Stop the poor analysis and castigation, Captain Smart & Co

I just chanced on a YouTube short video of Captain Smart’s analysis in which he castigated the vice president and president on Ghana’s current debt and claimed he was telling them the truth. Other YouTube watchers sang the same note and fell for his poor analysis.

That video made me laugh and worry at the same time. It made me laugh because it was a poor analysis and the conclusions arrived which he called truth are nothing more than his own faultily arrived opinions.

It made me worry because so many people are falling for such half truths and destroying people’s hard-earned reputation in the name of speaking the truth, whereas they do not understand what they are speaking about.

This is my worry with Ghanaians. Many people claim “Oh I need to tell you the truth”, but what they claim as truth is just their own formed opinions, judgements and conclusions which are faultily derived from the evidential facts.

Facts may be there, but what kind of conclusions are you making from the facts, and how dare you call it the truth when you don’t have all the data at your disposal nor do you possess the faculty to make impeccable judgements?

Can people be humble enough to say “this is my opinion” rather than “this is the truth” when they are speaking about what they think? Especially in our use of the media?

I need to respond because Captain Smart is not the only one guilty of this – many do this on our radios and media outlets just as they do in daily life.

There must come a point where we must stop polluting public opinions with our own vendetta in the name of speaking the truth- whether deliberately like those who hide behind their celebrity or NGO status to spew utter nonsense surreptitiously on behalf of their preferred but failed political candidate, or innocently but ignorantly, like this example.

I use Captain Smart as just an example, but many others who fall in that line must sit up.

What are we talking about?

Captain Smart claims that he insulted ex-President John Mahama for being dumb because during his reign, Ghana’s debt -to-GDP ratio was 69%. He continues that in that vein Dr. Bawumiah, who is in charge of President Akuffo Addo’s economy, is dumber than dumb, because during their reign, the debt-to GDP ratio has risen to 76%. Really?

What a dumb analysis for someone calling his president and vice as “dumb”! You see the problem with this is that it is not just misleading; it is dangerously misleading, because it casts a lot of sand on all the fiscal good work this government is doing for the Ghanaian people, without saying so. And it is unacceptable because the analysis is faulty.

Here are questions for you:

1- Is it not the same Ghana or economy John Mahama left that Akuffo Addo inherited? If so, when Akuffo Addo took it, was it not already at 69% debt to GDP ratio? If so, did Akuffo Addo start from the scratch or he started from 69%?

If he started from 69% and it's now 76 % how much has Akuffo Addo added to it? Is it not only 7 %

Didn't your Mathematics teacher teach you to Subtract the 69% from the 76% before you can get what Akuffo Addo actually has added? And when you do that you will get only 7%

2- You see, if in all four years, he has added only 7 %, according to your analysis, shouldn't you applaud him for his fiscal discipline?

You see how people condemn and criticize and destroy other people's hard-earned reputation in the name of speaking the truth when in actual fact they themselves do not understand what they are talking about, and are not humble enough to learn?

3- The actual percentages and figures may differ from your projections- they could be worse or better – that is not my point now. The vice president and the economists at the helm of affairs will do a better job than I in explaining the debt crisis and setting the records straight.

What immediately put me off and I felt I must respond is how you are crusading your poor analysis in the name of truth and casting sand on the great job this government has done and is still doing on the Ghanaian economy for Ghana.

4- By the way do you know that due to this very fact of “incrementalism” – that each successive government can only add to what was there before because you cannot just wish it away (and that’s why President Kuffour declared HIPIC) – the percentage in successive years are most likely to be higher than the previous years, even if you added just a little to it?

And you yourself admitted that every government can’t do without borrowing?

5- In your capacity as the host of the program you could have invited any official from the ministry of finance to your program or the minister himself or even arrange with the vice president to give you someone if not himself, to explain the issues well so that you use your media responsibly to inform, not misinform; educate not mislead; and appreciate not sow dissatisfaction.

I believe if you reverse the roles you would not like it if someone with little understanding casts aspersions on your hard work and sets you up against the people for that person’s wrong conclusions rather than the truth.

The time has come for Ghanaians to separate the wheat from the chaff in our criticisms and appraisals, for everyone to seek to hear the other side of the story since we are not God hence do not possess all knowledge, and to stop that irritating culture of spewing venom from our ill-conceived opinions calling it “the truth” when in fact it is our own opinions.

We teach the little kids in primary school to discern facts from opinion: unfortunately I think many adults and media outlets need that training better!

God bless our homeland Ghana and make our nation great and strong.