasu’s support for the NDP, automatically enhances the chances for an NDC electoral victory, at the same time that it virtually dooms those of the NDP (See “Rawlings’ Endorsement of Mahama ‘Kills’ NDP – Ephson” Ghanaweb.com 9/20/12).

If he is not the greatest charlatan on the contemporary Ghanaian media political circuit, then I don’t know what else Mr. Ephson could be aptly described as.

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is Director of The Sintim-Aboagye Center for Politics and Culture and author of “Ghanaian Politics Today” (Lulu.com, 2008). E-mail: [email protected]. ###