By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
March 1, 2015
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

It is rather pathetic that it took Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah, the Mahama Communications Minister, more than a decade to realize that the reputable think-tank known as the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) was a "surrogate" of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). And this realization, it is significant to note, came to the Mahama wag only after the IEA released the results of a survey indicating that the overwhelming majority of Ghanaians are convinced that their country's seat of governance, the Flagstaff House, is the most corrupt institution in the country after the Ghana Police Service (See "IEA Is NPP 'Surrogate' - Omane-Boamah" Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 3/1/15).

It is pathetic because at least twice during the last eight or nine years, the IEA has hosted presidential debates in which the now-President John Dramani Mahama and the latter's predecessor, Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills, late, actively participated. If the IEA possessed no intellectual, professional and moral credibility, then how does the Communications Minister explain the decision of these two leaders from his own party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), to consent to being hosted by the aforementioned think-tank as a means of exposing their campaign platforms and agenda to the Ghanaian electorate?

What is also quite fascinating to observe is that the IEA opinion pollsters have made no secret of how their surveys were conducted, and yet Dr. Omane-Boamah claims that the surveys woefully lack transparency. If the Okwawu-'Bomeng native is so certain of his stance then, by all means, let him conduct his own survey in order to authoritatively contradict the findings of the IEA. Even more telling of his cynicism, the communications wag does not tell his audience how the IEA ought to have conducted its surveys. Needless to say, whining with his sort of childish disgruntlement will not alter the facts and reality on the ground, and Dr. Omane-Boamah ought to be savvy enough to recognize this much.

Still, one cannot totally fault this young professionally trained medical doctor and political social climber for his infantile cynicism. The young man is clearly out of his league and utterly confused about what it is that he supposes himself to be talking about. The headline of a previous article that yours truly came across a couple of days ago, had Dr. Omane-Boamah virulently demanding that the IEA corroborate its survey with objective and/or scientific evidence indicating thoroughgoing corruption on the part of the Mahama government.

Well, for his edification - and I have not lived in the country for nearly three decades - I readily cite the globally embarrassing example of how the Mahama government conducted Ghana's participation in the 2014 Brazil World Cup; we also know, now, that the Mahama government and some of its operatives are conducting private business ventures in Sierra Leone with power generators reportedly imported into our country by the Kufuor-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Meanwhile, the unsavory pall of "Dumsor" continues to engulf our country and screech legions of big and small businesses to a halt.

And so the logical question to ask here is whether Dr. Omane-Boamah is simply mentally retarded, pathologically dishonest or plain stupid? I make no apologies for characterizing the Mahama communications wag's rather primitive attitude in the preceding unflattering terms. He is about the same age as several of my younger cousins and nephews who work very hard every single day to barely make ends meet. Besides, it is the destiny of our entire nation that is at stake, not Dr. Omane-Boamah's personal or family property.

Needless to say, the most appropriate response to the IEA surveys is for the sector ministers of the various institutions and departments negatively exposed by the surveys to tell the Ghanaian electorate and taxpayers precisely how they intend to set things aright.

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