Sometimes, the very educated, especially members of the academia who we believe acquired degrees, Masters and doctorates by dint of their intelligence and hard work and who we expect must push the country forward make analysis that brings home the fact that there is a difference between intelligence and wisdom.

In fact, the analysis of many of these so-called intellectuals is so warped that one begins to wonder whether they genuinely acquired the titles some of them hang on as if it was a matter of life and death.

Just imagine the analysis one Dr. Kojo Poku Aidoo who is said to be a Research Fellow at the University of Ghana made yesterday! Contributing to the Kennedy Agyapong genocidal comment on Joy News Television current affairs programme pm: EXPRESS, he says “I don’t think he (Kennedy Agyapong) has the capacity to carry out his threat…” So what? So it makes the MP’s comment’s right? Does Dr. Kojo Poku Aidoo understand the consequences of Kennedy Agyapong’s statement? One of the people who was held responsible for the Rwandan genocide in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed within three months is broadcaster, George Omar Ruggiu.

Ruggiu worked as a broadcaster for Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) which was a chief source of extremist Hutu propaganda, broadcasting twenty-four hours a day and openly exhorting its audience to kill Tutsis and ‘disloyal’ Hutus.

Ruggiu personally wrote and broadcast much content of his programme, relentlessly edging on his listeners that “the graves were waiting to be filled.” He personally broadcast programmes inciting Hutus to kill Tutsis whom he called ‘cockroaches.’ On July 23, 1997, Ruggiu was arrested in Mombasa at the request of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and moved to the site of the tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania. Ruggiu was charged with "direct and public incitement to commit genocide" and "crimes against humanity (persecution)". During his three-year long trial, Ruggiu expressed regret for his part in events, saying, ""These are events which I regret, but they are the reality and I decided to admit them," Mr Ruggiu told the court, which sat in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha. “I admit that it was indeed a genocide and that unfortunately I took part in it." Ruggiu acknowledged his role in the genocide, admitting that “ I incited murders and caused serious attacks on the physical and/or mental well-being of members of the Tutsi population with the intention of destroying, in whole or in part, an ethnic or racial group. He accepted responsibility for his actions, stating "certain people were killed in Rwanda in 1994 and that I was responsible and culpable."] Ruggiu detailed the inner workings of Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, stating the radio station was used to convey "the ideology and plans of Hutu extremists in Rwanda."

On May 15, 2000, Ruggiu pleaded guilty to both charges of indictment, and was sentenced to twelve years in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for incitement to commit genocide. He received a relatively short sentence, after agreeing to testify against three suspects who allegedly used the media, most notably RTLM, to fuel the genocide in Rwanda. Rwanda protested the sentence as inadequate. Now, Dr. Kojo Poku Aidoo should tell us what capacity Ruggui had that is different from Kennedy Agyepong’s ? But like Kennedy Agyepong, he was not a trained journalist. Like Kennedy Agypong, he had access to radio. And like Assin North MP, he suffers from ethnic bigotry. So, if Ruggui’s hate broadcast led to 800,000 deaths in just three months, can Dr. Kojo Poku Aidoo imagine what would happen if someone in Ashanti, acting on the instructions of Kennedy Agyepong kills a Ga or Ewe and then Gas and Ewes decide to retaliate in the Greater and the Volta Regions? Revenge will produce counter-revenge. The vicious cycle of revenge will go on till Ghana goes beyond 800,000 deaths.

Everyone will suffer. Ghana will no longer be the same all because of one man’s bigotry. Does the University of Ghana Research Fellow know that life and death lies in the power of the tongue? People like Dr. Aidoo are worse than Ruggiu and Kennedy Agyapong. If such are the intellectuals we expect to push Ghana forward, then God save us!