Kwasi Aning cuts and runs and Ben Ephson stutters on “soli” claims.

My roommate at Legon once told me that the difference between the developed world and the Third World is that in the former they always discuss ideas whereas in the latter we always discuss people. The revelations of Wikileaks on Ghana clearly vindicate my roommate’s assertion.

Wikileaks revelations have hit many countries in the world and in all such circumstances the information that has been revealed has been of pure national interest. They are exposures of how national diplomats have manoeuvred against other countries to get the best for their countries. Diplomats have been found to be seriously manoeuvring, albeit sometimes unscrupulously for their national interest. Never has it been mere gossip or vituperations.

The Wikileaks revelations on Ghana on the other hand has been, on most part, based purely on gossips that our politicians have carried to other foreign diplomats. These gossips have proved totally harmful in polarising our political society even further. It has even been made worse by the way the matter is being dealt with by the media. However the best advice we can take from these revelations are what Ambassador Gbeho gave when he said, “First of all, no one can undo what has been done, and spending a lot of time on it will be just diverting ourselves from the target of development for the country. But there is a lesson for everybody to learn, and that is that, those who make it a habit to go blabbing their mouths to foreign diplomats should know that it’s difficult to defend in public what you say to these diplomats in private, and therefore it is not a thing that one should do. I think that the lesson that we should learn from this is to guard ourselves against unnecessary disclosures, we should guard ourselves becoming the agents of foreign intelligence organizations and we should develop a sense of patriotism.”

Having taken such an advice from these eminent diplomats, we need to begin to analyse our Wikileaks revelations in Ghana in three main contexts. First is the revelations based on the analysis the US diplomats have made about certain personalities in Ghana. The second is the revelations made by Ghanaians about other Ghanaians which has been termed as “wicked konkonsa” and the third is the character profile of the persons who made those revelations.

The first of these three contexts is based on the private impressions that the diplomats themselves made on certain characters. I think those ought to be taken seriously in the sense that it gives the character profile of such personalities. We have to admit that frankly that culturally most Ghanaians are not naturally good at forming first impressions about other people. Our impressions tend to be based on perceptions and what other people say. One thing that we must learn about people who are born or brought up in the West is that they are quick to form impressions and that is the view they have of you when they do business with you. In one comment the cable describes Professor Mills as having “Hands off leadership style, which has led to political party factionalisation” In another cables there is a comment: Akufo-Addo was his usual brisk and business-like self. While we leave it to our colleagues in Abidjan to decipher Gbagbo's true motivation in declining to attend the Abuja meeting, Akufo-Addo took an entirely unsympathetic view of what appeared to him to be Gbagbo's unconvincing explanations In yet another comment the cable says: Akufo-Addo was his determinedly focused and attentive self, offering rapid-fire remarks while his aides clustered around him. He offered no substantive insights into policy issues on either Accra III or the Liberian CPA review, but did promise a complete briefing upon their conclusion.

This is the same Akufo-Addo who becomes the subject of “wicked konkonsa” my second context. Where the diplomats see Akufo-Addo as “business-like” and “determinedly focused” our dear Kwesi Pratt is alleged to have made some damaging comments about him. Now under pressure to repeat or confirm what he was reported to have said, he has on different radio stations been either swearing blind that he did not say that or he cannot remember ever saying that. Be that as it may, can Kwesi who remembers everything vividly from the Bond of 1844 to present day politics and sanctimoniously speak against the “Imperialist West” now tell us that he cannot remember what he said two years ago? Or indeed is he now a hater of Americans by day and lover by night? Is Kwesi now suffering from memory loss or diagnosed with selective memory?

Then enters Dr. Kwasi Aning, a so-called security expert, who exhibits the most complete naivety in blabbing his mouth about people who have worked hard to earn a living to his envy. Having gone to damage the NPP Flagbearer, and falsely claiming to be NPP (which he is not), our dear security expert then allegedly claims that Hon. Ken Agyepong and Kwadwo Mpiani is into drug business. Now called to either put up or shut up, our dear man has cut and ran, beating the path into hiding.

Ben Ephson has finally blown his own cover about the credibility of his so called polls. He has never fooled me because his analysis has always been puerile to me, but that is just me. Now thanks to Wikileaks we know that Ben Ephson’s polls are “donkomi for the highest bidder. He has himself gone to admit that in the “wicked konkonsa” he went to make to the American diplomats. Now in a fight back, gabby Otchere-Darko of Danquah Institute has exposed the “soli” Ben Ephson goes to collect from people in order to skew polls in their favour. In a rebuttal the most eloquent Ben was caught stuttering. Now his credibility together with that of his daily Dispatch died on the back of his own “wicked konkonsa.”

Finally we pull the character profile of this trio who will wear the Cross of National Shame for their rest of their lives. They have sold their conscience to expose our nation’s pride. I have lived abroad for a good twenty years I have learnt, lived, worked, taught, and befriended White People. I know their modus operandi. They are scared of smart Black People but patronise simple minded people. The three who sold us away are within that class of people in the estimation of these diplomats. They pulled a fast one on them and they felt so “privileged” to sit in their company and blab. Alhaji Bashiru Kwaw Swanzy once said that “When Nkrumah was overthrown some people opened their mouths so wide that they could no longer close it.” Such are our friends, who have in their respective “professions” have become one-eyed in a society of the blind. Now they have gone to make themselves needless targets. My good Friend also once remarked to me “Kwesi it is better to keep your mouth shut and be dubbed a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubts” A word to the wise is enough.

Kwesi Atta-Krufi Hayford