Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, has described as, shoddy and lazy, work put into the production of the controversial book by former Local Government Minister, Professor Kwamena Ahwoi.
The Special Prosecutor says he cannot hold himself, hard as he may try, to critique on works of people who hold themselves out as scholars, academics or mainstream professionals, yet engage in lazy work.
For him, such people must be subjected to disciplinary proceedings by their professions for any unethical products.
Mr Amidu said in the coming days, he is going to release series of replies to the book which he said a copy was left at the gate of his residence on Sunday, August 2, by a former associate during the PNDC government.
In a statement, Mr Amidu, a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said, “with hindsight, the uninvited copy of the autographed book was the real bait to get me to read the book, so I may as usual be tempted to refute and expose its subjectivity, figments of imagination, delusions, and breaches of all the ethics of acceptable standards of scholarly research, and report writing.
“I have always hated laziness in any professional work not to talk of the work of persons who hold themselves out as scholars, academics or mainstream professionals subjected to disciplinary proceedings by their professions for unethical products. Baiting me with Working with Rawlings is the real bait of the author I have willingly and knowingly decided to swallow like a fish to give rise to this exposition and critique.
“I served under the same regimes as a ministerial appointee and longer than the author served, played critical roles in them, lived them, kept some records of my observations and lived experiences. I can and will, therefore, contest some of the author’s or authors’ shoddy and unscholarly reported outcomes.
“I have read Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi’s Working with Rawlings. I came away with the conviction that Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi may have presented himself as the primary author but others who are acknowledged and referred to in the book as knowing and living the same observations and experiences the primary author narrates, played the role of co-authors, editors and reviewers of the book. The author and/or co-authors claim the primary author is a scholar and a legal luminary.
“The author and his collaborative authors have thus set themselves to be judged by the high standard obtainable in the professions they profess to belong to. Any scholar or professional worth the name must be learned in the philosophy and methods of research including its ethics in his or her chosen field or the discipline he or she holds out himself or herself to be competent in.
For instance in the foreword to the book which is normally not an integral part of the book the reader is told by one Naana J. Opoku-Agyemang, PhD/FGA that:
“Written in clear, engaging prose, the writer invites the reader to receive the content of the narrative honestly delivered. The vivid, engaging and deeply reflective eye witness account couched in unencumbered prose, brings to the fore events narrated with open honesty and transparency.
“The first person narrative perspective releases the reader from the potentially uncomfortable position of an intruder to that of a trusted addressee. This is especially so as the text grounds its content in verifiable fact, at times seeking and receiving the approval of non-fictive persons.” (Italics supplied)
“Whilst the foreword is normally not an integral part of the book, no ethical academic will ever write a foreword to a scholarly book without first reading the book to make an objective assessment of its veracity because the writer of the foreword knows the invitation to write the foreword was based on the intention to use his or her reputation to entice the public to invest financial and human resources in purchasing and reading it. In this instance, the writer of the foreword is marketing the book with her credentials of PhD/FGA and has an ethical obligation to the public for integrity and truth in what she says with her credentials in the foreword.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana