Opinions of Tuesday, 2 January 2024

Columnist: Iddrisu ABDUL HAKEEM

WASSCE result brouhaha: ‘Interractuals’ in the NPP won't agree with Prez Mahama

Former President, John Mahama Former President, John Mahama

Fellow citizens of Ghana, Karl Marx once said, “My purpose in life is to dethrone God and destroy capitalism.” Till his death, Karl Marx was never successful in this mission. In fact, capitalism has flourished more than ever before, and God is still very alive and remains the King of kings, far placed above drowsiness and sleep let alone death.

The truth is the seeds of God, no matter the intensity of drought, shall always germinate and bear fruits regardless of the army of rodents, swam of birds, and pests in general that seek to destroy the farm.

Fellow Ghanaians, those descendants of corruption and progeny of political evil in this country who seek to destroy our motherland, shall never be successful. Their unpatriotic intentions would always be exposed and checkmated by the God of our land. The blood, tears, toils of all those who tirelessly pieced together this country called Ghana, shall not go in vain.

You see, the Bible teaches in Matthew 7:15 that, "You shall know them by their fruits." It's becoming increasingly apparent, the real cause of our current economic quagmire. Dr. Bawumia and his fellow "men" of the New Patriotic Party, NPP have employed in the last seven years to (mis)manage our economy, appear to be academic certificate forgers, examination malpractioners, academic cheaters, and what Professor Farooq Kperogi, an Atlanta based Nigerian professor of journalism calls "Fraund-fessors" (undeserving professors).

Perhaps, Dr. Bawumia's doctorate degree in economics was doctored. It was not genuine. He could have cheated in his examinations to come by his First-Class Degree Honors at Birmingham University in the United Kingdom. Maybe there’s something entirely fishy with his academic accolades and pedigrees, and that PhD degree of his could be a Fraud.

That is, the so-called intellectuals are not really so, they are "interractuals" and “fraud-fessors”. And it has already been placed on record, that the same so-called competent managers of our economy, are really most incompetent "greedy bastards" masquerading as the epitome of excellence on the pedestal of academia.

My theory is not farfetched. Come to think of something: is it not interesting that, Dr. Bawumia and his crew of economic management team are very profligate and not moderate, considerate, and prudent? One common denominator of all qualified economists, even students of economics, is moderation in spending and being economical in all that they do in the management of financial resources.

Fellow Ghanaians, why does our debt stock keep ballooning and skyrocketing under so-called professors and PhD holders in economics in the management of our economy? Why, for the first time in the annals of our history, did the Central Bank of the republic collapse under the stewardship of so-called economic gurus with every economic fundamental growing leaner, thinner, and weaker than ever? “Fraud-fessors” of economics or “interractuals” are they?

By "interractuals", I do not mean the accent deficiency of some groups among the Akan-speaking people in their phonological notoriety and difficulty in the pronunciation of the letter "L" in words as "R" and vice versa. They are in dire need of a lingual frenectomy or frenectomy (a surgical procedure to correct the tongue in pronunciation). For example, the Asantes pronounce the word "intellectual" as "interractual", and pronounce the word "interaction" as "intelection".

No. That is not what I mean. By "interractuals" in this article, I am referring to all those unlettered individuals who forged or bought their academic certificates in order to practice any profession, especially politics. These are our nation's enemies; they are the nation’s most sophisticated criminals. And by their fruits, we shall know them.

For me, anybody who thinks that it’s right for students to be assisted to cheat in examinations, he or she is also a product of certificate forgery and academic fraud!

There's a tongue-in-cheek but not fictional story told of a certain SHS student who didn't know the name of a thief in the English language. I had personally witnessed it with my own eyes and heard with my two ears. An SHS student was asked what the name of a thief in English is. She paused for a nanosecond and said, "Aiwi", eii, "barawo!". Haha!

This is how half-baked majority of SHS students have become because of somebody’s maniacal desire to provide “free education”. She was certainly a product of a Free SHS.

So when the former President, John Dramani Mahama laments the dismantling of quality education at the second cycle level that once was jealously guarded and brandished, it's not about insulting students at the senior high school or questioning their intelligence and cognitive abilities. They may be intelligent and rightfully so, they must be intelligent at that teenage, but with the wrong educational programming, the nation could be breeding monsters to rise in the near future.

The worst part comes when an irresponsible and thieving government deems it fit to help students cheat in order to pass well for them to score cheap political points. Such a government must be declared our national foe and risen against.

