Features
Who is an expert?
The term expert is now becoming a word that is losing its importance in Ghana. In recent times, when an incident occurs such as armed robbery, a fire gutting a building, someone committing suicide etc., it is not uncommon to hear or see depending on which medium you are dealing with, to hear or see a so called expert being invited by media personnel to comment on the issue.
When a careful analysis is made of what these experts present in response to various questions put to them by the various media people, one begins to wonder if, indeed, these people are really experts.
An expert can be defined as “a person who has a broad and deep competence in terms of knowledge, skill and experience through practice and education in a particular field”. There are issues that are critical to national development and which must be explained well to the populace.
Some of such issues even border on national security and, therefore, people who are called to speak to the issues must be people who are knowledgeable enough to address pertinent issues.
We will be doing ourselves harm as a nation by not letting people with the requisite knowledge, of the issues involving in any particular sector of our national life, to talk about them. Media personnel must be admonished to be careful in the selection of people who are called to be panelists in the discussion of topics on their shows.
What worries me are the so- called security experts who have mushroomed all over the place and the eagerness with which the journalists call them onto their shows to seek their opinions on issues.
Recently when the murder of the Mfantseman MP occurred, it became a hot topic on various media platforms. There was suggestion that it was high time personal bodyguards were provided for members of parliament to ensure their safety.
This issue became a debatable one with a section of the populace supporting such a move and a section opposing it. Then comes some of these so-called experts wading into the discussion. The arguments they used in opposition to this move by government were, indeed, laughable to say the least.
I listened to a few of them and the argument was that the UN standard for effective policing ratio of one to 500, has not been achieved in Ghana, hence that should be the focus instead of trying to focus on personal security for the MPs.
What they fail to realise is that these MPs play a very sensitive role in our governance structure and must be given protection just like other arms of government.
Our constitution frowns on discrimination and if the other arms of government are provided personal security, it is only right that the members of parliament are also given the same treatment. Any fair minded person would readily agree that the MPs also deserve their fair share of the largesse of the state given to the other branches of government.
There is the first group of these so-called experts who do not have depth in the particular subject area they claim to be experts in. They come into the discussions with comments and categorical statements that make you wonder the institutions and training they went through to become what they claim to be.
They go about commenting on issues without any deep technical knowledge and do not profess any practical solutions when asked for the way forward on the issue or issues under discussion.
The other group consists people who by their comments show that their party considerations have influenced their comments. This group is made up of two sub groups; those who are always quick to blame everything on the government especially if their party is in opposition and the issue under consideration has to do with a decision taken by government.
Those whose party is in government also see nothing wrong with actions taken by government and their comments betray them. It appears that once someone is in academia the title expert is readily conferred on him.
In election year like the current one and more especially with elections a few weeks away, those for government and against government behaviours are not uncommon.
On a few occasions, we find real experts talking on issues and they are a delight to watch and listen to. Those are the people this country needs and media personnel must be encouraged to do a proper search to identify real experts to invite them to their shows.
Real experts do vote but they do vote based on their careful assessment of policies of political parties and based on sentimental reasons. Such people are very professional when commenting on issues and do not allow any other considerations to influence their comments on issues.
In conclusion, there has to be a way of defining who an expert in a particular field is and a clear criteria lined up. This would go a long way to ensure that journalist would invite real experts in every sense of the word and do away with all manner of people parading themselves as experts in various fields of endeavour.
Laud Kissi-Mensah
This week I have a very strong desire to put on my Apostolic Cap and talk about the power available to children of God which we can utilise to generate positive outcomes, in our lives.
There is a phrase in the Bible that if Christians meditate on, can immensely transform their lives. In Matthew 28:6 there is a phrase “… as he said…” according to the King James Version.
Thus phrase forms part of a statement declared by an angel of God to two women who were disciples of Jesus who had gone to his tomb early in the morning on the third day after his death.
According to the Biblical account, the stone covering the entrance of the tomb had been rolled away and an Angel was sitting on it and he made the statement to the effect that the Jesus they are seeking is not there and that he had risen, as he said before his death.
His resurrection affirmed the authenticity and dependability of the word of Jesus and therefore the word of God.
Christianity has to do with faith in the word of God. Pastor Mensa Otabil said if we view Christianity as an inside out view, you would go inside to operate the power that is in you.
As a Christian, the spirit of God and therefore the power of God, dwells in you. Anyone who is aware of this truth, does not go around seeking to have a so called powerful person resolve his or her spiritual issues.
