My attention was moments ago drawn to an unsavory social media post made by Martin K. N. Kollie regarding the academic credentials of Mrs. Sara Beysolow Nyanti. The issue being raised here is not that Martin’s effort at researching or exposing questionable academic credentials of public officials is bad; No, it is, in fact, welcoming and wholeheartedly, too. The issue involves whether Martin is actually part of the vetting process of the new government and if his academic credentials research work is itself subject to any form of vetting, scrutiny or guidance.
By JNan Larsah, Contributing Writer
And if Martin Kollie is part of the vetting process of the new government, that is also greatly welcoming. However, a question lingering in the public is whether the vetting process of the new government should be guided by professionalism or if it should be left to the whim and caprice of a lone soldier to do whatever runs in his head at any time. For example, should Mr. Kollie be required to observe boundaries and apply due diligence? Or should he be allowed to use information gathered from the internal vetting process for self-serving social media promotion? Or should due diligence be applied wherein any given potential nominee is afforded the opportunity internally to clarify questionable credentials and upon same, she or he be expected to satisfactorily clear the questions and thereafter forwarded for nomination and confirmation? Or if she or he fails to satisfactorily clear the questions, that potential nominee be removed from the potential nomination list but with all done in due respect of professionalism and privacy concerns. Otherwise, there are inherent risks involved here.
The reason for such guidance is to keep it professional for everybody and ensure that all involved in the process are not necessarily opening themselves up to unknown risks and whimsical misconduct by others. Of course, while there is no reason to accept or vouch for suspicions that the review/research of academic credentials may be weaponized and used to target, intimidate, scandalize or even blackmail the subjects involved, there is still a reasonable basis to provide sufficient assurance against any such unseeming or likely misconduct or even the perception of same.
Full disclosure must be made here that I am a former schoolmate of Mrs. Sara Beysolow Nyanti’s, who was my classmate for each of the 3 years at the College of West Africa, where she was always among the top students each academic period. We later departed with her matriculating to the CUC and me at the UL. Pls see Sara, plus in a composite with her the 4th from left in the bottom row and me with a big smile in the middle at the top row.