[dropcap]P[/dropcap]rofessor Ransford Gyampo has in a 14 point explanation responded to attacks on him by Dr Michael Kpessah Whyte as offering serial caller analysis to issues in the country.
According to Professor Gyampo, Dr Kpessah Whyte seems to take offence anytime he criticize those he bootlicks.
“Remember it all started when I criticized the late Prof Mills. But what you still haven’t found about me is that I don’t fear those you bootlick, let alone your good self.”
Professor Ransford Gyampo has accused former President Mahama of being the reason Ghanaians are not patriotic after President Mahama at the inauguration of the first intake of students at the party’s ideological school, Ghana Institute of Social Democracy, said people are no longer interested in how they can work to better the lives of Ghanaians but, rather, that of their own.
“Nationalism and patriotism have become very deficient in
Ghana today,” he said. “We all think about ourselves first, our families second, our parties third maybe our communities fourth and
Ghana comes a fifth or even 10th.”
But Professor Gyampo said Mahama and others who were fortunate to have held leadership position failed to live “exemplary lives” and that is why patriotism is “dying among the people of Ghana.
Dr Kpessah Whyte in response to the comment of Professor Gyampo said he has also failed to produce patriotic students as a lecturer.
Statement below:
Prof Yaw Gyampo writes: I have read the attacks of Kpessa-Whyte and I have decided not to respond in the manner I wanted to. I will briefly summarize my epistle I earlier wrote to him.
1. I offered a classical definition for Patriotism yesterday in my interview with Citi Fm.
2. Any serious minded academic who goes by that definition would appreciate the truism that patriotism is dead in Ghana and no one seem to want to die for the country.
3. In my interview, I identified the mechanisms for instilling patriotism. They include civic education, and exemplary political leadership.
4. It is a truism that we have severe deficits of civic education and exemplary leadership in promoting patriotism in Ghana.
5. Exemplary leadership as a tool for instilling patriotism inter alia, manifests in passionate speeches that calls on citizens to give their best and to die for their country. It also manifests in the modest attitude of leaders. It manifests in the sacrifices leaders make just for the sake of their nation, including halving salaries, refusing to take per diems and other allowances in a poor country. It manifests in a leader’s willingness to affiliate with ordinary people and joining them to clean choked gutters like Jerry Rawlings used to do. It manifests in willingness to save money and not incurring huge costs for the nation.
6. These and other tangible manifestations charges people emotionally and make them willing to also die a little for the country. These manifestations would make people voluntarily willing to be posted into rural villages just to undertake their National Service.
12. You initially paraded yourself as an independent scholar. I was particularly elated when you were given an appointment to serve in the administration of JDM. But you suddenly sacrificed your objectivity and couldn’t help sanitize our politics. Your attempt to draft fresh graduates as traffic wardens could not promote patriotism because it was not properly thought through. To say the least, it was jaundiced.
13. As to what gives academic fame, I agree with you that it doesn’t come as a result of serial calling analysis. You insinuated that my analysis were like a serial caller. That’s your opinion. As an academic, I know the more one climbs higher the ladder of academic progression, the more one gets to know he knows nothing. So, forgive me if you think my analysis are like a serial caller. I am still learning. But if you have time, kindly “google-scholar” me to see my serial calling research outputs and where they have been published.
14. Finally, you seem to take offence anytime I criticize those you bootlick. Remember it all started when I criticized the late Prof Mills. But what you still haven’t found about me is that I don’t fear those you bootlick, let alone your good self. I will keep on firing my mind at all times and you are free to respond at any time. But when you do, please lift the bar a little by offering a superior argument, not the argumentum ad hominem fallacies you commit in your responses.
Cheers
Yaw Gyampo
Prabiw, A31
PAV Ansah Street
Saltpond
