A former head of the Political Science Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Dr Richard Amoako Baah, has asked the general secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, to retract his comments on Accra100.5fm, which, according to him (Dr Baah), cast a slur on his Ph.D degree.

Mr Asiedu Nketia, while responding to a question on the station’s breakfast show, Ghana Yensom, on Wednesday, April 13, in connection with the academic’s remarks that about 60% of President John Mahama’s key appointees are northerners, made reference to reports in the media that cast doubts on the authenticity of the political science lecturer’s doctorate degree.

In responding to Mr Asiedu Nketia on Accra News on the same day, Dr Amoako Baah stood by his comments saying: “I have evidence to back it. If you look at this government, it is only Northerners and Ewes occupying key positions; I didn’t say all positions, but that key positions are being occupied by Northerners and Ewes. If you live in Ghana and insist that it is not true, then it means you don’t know what is going on.”

“And Asiedu Nketia says I have a credibility problem, that my Ph.D. is fake. So, today, on this platform, I am telling him to come out and retract those comments he made and apologise lest he will hear from my lawyers. I have offered him the opportunity to come and retract.”

Dr Amoako Baah said because the current government “does not have any good thing to tell Ghanaians”, they resort to hurling abuses at persons who criticise them. “You tell the truth, you get insulted; when men of God say it, they are insulted; and when traditional rulers speak, that is also an issue. So, does the nation belong to only them or what?” he asked.

He said his remarks about the large number of Northerners and Ewes in sensitive government positions was premised on the fact that those were minority ethnic groups. “Northerners make up 12.6% of the population [but] if you check, you will realise that they occupy more than 50 percent of the key government positions. Who is unaware of this fact? Many have said that if you go in search of a job and you don’t bear a northern name, you are not taken,” Dr Amoako Baah asserted.

The outspoken lecturer would not take lightly Mr. Asiedu Nketia’s insinuations about his Ph.D. “because the truth is that if you want to know if someone has a Ph.D., it is very, very easy”.

“It is even more difficult to find out if someone has a master’s than he having a Ph.D. For a Ph.D., at least in America, before you are awarded, you write a dissertation. So, once you see a dissertation, then you know it’s true he has one. If you go online now and type my name, you will see everything.

“So, he means to say that the staff at KNUST aren’t sensible and they have gone for just anybody walking about without a Ph.D. or what? So, what is he saying? He wants to disgrace me? It means he has nothing good to say, so, it’s all about attack.

“He knows what I am saying is true… Akans comprise 67.2 percent [of the population], so, there is no government you can form that the majority are not included, but rather the minorities are in charge. No way. When you do that you are asking for trouble. It’s happened in many countries and what I am saying is that we need to change that. If someone is good, he is good. It doesn’t matter where he comes from.”