Hypocrite Pratt at it again! -PPP

Time was when Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr., the Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, was assiduously developing the penchant for putting up a holier-than-thou attitude. Yet the most critical minds were able to read in between the lines and pick out of his exertions the key components therein – his hypocrisy in dealing with issues and personal hatred for people who he disagrees with, especially, on political matters.

On Peace FM's Kokrokoo programme on Tuesday, Kwesi Pratt, the political chameleon and permanent "against authority man" was at his hypocritical best. It appears that this so-called Senior Journalist cannot help himself whenever he hears anyone say something good about Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom.

Unfortunately when he launches unprovoked attacks against his perceived enemies, like he did against Dr. Nduom on Peace FM on Tuesday, Radio and TV hosts give him free reign. When his curiously thin skin is pricked, Pratt lashes out, acts all hurt and demands correction, which strangely he gets.

Tuesday was a perfect illustration of the typical Pratt behaviour. PPP's Samuel Amoako after his submission on the Galloper/African Automobile judgment debt offered that a PPP administration led by Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom would offer competent leadership that will prevent such cases from occurring. That was all.

Kwesi Pratt pushed his submission on the topic aside, and lashed out at Dr. Nduom calling him unprincipled. He claimed that Dr. Nduom was the advisor who helped the NDC sold several state-owned enterprises. He then faulted Dr. Nduom for serving in the Kufuor administration. Dr. Nduom was not a topic for discussion on the programme.

On the other hand, when Sammy asked Pratt why he was defending African Automobile, he called a halt to the programme and demanded Sammy to withdraw his comment. Pratt was supported by the host! Double Standard?

We wish however to tell Kwesi Pratt that he can no longer continue misleading Ghanaians with his mastery forte of skewing lies and using sophistry to make them seem truths. The PPP is not the least bothered about the brazen lies Pratt continues to churn out against particularly, Dr Nduom. We nevertheless need to set some issues right.

Dr. Nduom never advised any NDC Administration leading to the sale of several state enterprises. Dr. Nduom rather through the introduction of strategic planning and performance contracts and awards scheme for state enterprises helped strengthen companies such as Ghana Telecom, GPHA, Civil Aviation Authority, GOIL etc.

Indeed the First State Enterprise Awards gathering was held during the administration of former president J. J. Rawlings where the best performing enterprises were recognised at a ceremony at the Osu Castle. Dr. Nduom was the brain behind this. Pratt should rather be praising Dr. Nduom for achieving positive results and showing competence. His is the kind of leadership Ghana needs.

As a journalist and one who rolled with the big guns in Ghana politics even before the AFRC days and through the PNDC era to the current dispensation, Pratt knows too well that Dr Nduom was on contract in the work he did for the State which the NDC was only administering on behalf of the Ghanaian people.

Dr Nduom was made consultant because of his expertise in public sector reforms and not that he was a member or supporter of the NDC. So why this blatant lies, Mr. Pratt? But the unkindest cut of all Pratt’s wicked lies is his suggestion that Dr Nduom virtually worked his way into the Kufuor administration. Pratt himself knows that is palpable falsehood.

It was based on Dr Nduom’s expertise in public sector work that then President Kufuor created the Ministry of Public Sector Reform (MPSR) and placed it under his care. We want to tell Kwesi Pratt that Dr Nduom did not go sleeping at the MPSR. We are proud that the PPP candidate left a great legacy in establishing the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) which Kwesi Pratt’s NDC national administration cannot implement properly and yet goes about claiming it one of its achievements.

Dr Nduom was also bold enough to deal with the perennial canker of congestion at the Ministries Estate by removing all unauthorized structures scattered around the area. Those structures included lotto kiosks and stalls which owners openly sold lotto coupons and other food items; and put all of them in specific areas where workers could go and get any services and products they needed.

And he achieved that in the face of protests from top officials of the Kufuor administration who argued that the action could cost the NPP politically. Dr Nduom stood his ground and completed the exercise, because he believed such worthy exercise should not be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.

Pratt can go verify for himself the innovations that Dr Nduom brought to public sector agencies, such as the Driver Vehicular Licensing Authority (DVLA), Passport Office, Births and Deaths Registry and many others. To mention just one innovation, it was Dr. Nduom who insisted and ensured that all the above-named agencies computerized their operations.

Dr. Nduom is equally proud of the contributions that he made when he served in other ministries under the Kufuor administration. The MCA projects, National Identification System and many other positives are there as testimony to Dr. Nduom's competence and the value Ghanaians gain when inclusiveness is practiced.

Pratt cannot claim to be against alliances!

Kwesi Pratt was an active member of the CPP at the time the party entered into an alliance with the NPP for the second round of the 2000 elections. Pratt indeed agreed to the alliance proposition and that explains how Pratt and other CPP stalwarts mounted political platform to campaign with then Candidate Kufuor for the presidential run-off of the 2000 elections.

Is Kwesi Pratt telling us today that he has forgotten that the alliance, which helped Kufuor become president in 2001, is what made it incumbent on the NPP to request the leadership of the CPP at the time to release some of its members to serve in the Kufuor administration? Based on that request, the Central Committee of the CPP released Dr Nduom, Prof. George Payin Hagan, Mr. Freddy Blay, Mr. Kojo Armah and others to serve in various capacities in the Kufuor administration. How can Pratt claim he has forgotten these facts so soon?

We are aware of how Pratt kept calling and calling and calling the eyes of key players in the Kufuor administration with the prospect of being offered an appointment, and because he was not considered for one he turned against Kufuor and his administration and, indeed, the entire NPP.

We do not need to remind the claiming-to-be-principled Pratt that he was very active during the days of the Great Alliance when the People’s Convention Party (PCP,) an amalgam of the then splintered Nkrumaist party, made an electoral pact with the NPP to compete in the 1996 elections as a single entity.

Indeed Pratt was the Great Alliance candidate for the Ayawaso Central Constituency where he lost heavily to Shiekh I. C. Quaye who refused to budge to Great Alliance pressure to step down for Pratt to have the candidature; I.C. Quaye eventually run for the Ayawaso Central seat and won.

No political party in Ghana can claim to have all the men and women needed to run the machine of state efficiently. It is for this reason that Dr. Kwabena Duffuor who is not known to be an NDC member was invited by President Mills to become his Minister of Finance & Economic Planning. Nothing wrong with that? Does Pratt have any objections to that appointment?

Dr. Nduom's commitment to inclusiveness and using the best Ghanaians to achieve positive results is not in doubt. It is time we all condemn those who seek to divide us and drive us continuously on a path to mediocrity and poverty in all its forms.

Clearly it shows that Pratt cannot play the ignoramus in Ghanaian politics. He has worked with the NPP in many instances, and so we are compelled to ask him whether that makes him an unprincipled politician.

In his addicted manner, Pratt might go to the ends of the earth to rationalize every fact we have posted here, but truth will always stand and triumph over the wicked lies of people of Pratt’s ilk. Besides, we are very much aware of how Pratt worked himself into the presumption of lead spokesperson of the NDC administration, and particularly of Prof. Mills. Again we are aware of all the trappings that have come to him in that presumption. We are not oblivious to how the entire livelihood of Pratt has improved since he worked himself into that “by-force” post.

If we are to believe Pratt’s word that he is a staunch CPP person, we are left to wonder how a principled Pratt would be projecting the NDC at the expense of his own political party; that is, if he is sincere about it..

We’ve kept our cool on the obvious u-turn of Pratt because we are not in the capacity to pass judgment on an adult who decides where his political affiliation should lay at any particular time. We however, do have a problem when such characters posit themselves as if they are the proto-type of the paragon of political virtues and start judging others who are his betters in all respects. We hope Pratt the Betrayer is listening. Indeed, we are waiting for him to do so.

Richmond Keelson

(Communication Director, PPP)