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*Kwame Gyan (Blogger, journalist and communication practitioner)

Let's call a spade a spade, Alhassan Suhuyini didn't make any ethnocentric comment. If the screenshot making the rounds is all there is to this, then we are being very unfair and wicked to him. Let's stop this.

If you ask me a question and I say to you I won't jump into the gutter with you, for example, does that mean you and your tribe are gutter people? If I said to you i won't play with pigs in their own pen, how does that possibly infer that you and your tribesmen are pigs? Since when did our tribesmen give us the right to represent them in our utterances such that a jab thrown at us meant an insult to them?

Chale make we stop. E no good.

*Aku Baneseh (Reporter With Daily Graphic)

The "Pig Fight" and Reputation...

Alhaji Suhuyini passed a comment, Nana Damoah who felt abused posted the EXACT comments and invited his friends and followers to discuss. I even inboxed him to let it go.

Fast forward, I was later shocked to find AKANS in the equation as being referred to as Pigs by Suhuyini.

As usual, the issue has generated into an NPP/NDC fight. That is to be expected judging from the nature of Ghana's politics. However, it's dangerous to draw tribalism into this issue when NONE of that occurred.

Some hold the view Suhuyini knew what he was doing but as it stands now the phrase is an idiom. I'm not in his brains or God to know what he actually intended. But on the face of it and in the context of English grammar, his text was clear. He was not in the mood for a "fight."

I initially decided to stay on the fence and observe the wrestling from afar, but I have now joined the debate after I saw some Presidential staffers sharing the AKAN angle instead of the original issues raised by Nana Damoah.

Social media is wide and diversified. What goes around comes around and for that reason one cannot twist facts for more than a MINUTE. Screenshots will expose you.

Some people take things for granted by thinking they can get away with anything no matter how jaundiced their arguments are.

Dear Presidential Staffer, your actions here are shaping your friends opinion about you and the high office you occupy. What kind of image are you building for yourself on social media? Your wall propagates the works of the Presidency and occasionally other government agencies. How can the same wall be used to share something that has not occurred? How do you expect right thinking members in society to view your future posts? Ponder.

Despite my reservations about the conduct of some staffers, it's only fair for me to commend Nana Hesse Ogyiri who later conceded on his wall that his attention had been drawn to the non-Akan factor in the Suhuyini v Damoah issue. Such is maturity and taking responsibility when need be.

The Golden Rule

Dear friends and followers in active politics, you are free to do politics but be careful you don't plunge this country into crisis one day with distortions. 
We are all growing and must strive to protect our reputation. Politics is not the end of life. Ghana is for all of us and it's important we strive to make it great and strong.

Learn to live by the Golden Rule. Peace.

*James Agyenim Boateng - Fmr Presidential Staffer

... WRESTLE WITH A PIG

"Whenever a boisterous and argumentative person cries to draw you into a public discussion or a wrangle, just remember this bit of advice:
"Don't wrestle with a pig. You'll get dirty which is exactly what the pig likes."

1957, Barney Glazer's Column, The Loris Sentinel, Feb 13, p4