The partisan wolf in objective sheepskin in Ghana

It is often said that *“the bird that dances in the middle of the road only
knows where its music comes from”*.
In the year 2012, some radio stations and media organisations frequently
sought the views of one Dr. Michael Kpessah Whyte or Dr. Michael W. Kpessa.
He was portrayed and unleashed unto the unsuspecting Ghanaian public as an
independent and objective academic with a world view on Ghanaian politics
and current affairs. With this in mind, we watched helplessly as he misled
Ghanaians, especially the young political aspirants on the political
landscape of this country.

After all the hard sell about his so-called objectivity, we now know better
than what the media sought to portray in 2012. It is public knowledge that
Dr Michael Kpessah Whyte is now a Presidential Staffer in the Office of the
NDC President John Dramani Mahama. In fact, we are now in a better position
to be pleased about why Dr Kpessah Whyte makes so much argument by
selective observation as well as his pre-conceived biases towards his
political opponents. It is not for nothing that in Matthew 7:16 it is
stated “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns
or figs of thistles”?

Can Dr Whyte sincerely say that he is not a member of the NDC and he has
never been a member? What would become of his so-called independent
mindedness when the NDC goes into opposition, would he button his lips and
clam up? Would he have the same moral courage to praise everything
government does and attack political opponents? Most Ghanaians do not want
to believe that Dr Michael Kpessah Whyte would be caught in a traffic jam
of discursive thought.

It would be recalled that in November 2012 when NDC politicians were
raining insults on religious leaders in the country, this same political
scientist joined the NDC apparatchiks in tongue-lashing one of Ghana’s
revered men of God, Pastor Mensa Otabil. According to Dr Whyte, “There is
nothing wrong with rebutting the way he did. But he needs to understand the
terrain and the environment within which he was doing this. “...There was
a tape that was being played. It happened to be his voice. Of course he has
a right to express his views like he did. But doing it in the manner and
associating the president with it and using words like Machiavellian, evil
and those things. For a man of God I think that really was not measured at
all,” "…must not shy away from criticizing our religious leaders when they
also go wrong. They are not God. They are only God’s representatives here.
They are human…”

Then again, this same man whom many flaunt as an objective academic on the
Martin Amidu case said, “If he wants to be taken very seriously as somebody
who claims to have had an insight in government and also a founding member
of NDC, then he needs to cite specific instances in which the individual
around which his letter revolve was involved in any wrong-doing”. He said,
Amidu’s statement “was couched in a language that seem to suggest that he
was going to provide us with some evidence to prove that the President is
not as incorruptible as he seem to suggest but reading the whole document
to the end; it appeared that it was all basically based on the figment of
his imagination”.

So when the academic turned presidential staffer waded into the
Brigadier-General Nunoo Mensah’s controversy, he only defined his
partisanship as a true NDC man and this is what we want the media and the
general public to know and be aware about the wolves in sheepskin. In the
Brigadier’s controversial statement which has been condemned by most
Ghanaians, Dr Kpessah Whyte said the following: “I think the General was
actually too kind even in his choice of words as far as this particular
issue is concerned.” “If we don’t learn to call a spade a spade in this
country, and stop calling [a] spade a smaller spoon or a bigger spoon or
whatever it is, we will continue to find ourselves in the kind of situation
we find ourselves in. I don’t see why anybody should attack the General
for the kind of comments. It is indeed frustrating”.
In view of all of this, it is important to share with the Ghanaian public
excerpts of what some concerned members of the PPP said about this man’s
views in 2012 when he sought to defame the strength of the Progressive
People’s Party and even suggested that the party will die off after the
2012 elections.
*
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*DR KPESSAH WHYTE MUST COME AGAIN!*
It is with great humility that concerned members of the PPP wish to respond
to attempts by certain self-styled political analysts to undermine the
efforts of our party to establish itself firmly as a force to reckon with
in Ghana. We know we must work hard and prove ourselves. We know we have a
lot to do. However, we find it quite preposterous for anybody to accept the
proposition made by political analyst, Dr. Kpessah Whyte that it would take
the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) “…a long time to be recognized as a
credible third force in Ghanaian politics”. We asked what field research Dr
Whyte had done in the three months that our party was in existence? Where
did he go in the ten regions of the country and with what methodology did
he do the work that he used as the basis for dismissing the efforts of over
26,000 paid up members of the new party called PPP? Interestingly, after
the 2012 elections, the PPP demonstrated its strength and became the third
largest political party, and the second biggest opposition party in Ghana.
We congratulate Dr Michael Kpessah Whyte for his new appointment as
presidential staffer in the NDC-Mahama led Presidency after singing the
“appropriate” tunes behind the blinds. And these are the sort of people
advising the President – Kpessah Whyte, Clement Apaak, etc. Can the
so-called independent mindedness of our intelligentsia be trusted at all?
Of course, time is the revealer of all truth.
But as America’s Ex-President Richard Nixon once said “The jawbone of an
ass is just as dangerous a weapon today as in Sampson's time."

*Paa Kow Ackon *
*PPP Communication Team Member*
*0203623397*