'It’s unethical' – Martin Amidu on Opoku-Agyemang’s ‘Working with Rawlings’ foreword

Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu has noted that Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang put her credibility on the line when she wrote the foreword of Kwamena Ahwoi’s book titled ‘Working with Rawling’.

Mr Amidu who has described the book as riddled with “factual errors” in his third critique of the book said Prof Opoku-Agyemang should have known better than to write the foreward when the book was full of factual inaccuracies.

Mr Amidu wrote: “Professor (Mrs.) Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, PhD/FGA, Chancellor-Women’s University in Africa, President and Africa Board Chair – FAWE, Minister of Education under President John Dramani Mahama and Ghana’s first female Vice Chancellor of a public university was enjoined as an editor of Kwamena Ahwoi’s Working with Rawlings to have asked the author to make available to her the data he used in writing his manuscript for verification on the accuracy of the reports or narratives contained in the book.

“The obviously deliberate factual inaccuracies I pointed out in the introduction to this critique, are clear demonstrations that she was either an unqualified editor, reviewer, foreword writer or she was knowingly participating in a grand conspiracy to present the unsuspecting reading public with twisted narratives against the subject victims of the narratives in the book.

She knew or ought to have known that as an editor of the book she could not be a reviewer at the same time because in the field of scholarship it is the reviewers who provide the editor with an evaluation of the manuscript’s quality and appropriateness for publication. The decision to accept the manuscript, or to reject it, or to ask for revision is the responsibility of the editor and the editor’s decision may differ from the recommendation of any or all reviewers.

“But she was also a reviewer and should have considered whether she had any potential conflict of interest that (a) would or could compromise her objective judgment, (b) would or could appear to compromise her objectivity and judgment, and therefore compromise the value of the review, or (c) would or could appear to compromise her objectivity and might place her reputation at risk if this conflict were discovered and questioned after review. She should have considered whether she had other institutional affiliations with the author that might create more subtle conflicts of interest.

“Professor (Mrs.) Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, PhD/FGA, Chancellor-Women’s University in Africa, President and Africa Board Chair – FAWE, Minister of Education under President John Dramani Mahama and Ghana’s first female Vice Chancellor of a public university threw all the considerations for ethical conduct in being an editor or reviewer or writing the foreword to Kwamena Ahwoi’s Working with Rawlings to the wind and played all the above roles without compunctions.”

Below is Mr Amidu’s full write up: