AKILU SAYIBU: DR OKOAMPA MUST Leave Dr Arthur Kennedy Alone!

Last week current students of the Common Wealth Hall of the University of Ghana as well as some old Vandals went on the loose over plans by the University Authorities to make their hall a mixed one for Graduate students. They were very right to want to fight for the life of a hall they felt was so dear to their hearts! I salute them for that.

I was however hugely disappointed when Dr Kwame Okoampa took what I would term a very unnecessary issue with what Dr Arthur Kennedy wrote about the issue. I had earlier read what Dr. Arthur Kennedy wrote but when I saw Dr Okoampa’s rejoinder to it, I was compelled to go back and read it once again I honestly thought I had missed out something. When I did, I noticed I did not miss out anything and there was no need at all for this rejoinder from Okoampa.

The issue is that, even before Dr. Arthur Kennedy wrote his article others had written and spoken about the issue openly. At least I heard Kwesi Pratt spoke against the decision of the University Authorities, I heard Egbert Fabile spoke against it, and I also heard Kweku Baako too. Many other persons spoke and wrote against the issue under discussion.

My problem is that, in all these instances Dr. Okoampa was not heard and he did not as well write a rejoinder to the many others who had written and spoken about the issue before Dr. Arthur Kennedy. The question to ask now is why was Dr Arthur Kennedy targeted? Is it because of the book he wrote about chasing the Elephant to the bush which did not go down well with some people who now wants to grab the wrong branches to attack him in a rather misplaced fashion?
Readers must be made to understand that, not only did Dr. Arthur Kennedy once head the students Union of Ghana, but also he attended the University of Ghana, and was as well in the current Common Wealth Hall which is the subject under discussion. Why on earth can’t he write about it when even others who have no association with the Hall and the University could write?
I am disappointed that, two persons popularly known to belong to the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition should decide to take this path when alternative methods could have been used. If I were Dr. Okoampa what I would have done after reading Dr. Arthur Kennedy’s article would have been to call him, if I had any issue with what he wrote then I ask for clarification. Why that was not done is another issue.

There is no doubt at all that, these two people are about to start a media war if they have not started it already which would end up having a ripple effect on the tradition they all belong to and want it back to power. It is in their own interest to halt any further exchanges in other not to wash plenty dirty linen in public.

They are entitled to make maximum use of their freedom to express themselves on any issue but on this occasion it is not the best. Dr. Okoampa in my view must leave Dr Arthur Kennedy alone on this occasion and on this issue. If he could keep quiet over what others said and wrote he could as well leave Dr Arthur Kennedy alone at least for the sake of the Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition of which they are all members and in the name of morality and fairness.

They must be told that, none of them would win any media war over this issue. They will only at best succeed in inviting more people into the “war” which I can assure them would only lead to more revelations on not only their individual personalities but their political tradition and the political personalities they both support. May I therefore as a matter of extreme urgency call on elders of the New Patriotic Party ( NPP) to call these two people to order.
A word to the wise…….

AKILU SAYIBU UK

EMAIL: Akilu.sayibu@live.uwe.ac.uk