Most Christians who move from prophet to prophet, do not believe that the spirit of God which operates in a Pastor or Prophet, is the same spirit that dwells in him or her.
In fact , that Christian may be more ‘powerful’ than the Prophet or Pastor he is going to for prayers because he is living a holy life, which is pleasing to God, for God is no respecter of persons according to Acts 10:34-35.
God does not give out his spirit in different measures to indwell believers. The spirit of God that dwells in a new convert, is the same spirit that dwells in a Bishop or a Prophet or an Evangelist or an Elder or a Deacon.
All you need to do as a child of God is to believe in the word of God and know that it works and that according to 1 John 4:4 we, Christians, that the Spirit of God dwells in us have overcome the world and Jesus in us, is greater than the Devil who is out in the world, wrecking havoc all around.
If we realise that we have overcome the Devil and everything he controls, then we can believe and act in faith and make declarations and just as Christ declared that he will die and on the third day, he will rise from the dead and it manifested as he said, there shall be a manifestation of our declarations also.
The problem of modern day Christians is that, a lot of them, do not study and meditate on the word of God, so they do not witness the manifestation of the power of God, in their lives.
Such an experience over time, give them the impression that the spirit of God dwells in different dimensions in believers. This then leads them to seek solutions to their challenges from so called powerful men of God.
Some Pastors also fall into this misconception of the measure of the spirit of God in believers. When the size of a Pastor’s church for instance, is not increasing the way he had been praying for self-doubt sometimes begin to set in.
Especially, if he begins to compare his church with that of say a colleague from the same Bible School, then he begins to wonder if there is not a spiritual secret he is not aware of.
This is when, if care is not taken, fellow Pastors who appears to be very successful in the ministry but are using occultic powers, could sway them from the narrow path and get them trapped in the Devil’s clutches and eventually and inevitably, destroy their lives. God bless.
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
Introduction
You have been there. Twenty tabs open comparing laptops. A blank page for an email you’ve been “thinking about” for three days. A menu with 30 options and you leave hungry.
This is decision paralysis: the state where the volume of information, options, or perceived stakes prevents you from making a decision at all. It’s not laziness. It’s a cognitive overload response.
In a data-rich environment, it’s becoming the default mode for both individuals and organisations.
This article breaks down why it happens, how it shows up, what it costs, and how to break it.
1. What decision paralysis actually is?
Decision paralysis is a failure of the decision-making system to convert information into action. Psychologists call it ‘analysis paralysis’ or ‘choice overload.’
It has three components:
1. Cognitive overload: Working memory can hold between four to seven chunks of information at once. When you try to track 20 variables, the system freezes.
2. Anticipatory regret: You overestimate the pain of making the wrong choice. The brain avoids the emotional cost by avoiding the choice.
3. Ambiguity aversion: Humans prefer known risks over unknown ones. When outcomes are uncertain, we stall.
The result is not neutral. Not deciding is a decision. It costs time, momentum, and opportunity
2. Why it’s getting worse now
2.1 Infinite options
Amazon has 350 million products. Netflix has 6000+ titles. Dating apps have unlimited profiles. The paradox of choice: more options increase initial satisfaction but decrease final satisfaction and increase regret.
2.2 Information abundance without synthesis
You can find 50 studies on sleep. Each one has caveats, conflicting results, and different methodologies. Without a framework to integrate them, more data creates more confusion, not clarity. This connects directly to the “data-rich, wisdom-poor” problem.
2.3 Reversibility anxiety
In the digital age, most decisions feel permanent. A bad post goes viral. A bad hire is public on LinkedIn. A bad career move is visible. The fear of irreversible error makes people delay.
2.4 Algorithmic mirroring
Platforms show you what you already engage with. This creates an illusion that there’s one ‘best’ option you are missing. You keep searching, convinced the optimal choice is one more scroll away.
3. How it shows up
Personal Level
Cannot pick a career path after six months of ‘research’
Spend two hours choosing a movie and watch nothing
Delay sending an email because it ‘isn’t perfect’
3.1 Organisational level
Teams spend 80 per cent of time in meetings gathering data, 20 per cent deciding
Product teams delay launch waiting for “one more data point”
KPIs multiply but no strategic choice is made
3.2 Common cognitive tells:
Endless comparison tables
Asking for one more opinion
Reframing the problem instead of solving it
Feeling drained after thinking but not acting
By Robert Ekow Grimmond-Thompson
