Jon Benjamin's comment and Manasseh's defense of it in the name of objectivity

By Stanley Seshie

Jon Benjamin is the current British High Commissioner to Ghana. Once

again, he was in the news for making an unacceptable remark about our

President as he links it to the appearance of the Harmattan. He said

“Oh, that nasty air outside all of a sudden. Did someone inaugurate

the Harmattan already?.

If Ghanaians nicknamed their President the Commissioner General

leading to and even beyond the election as he inaugurates many

projects, it does not mean any diplomat can go public ridiculing our

President. A weather phenomenon has nothing to do with inauguration.

The word, inauguration, gives his implicit intention away and the

furor it generated to put him where he belongs nonviolently is

justified. But Manasseh Azure thought otherwise, to the point of

writing a piece, which to a large extent is a defense of the British

Commissioner's act.

In his piece titled, the undiplomatic diplomat and the hypocrites,

Manasseh went describing Ghanaians who descended on Ben as hypocrites.

In fact, Manasseh filled his piece with so much specious reasoning

that, at first, you might think he has a point if you know nothing

about smokescreens in advancing a case.

Smokescreens are deliberate introduction of certain legitimate points anachronistically intended to conceal the specious reasoning for the advancement of a case, that would ordinary not make it.

In this regard, he used our internal wrangling and if they sway you,

you are likely to see nothing wrong with what the British High

Commissioner's comment. And then tell yourself that Azure was simply

being objective. However, as I shall point out, he only engaged in

erecting smokescreens. Manasseh was more subjective than objective.

Let me quote from his article for illustration.

The smokescreens

“This is the presidency under which the senseless and fraudulent

bus-branding contract was awarded. This is the presidency that

supervised the SADA rot. This is the presidency that attacked and

destroyed the voice recorder of a journalist and when a petition was

submitted to get the official sanctioned and have him apologise,

nothing came out of it.

Further down the lane, “this is the presidency who told ministers not to accept a pesewa or a pin from a business entity but went ahead to accept a Ford Expedition from a Burkinabe contractor who was winning questionable contracts in our republic. And many more in the article. These are diversionary tactics, which sway you off the main topic of discussion, in this case, whether the British High Commissioner’s comment clearly

impliedly ridicules our President or not.

Beggar deserves no respect

Besides, before we compare ourselves with the UK and US and the other

countries, which we often say must stay away from issues, we should

know our relationships with them. Ours is a servant-master

relationship. We go there to beg them for money. We beg because our

government officials, businessmen and highly respected people have,

since independence, been stealing our collective wealth and stashing

them in offshore accounts and buying property in Dubai and the most

luxurious places on the planet.

Until we stop begging, we should not

expect to be treated as equals. And many more in the article.

A beggar deserving no respect is commonsense. And international

relationships are certainly not anchored on commonsense. So that is

very pathetic from a journalist in 21st century, where even a thief is

to be respected and treated with dignity for the fact that he is

foremost a human being, before his status as a thief.

Let us apply the same to a nation, and ask how whether a nation that “begs” deserves respect or not? The sole point of sovereignty of a nation in international relations is respect whether any via their

representatives or not. Every diplomat knew this to guide their

actions and utterances if not every journalists.

Conclusion

Reading his article reveals so much smokescreens, contradictions and

specious reasoning. He was not objective either. Objectivity is not

the absence of bias as most people think. Rather it is the effort to

minimize its influence. As Azure could not minimize his bias against

President John Dramani Mahama led government, even with respect to

this British Commissioner's comment, he imported almost every

unnecessary claims as smokescreens to defend the British

Commissioner's indefensible unacceptable remark whilst tagging those

who think otherwise as hypocrites.