Managing Editor of the insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr
A discussion on the New Patriotic Party's promise to put up a factory in every district across the country turned into a war of words when one of the panelists on PeaceFM's "Kokrokoo" show Tuesday, accused the other of defending the ruling party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) better than its (NDC) Communicators and losing his self-acclaimed socialist principles.
The free-for-all verbal exchange broke out when member of the NPP's Communication Team, Henry Nana Boakye, did not take kindly to assertions by Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., that the "1-district, 1-factory" idea being espoused by the opposition party is not feasible.
The NPP Communicator had pointed out that the setting up of these factories across the country, will not only kick-start the accelerated industrialization of Ghana’s economy, but will also result in the creation of numerous jobs for Ghanaians.
“The only way to free ourselves from the shackles of poverty is by fixing our monetary system. If we are to do this, our monetary system must be stable and strong....This is the only way we can empower Ghanaians. We want to help the private sector to flourish, and we will help establish factories in every district to help create jobs for the people,” he said.
Nana B, as he is affectionately called, told host Kwami Sefa Kayi that per the NPP's plans, Nana Addo will set up a Fufu Processing Factory in areas where the community are into cassava farming.
But just before he could conclude advancing his argument on fufu processing factories, Kwesi Pratt guffawed at the remark; perhaps finding the idea ludicrous.
The Senior Journalist's hearty laugh continued unabated for a couple of minutes causing a heated verbal altercation to ensue between the two.
Nana Boakye wondered the reason for that particular reaction and accused him (Pratt) of having lost his principles and allowing himself to be influenced by the ruling party.
“You have lost your principles in defending NDC…You are defending NDC because Nana Addo” has made promises. “All what you are saying is NDC argument. In fact, you do even better than NDC Communicators…Even I am very disappointed in you," he stated.
But the Senior Journalist, in a sharp riposte, sought to know which portions of his contributions indicated that he (Pratt) supports the NDC, but the NPP activist dismissively pointed out that the attempt to ridicule the idea of the NPP flagbearer amounted to him (Pratt) ‘rubbishing the ideas of Kwame Nkrumah’ which was to help with the industrialization of the country.
“Everything you’re saying is in support of the NDC. You’re rubbishing Nkrumah’s policy in defense of NDC…When President Nkrumah then promised 350 factories under the Work & Happiness plan – industrialization – and you (Pratt) have admitted that we had about 400 factories before he was overthrown…You said it’s not possible. You have said it’s not possible," Nana Boakye stressed.
Clearly stung by the accusation, Mr Pratt furiously challenged Nana B to ‘show which of Nkrumah’s ideas he has rubbished’ stressing that he has "never and would never rubbish the ideas of Nkrumah".
“Nkrumah never made the same promises Nana Addo is claiming…it was in the five-year development plan and later in the 7-year development plan but where is your plan…?...You are misbehaving and I am not going to allow you to misbehave…I am not going to tolerate misbehavior from you. You have been misbehaving in this studio the whole day and I’m not going to tolerate this misbehavior from you," he fumed.
“I’m not misbehaving…I’ve stated the obvious truth. If you’re not happy, that’s your cup of tea," Nana Boakye shot back.
"If I say that a project has to be backed by feasibility, is that an NDC position? How can you just come here and make statements anyhow and just walk away? And then you call me unprincipled? And you say I’m unprincipled because I’m supporting NDC?" Pratt rebutted.
