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Opinions of Friday, 25 May 2012

Columnist: Blankson, Nana Kow

In Defense Of Ben Ephson

By Nana Kow Blankson

May 19, 2012

Those who go on the web very often to read news about Ghana will not fail to see articles from this nuisance who goes by the name, Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe. And sure enough you will not miss his big PhD title coupled with others. He was one time a member of the governing council of Gabby’s Danquah Institute, but strangely enough he has dropped that title since last year. Why Okoampa-Ahoofe is no longer a member of that laughable institute, only God knows.

Just go on Ghanaweb.com and read any article of Okoampa-Ahoofe and see the insults that Okoampa-Ahoofe’s own NPP people heap upon him; and you will have a fair idea of the strange views of Okoampa-Ahoofe. He writes a lot, but believe me, that gentleman writes about nothing. This is because lots of readers on Ghanaweb.com complain that they hardly understand what he writes about.

It is this man, Okoampa-Ahoofe, who today is saying that Ben Ephson is a waste of time and brains. If there is any singular person who is wasting his precious time and God given brains by wasting the precious time of Ghanaians and others who go on the web to read articles, it is no other person than Okoampa-Ahoofe.

Okoampa-Ahoofe lambasted Ben Ephson when the latter wrote that President Mills can win the 2012 elections without the help of Rawlings. Nobody is discounting the help that Rawlings gave to the NDC during the 2008 elections, but since nobody is mortal, Ben Ephson may be more than right in saying that President Mills can win on his own merit this time round.

Okoampa-Ahoofe, who lives in the United States, knows very well that polls changes from time to time. Today, you may be up in the polls and go down tomorrow, whilst an issue which is very paramount to a certain local can become nothing tomorrow depending on the political and dynamical wind. Therefore, the perception of the people in the Central region concerning candidate Mills is totally different today as compared to 2008, because he has been in the helm of affairs of the country for three good years.

Okoampa-Ahoofe should stop living in that pigeon hole and come home to Ghana to see what is going on. Akufo-Addo is not going to have things easy even in his own backyard, the Eastern Region, during the 2012 elections; because what President Mills has done there in terms of schools, clinics, hospitals, roads and agriculture is making the folks in that region take a deeper look at President Mills.

If today not many people are running to spread their clothes on the floor for Akufo-Addo to walk on in the Eastern Region, it should tell you how much he is struggling in his own backyard. Therefore, I am betting Okoampa-Ahoofe on the 2012 elections, and indeed I throw in the challenge that, we shall see who the eventual winner would be.

I remember what happened in 2008 when Akufo-Addo relied heavily on the likes of Okoampa-Ahoofe and Gabby Otchere-Darko, who fed him with false information and praises that made him believe that he was going to coast to victory only for him to lose eventually. It is this same crop of people who are again out to deceive Akufo-Addo that he is going to smile this time round by winning.

I, therefore, put it to Okoampa-Ahoofe that he is indeed wasting his time and brains by writing on issues which do not help him or his NPP. If Okoampa-Ahoofe has something better to do, he should try and stop his extreme propaganda and do some soul searching with the view to helping him rehabilitate his thoughts on the political issues in Ghana. Just sitting behind his laptop in New York and roaming the web to rebut issues with big English but no concrete scientific analysis will not help him or the NPP, which is why he has become a laughing stock on the web. Ben Ephson may not be the best, but the respect that he has trumps Okoampa-Ahoofe. I believe Okoampa-Ahoofe can never match the likes of Ben Ephson when it comes to solid political discussions backed by facts and figures. He should therefore come again.

nkowblankson@yahoo.com