Dear Franklin,
I hope this letter finds you well and that it inspires you to reawaken and resume the noble think tank mission you have undertaken.
Without a doubt, together with your partners, you have built IMANI from the ground up to be a strong organisation recognised and respected by international organisations, building an excellent reputation.
IMANI, the think tank in which you have played a central role, has played a vital role in conducting research, sharing ideas, critiquing policies and providing an intellectual platform for policy dialogue for the development of our country.
However, recently, as the head of one of the country’s leading policy think tanks, you have reduced the leading and noble role of think tanks, particularly IMANI, to a comedy show with a social media handle as its platform.
For reasons well known to you, you have reduced your once laudable analytical abilities to that of a lazy armchair Facebook analyst who routinely makes ridiculous inferences and analogies that are, at best, unfounded.
Anyone who follows you, including die-hard fans like me, must be aware that you are struggling to provide meaningful and intelligent analysis based on data and facts like you once did. You now trivialize serious national issues into satire and hide behind satirical analogies to attack those you despise, especially Dr. Bawumia.
A shocking and baseless analysis recently posted on your Facebook page made the shocking claim that the 33 policies that Bawumia has promoted as Vice President have had no impact on the economy or the nation.
Are you serious? Are you Franklin Kadojo of IMANI? Indeed, when I first saw this bizarre claim on your page, I immediately assumed it was from a parody account, but upon further investigation I saw it was coming from you, the head of a policy think tank with over 20 years of experience.
Mr Franklin, are you seriously saying that many of the transformational policies spearheaded by Dr Bawumia such as One Constituency, One Ambulance, Zipline Medical Drones, Mobile Money Interoperability, National Biometric Identification through Ghana Card, National Address System, Digitalisation of Public Services, Agenda 111, Zongo Development Fund and many more have had no impact or effect on the economy?Even if you are a political jerk, you should be worried about your integrity.
Mr Franklin, get serious, the more you are consumed with your hatred towards Dr Bawumia or the more desperate you are to prove yourself neutral towards the NDC, the more you will end up embarrassing yourself, your hard earned reputation, your colleagues at IMANI and of course IMANI itself.
How can any serious policy analyst claim that the innovative, internationally acclaimed effort to deliver essential medical supplies by drone daily to over 2000 clinics and hospitals in remote areas of the country has no effect? Your hatred for Mr. Bawumia leads you to downplay the impact of an intervention that has even had US Vice President Kamala Harris praising Ghana. Let’s be serious, Mr. Franklin.
Mr. Franklin, are you downplaying the impact of mobile money interoperability on the Ghanaian economy? As a think tank leader, don’t you know that the successful implementation of mobile money interoperability has made Ghana the number one country in Africa in terms of financial inclusion? As a policy think tank leader, don’t you know that financial inclusion is the key and fundamental element of economic transformation? Think seriously, Mr. Franklin!
As the leader of a policy think tank, how do you explain to the world that in a modern economy, a digital national ID system and a digital national address system have no meaning or impact as pillars of economic transformation? Are you serious, Mr. Franklin?
Even before he became Vice President, Dr. Bawumia wrote in his book published in 2010 that developing countries like Ghana need to establish strong economic fundamentals such as a national ID system, a national address system and increase financial inclusion as fundamental pillars of economic reform. This is how Europe, the source of funding, developed economically. Dr. Bawumia has done just that through the opportunities he got as Vice President.
He has used the opportunity he had as Vice President to implement the recommendations he made to African countries in his book. These are the pillars and principles of economic reform. It is a shame that you do not know this or choose not to know it.
The less said about your assertion that the Agenda 111 hospitals pushed by Bawumia are not beneficial because they are not yet completed. Such a bizarre notion rather exposes your lazy approach to intellectual analysis these days. Are the nearly 100 hospitals under construction across the country not beneficial because they are not yet completed? How ridiculous! Your notion is like saying students are wasting their time in school because they are not yet finished.
Mr Franklin, your deep hatred for Bawumia and your desperate efforts to prove yourself neutral towards the NDC may keep you delusional about your status and influence, what you do not know is that you are causing considerable embarrassment to IMANI, an organisation you have spent years building.
And what you do not realise is that you are only fooling a small audience on social media who will jump on the nonsense you write and give a few likes and kudos. These like-minded people do not represent the discerning members of society who will assess the impact of the 33 policies that Dr. Bawumia has proposed and spearheaded as Vice President.
Pregnant women in remote areas of Ghana are grateful for the work of Dr. Bawumia after they were saved by the timely delivery of essential medical supplies by drone.
Market women, who were once attacked on the highway for carrying cash to market but now have the luxury of storing their money in mobile money wallets that function like bank accounts, are grateful for Dr Bawumia’s efforts.
Astute Ghanaians who have seen first-hand how digitization has effectively fought corruption and saved the nation and the economy millions of dollars lost to identity fraud have given Dr. Bawumia much credit.
Ghanaians who were excluded and had no means of identifying both themselves and their property are grateful for Dr Bawumia’s efforts to ensure a robust national identity card and property address system.
Mr. Franklin, hate Dr. Bawumia as much as you want. No one can stop you from doing so. But your ignorance and hatred can be exposed. It is clear by now that you are struggling to appease both sides of the political divide.
It is unfortunate that you have transformed the once respected IMANI from a think tank into an empty tank, even though I, and many others, respected your past work.
I wish I could sever ties with you and IMANI to preserve our credibility as an organization from your inconsistent behavior, but like conjoined twins, you two are inseparable!
It is not too late, you can go back to your former self who worked for the development of Ghana and not for any other reason.
A word to the wise….
thank you,
Dr. Ekow Acquah, Political Communications Consultant;