Political Scientist with the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Yaw Gyampo has described as “needless” Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah’s use of “papa no”, a new social media word being used in trolls directed at former President John Mahama, in Parliament yesterday.

According to him, Mr Oppong Nkrumah did not have to use the controversial social media lexicon to make his point or sound eloquent, stressing that Mr Oppong Parliament has should have respected the approved formal language used in Parliament.

“It is needless to spark needless controversy by using bogus social media lexicon in a parliament that has clear lexicon and appropriate formal register of lingua franca. If the way parliamentarians dress, is prescribed, the way they express themselves on the formal floor, cannot be unprescribed.

Kojo Oppong Nkrumah must not be complacent and swollen-headed.

He is a young man carving a niche for himself and he must concentrate on that, rather than being the source of this needless controversy and walkout.

He could have made his point without the needless phrase. He didn’t need to describe his colleague as “papa no” to sound eloquent,” he wrote on social media.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah while making his contribution in Parliament yesterday referred to John Jinapor as Papa no. This reference did not go down well with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) minority in Parliament. Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu was especially peeved over the reference.

The Twi phrase, “Papa no”, which translates as “the man” has become a much used social media word following a feud between actress and motivational speaker Tracy Boakye and singer and media personality MzBel.
Tracy Boakye and MzBel had traded insulting language over a male they are both apparently having a sexual affair with. In their exchanges, the man was referred to as papa no.

The phrase immediately gained widespread usage on social media, with some governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters alleging that the papa no is former President John Mahama.