You’ve thrown objectivity to the dogs - A letter to Manasseh Azure Awuni

Dear Manasseh,

My mother told me an anecdotal story about a child who was bent on crying no matter what was done for him. She said that there was this kid who would be crying for no apparent reasons and whenever he was asked to stop crying, he would say that he would only stop crying when he is given the head of a crab. This child was shrewd enough to know that no crab has a head and his parents could go to the moon and back, they would not find one.

What this true account means is that the child was not willing to cease his piteous wailings. This trait of this child is very much a part of you. There appears to be a symbiotic dalliance between you and this kid in this story.

Your comment in the wake of Twitter’s decision to establish its African headquarters in Ghana couches you as someone who has thrown objectivity outside the window.

You’ve rained praises on former Ghanaian leaders in the persons of John Agyekum Kufuor, John Evans Atta-Mills and John Dramani Mahama for their immense contributions to the promotion of free speech that has resulted in Twitter seeing the need to set up its African headquarters in Ghana.

First of all, per your pathetic and selective position, if the three former leaders did indeed promote free speech and Akufo-Addo has trampled upon same, thereby sending the country back into those dark days where free speech was a scarce commodity, why would Twitter waste time and resources camping here now that Akufo-Addo has destroyed it, as you seem to portray?

You know as much as we all do that Twitter never mentioned that it is pitching camp here because Ghana, some five years ago and beyond was doing well in terms of free speech! If peace reigned supreme yesterday and chaos happens to be the dominant force now, Twitter would never have decided to be here.

This, therefore, trounces your argument to the effect that it is the works of J. A. Kufour, Mills and Mahama that have made it possible for Twitter to see reasons in establishing its base here.

Your failure to admit that it is the sterling performance of President Akufo-Addo in the area of promoting media freedoms as the enzyme that has ignited this great feat makes you look like someone who is driven by his emotions and, for want of a better expression, hatred for the man Akufo-Addo to be walking such a path famished in objectivity.

Part of the reasons behind your inability to praise Akufo-Addo has been your needlessly consistent but exaggerated crusade against this administration as being anti-free speech. You’d be seen as having eaten your own vomit if you say anything contrary to the hymns you have been singing.

You have written copiously about this administration as being intolerant with reasons that fail to convince any objective-minded Ghanaian. Any incident, assault or death associated with a media person which does not have any designs of this government is blamed on Akufo-Addo by you. Such flimsily hollow justifications have come back to punch holes in your reasoning as far as this Twitter issue is concerned. Need I remind you that the genesis of your extreme antagonistic posturing towards this administration is as a result of that sham of a documentary you came out with which was not swallowed by Ghanaians? That’s the source of all these effusive rants of yours.

Manasseh, you can argue the toss all you please, you can even claim that Twitter is here today because there was a certain Kwame Nkrumah who got independence for us, the unvarnished truth is that Twitter has come down to Ghana because President Akufo-Addo has promoted free speech and that media freedoms have been greatly enhanced. Ghana is attractive because of the good leadership of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

P.K.Sarpong, Whispers from the Corridors of the Thinking Place.