Readers, I am so, so, sorry that I have to descend on Ex-WOI Bright Segbefia, again. I will retrain myself from responding to him, again. The reason is that here is a fellow who wants to join the group of columnists, but knows that he lacks the skills and so would just jump on anything I write, to attract readers to his columns.
After this response, I will restrain myself from even reading his posts.
Bright is full of contradictions and he has a grossly misdirected way of thinking that he writes many opposite things which he will attack but later defend.
To begin with, I was a bit delighted reading his script this time round, because for the first time it was more polished and advanced than before, even though it is full harebrained thinking and presentation. I am sure he sat down, a person of higher understanding to help him out. And that person wrote what he or she was told, without finding out the truth.
When one writes a rejoinder and clearly states it to be so, he must hit the parts of the script and write issues directly relating to what he is countering. One does not build a new body and say he is writing a rejoinder. Other than that, Bright should write out his own opinion in response to what I had written.
A response is an answer or reply, while a rejoinder is the defendant’s answer to a replication. Mine was not a rejoinder. And Bright should have to acquire commonsense to know the difference.
Confusion and contradiction play a lot in Bright’s mind when he attacked me to provide proof that VRA had earlier informed communities downstream about the eminent spillage.
Then the next thing, he is emphatic that the VRA did some simulation exercises before the spillage under the code-name, da woho so. Is it that he never understands the word simulation? If he doesn’t, then was he really a soldier or he just carries the nickname, W.O.I, for fun?
I am not here to educate him on what simulation means, but if he accepts that there was such exercise then he should know that VRA gave prior notices to the communities downstream, before the spillage.
Talking about me taking a side to attack Tongus, is no evident in what I stated. But very characteristic of this tribal bigot, Bright unpatriotically is claiming that I was attacking Tongus. He is a fan of radio and social media and he should be once truthful to himself and tell us whether those who first attacked the Authority were Ewes or not?
People spoke as if to suggest that the spill gates should not have been opened and this was what I was against. And if I say this, does it mean I am against the Tongus?
Or is Bright suggesting that the spill gates should not have been opened? Or may I suppose that he has been going round telling people in Tongu that the spillage was all the fault of VRA and they should get up and fight for their rights, to stop it?
Bright may need some education in speeches. One thing a pond can be physically filled by humans, but not a lake as big as the Volta Lake. So, what I wrote was figurative speech, which I am not surprised he does not understand. I am sorry, I cannot explain any further.
I am also sorry to inform Bright that I am not a journalist. I have never taken any course in journalism. So, with all his military training he could not have done any proper recce to find out that I am not a journalist?
I am very glad that Ghana did not engage any country in war, when Bright was still in the force. Or any troop put under him, would be the weak link through which the enemy forces would have used to invade this country.
Why is Bright scared to mention his sources? He said, on an academic platform, a participant said the Tongus encroached on VRA land. Which academic platform is he talking about, and who invited him on that platform?
Bright admits that some people passed comments on the spillage that were deemed inaccurate and yet he thinks it is wrong for me to also say some people made inaccurate statements about the spillage?
Now, he should tell us what he deems as inaccurate comments? Â And one thing, social media commentaries are always responded to by patrons of the media, so what stops him from mentioning those sources?
Here we are again with Bright talking about cocoa farms in Tongu. In his initial article, I tried not to expose his lies here. But now let me let him into some education.
I will not argue that cocoa cannot be planted in Tognu because there are a few cocoa trees in Accra. My problem with here is when one mentions cocoa farm Bright does not know what it takes to call a farm, a cocoa farm.
I am sure he has not entered a cocoa farm before. For proper cultivation of cocoa, one of the primary requirements is a forest area. And Tongu is in the coastal savanna zone which does not have forests.
And Tognu is not by the Volta Lake, it is by the Volta River, so when did water swallowed all the cocoa farms? Assuming that indeed water swallowed their farms, the Tognu people cultivated crops upland and what will stop them from cultivating cocoa again, if they were into cocoa?
And, here Bright is running away from what I said. I said that even areas where cultivation of cocoa was very intensive, not every child of cocoa farmers benefited from CMB scholarship. Bright is still talking about the Lower Volta Basin can he tell us where it begins?
I know about companies cutting down trees that had submerged in the lake to make the lake transport safer. And what has this got to do with what we are talking about?
I also know that compensations are paid to people whose lands have been acquired for state purposes, and what business is this here? Now was he aware that some people settled in areas close to the Volta Lake and had to be evacuated?
There is nothing prudent about crafting the simulation exercise in Ewe and it is only a tribal bigot like Bright who will raise such issues.
Firstly, the Akan Twi is the second most spoken language in Ghana after English and Bright must explain why he will not attack Ephraim Amu, an Ewe who instead composing that beautiful and inspiring patriotic song called Yen Ara Asaase Ni, in Ewe but chose Twi.
Is it because Ephraim was an Ewe, so he will not attack him? There are many beautiful Ewe songs that are sung across the country by various tribes, so what stopped Ephriam Amu from composing that second national anthem in Ewe?
And is Bright still in denial, that the spillage affected communities in Dangme in the Greater Accra region?
Supposing the Palestinians were multi-lingual, the IDF would have chosen one common language. And without commonsense, Bright will not understand why.
Bright’s amazing tribal bigotry has made him unaware that Twi is the most spoken language in Ghana, apart from English. He can blame the VRA for all I care.
And for Bright’s information, VRA placed warning signsin some of the Dangme communities. And who says singing is not another form of communication? Bright must access Free SHS and take up communication as a major subject. And if one finds himself in an area which he cannot speak the language, he hires an interpreter. The question is, must only Ewe be spoken to Ewes?
Bright assumes himself to be the spokesperson for Ewes and portrays himself as someone very bright, but here is why I doubt.
The dredging of the Volta River begun, but has halted, why? It has nothing to do with selling of the silt. In December 12, 2022, the Sogakope High Court granted an injunction against the Lower Volta Dredging Contractors Limited and VRA from dredging the Volta River, because the plaintiff, Zikpuitor Afatsawu Dzeble of Agbeve in the South Tongu district of the Volta region had proven that the exercise was polluting the source of water for the community.
It has nothing to with the right to use the silt. Bright can spread falsehood in all, its pomp and pageantry. Some natives of Agbeve claim that the dredging company was in fact doing mining as well.
And Bright is championing dredging even though the court has put a stop at the exercise and with this dredging is out. So, since he has no solution to the problems, what else can he say?
Readers, in his response to my article, How Bright Is This Ex WOI? Bright Segbefia has gone ahead to deal in matters which do not directly concern the argument. He is completely lost and full of contradictions and lies. I think I am only wasting my time responding to him.
Since he has established himself for the public to know his low level of understanding what I write and wants me to promote him into becoming a columnist, I have decided that I cannot waste my time mentoring him.
He is such a difficult student to teach, so, I am going to restrain myself from responding to anything he puts up. It will save me time to focus on better things.
I will soon directly address the good elders of Eweland to restrain people like Bright Segbefia from trekking the way they go, that is putting Ewes in the bad light.
Agbedefu loo, agbdefuvava! And they say they are bright.
Hon Daniel Dugan