I want my dear readers of this article to please keep this scenario in mind as we progress. Assuming someone insists to help you heal your wound. But he doesn't really bother whether the right drug is administered to the wound or not. And even when you help get him the right drug, say, ointment, he doesn't wash the wound before applying the ointment.

Would you say, in all honesty, that the person really cares about helping you heal the wound? Such a fellow likely wants the festering of the wound eternally. Or it's something he's very much interested to benefit from but certainly not really about healing the wound.

Also, imagine there's some stipend that comes with each drug he administers on the wound. Won't it be clearer the intentions of such a fellow if one-help means one-ten cedis he gets?

Now, as a Ghanaian, have you seen something wrong with a Free Education that doesn't really care about excellence of grades? Any mark, whether aggregate 54 or aggregate 6, everyone goes?

Also, consider the fact that such an anomaly is occurring for political reasons merely to prove a point that due to the Free Education policy, majority of teenagers now enroll in the second cycle of education. A reason why the policymakers have allowed both qualified and unqualified to benefit.

Can you see that, aside from the possibility of some filthy lucre the policymakers of such nonsense may tend to get, is there, not the possibility that they would help the students, at some point, to cheat in order to pass the exams for the same political reasons? Since it's not really about educating the students that is their priority but amassing the wealth in kickbacks from the provision of that so-called Free Education, and also prove that majority have enrolled in the program so as to justify their spending through which the kickbacks are gotten.

And if climbing the academic ladder is based on merit of academic excellence which has been compromised by these policymakers so that majority of students both qualified and unqualified can climb the academic ladder, for mere political reasons, aren't these same policymakers who compromised excellence in the selection process capable of awarding undeserving grades to the students just for same political reasons?

Like the aide to the wounded person who wants to help without paying attention to the right drug, or cleaning the wound before applying the drug, but interested in the stipend which comes with it, a government that wants unqualified students to benefit from a "scholarship", is a criminal government and has something up their sleeves far from the provision of the FREE education.

While as a School Prefect (Senior Prefect, SP) at the Savelugu Senior High School, even though I had just handed over the mantle of leadership to the next batch of prefects, I was still acting on behalf of my colleague Final Year students.

One afternoon, many of my colleagues came to my cubicle to endorse a proposal they had made. They wanted all Final Year students to contribute GH¢10.00 each so that we could give it to the school administration and teachers for their hard work bringing us thus far. I thought that was absurd. But quickly I realized it was a calculated move to basically bribe the school into helping us cheat during our final year exam (WASSCE).

So, I dismissed the idea instantly. Later on, some of them came back on camera to whisper and confess to me that we were to bribe the school to allow us to cheat with that money. "I knew it!" I giggled and exclaimed! Point blank I told them I could not support such an idea, and subsequently reported the matter to the school administration through the Assistant Headmaster of Administration, Mr. Tampuli T.T we affectionately called Mba TT.

Mba TT was a man of integrity in his 60s. He congratulated me for hinting to the school about the clandestine meetings and arrangements by some students to bribe the school. As I was about leaving his office, he said: "Don't worry about them. Do your work. And if they bring such money, we are going to spend it and harshly invigilate them".

Later that day, I addressed an assembly of the Final Years and advised all those who were part of that plan to jettison it before it was too late. The contributions were thus aborted. However, as usual, the so-called "apor" (question paper leakages) contributions went on.

True to his words, even though they never received the money from students again, the school was really "barbaric" in their invigilation of that year's WASSCE group. No student could cough, and many were walked out of the examination hall or changed seats at the slightest movement or murmuring.

Fellow Ghanaians, the point I'm trying to drum home here is that when it comes to examination malpractice in general, and the WASSCE in particular, majority of students rely heavily on cheating. The fact that they are being invigilated in the first place, is enough that many are ready to cheat.

Now, imagine a situation where both the students and the government want to cheat for excellent results. This is where it has become so dangerous.

Again, in my second year at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, KNUST, a protégé, and mentee of mine told me he wanted to change his program of study from Architecture the university gave him sponsored by the MasterCard Foundation, to Politics or Economics. I advised him to work hard to continue with the program. But he wouldn’t listen.

He was determined and adamant. He explained that it was the geography background the university considered and offered him that program (Architecture) but "frankly speaking", he said, "if the university knew what I did to get that excellent mark in that course of study, they wouldn't give me Architecture." I asked him what he did, he laughed embarrassingly and said, "I had access to a textbook during the exam". The dude couldn't do the program at KNUST. He Finally had to leave for the University of Ghana, Legon to read Economics.

There are thousands and one example of this kind as far as the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination is concerned.

Yet, and again, at a construction site where many Ghanaians have now found cover against the excruciating pain of the economic meltdown, a WASSCE candidate who partook in just the last WASSCE exam was asked why he wasn't studying for the WASSCE exams and rather carrying concrete and mortar at a construction site? His chilling reply was intriguing. He said, "I don't study for exams. I belong to the Cobolo group.” When asked what he meant by “Cobolo Group”, he disclosed that they are those students who don't study to pass exams. "We believe in the system ooo bro!” He said amidst boisterous laughter. That means they cheat to pass exams.

It's therefore laughable the spontaneous reaction of the government to the impending grave concerns and consequences the former President is raising in respect of this "massaged" and dubious examination results and grades of the current WASSCE students in the country. It’s one most lethal national security threats and a dangerous ticking time bomb the country is sitting on. And all those who are defending it, are the enemies of our state.

But I begrudge them not. Apparently, all those who have been products of "pushed grades" won't reason with the former President. Like Matthew 7:15 exclaims, "by their fruits you shall know them".

In my humble opinion, I believe this issue goes beyond just questioning the genuineness of WASSCE certificates of students and beneficiaries of Free SHS; one most important exposé in this whole hullabaloo is that our economic managers could have copied their way to academic excellence. And it's an open secret that majority of the so-called intellectuals in this current government: NPP's lawyers, economists, medical practitioners, etc. have been accused of buying their way to intellectual excellence.

The unprecedented economic mess is an eloquent testimony to this reality. That's why they have actually run the economy aground.

In our local parlance, it's said that there's no smoke without fire. How many party executives of the ruling NPP have we heard to have been "pushed" to the finish line in their academic journey? Especially in the study of law, and upon completion of law school.

There are walking proofs among the NPP, “interractuals” who have been fingered to have cheated to pass law entrance examination in order to study it. The same individuals were later said to be unable to graduate and had to be cheated for by negotiating the system in order to help them to graduate.

Fellow Ghanaians, why then would individuals like these actually understand and agree with the disastrous consequences awaiting us which the country's next president (In Sha Allah), Mr. John Dramani Mahama, is decrying and belaboring here?

I find it rather disgusting that Dr. Bawumia, a failed vice president and economist who is probably a product of examination malpractice, is attempting to misrepresent what former President Mahama has said to mean belittling the cognitive abilities of the WASSCE students in Ghana. But it’s not surprising because if the government can help students cheat and confer undeserving academic grades upon them in the name of politics, Dr. Bawumia would condemn such a patriotic concern made by the incoming president, in the name of politics.

Fellow right-thinking Ghanaians ignore the haters. The former President was only concerned that the politicization of students' examination results simply to score cheap, rotting, and smelling political points by allowing students to cheat, in order to make the Free SHS education look impactful, has monstrous consequences for Ghana in the long run.

For all those who have genuinely not understood the concerns the former president has been trying to express with Ghanaians, Mr. John Dramani Mahama is worried that, the WASSCE exam is fundamentally organized for senior high school students in order to determine who among them is qualified to study law, medicine, engineering, politics, economics, chemistry, physics, mathematics etc. so as to know who can become a doctor, a pilot, lawyer pharmacist and so and so forth.

But when the students are assisted to cheat, we can’t tell as a nation, genuinely qualified students to pursue these various disciplines enumerated above.

Therefore, when a criminal, thieving, and irresponsible government plays politics on the results and grades of these students, the country shall have defective doctors, engineers, lawyers, pilots, pharmacists, etc. This shall not only portend a national extinction for us as a people, but an international embarrassment to us when our doctors, pilots, engineers, etc. can’t fit anywhere in the world.

And a government that thinks both qualified and unqualified students who didn’t pass the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) be transitioned to the senior high school, just to create the impression that majority have patronized the Free Education Policy, in the name of politics, is capable of helping the students to cheat for the same political reasons.

If you are still not convinced yet, ask yourself this: why did the government decide to provide so-called past questions for the students, and not textbooks so that they could learn hard-to-understand concepts rather than memorizing already solved past questions?

God save and bless our homeland Ghana.

Insha Allah, I Shall Return.