Alhaji Bature�s Take: Wereko Brobbey: Would He Ever Get It Right?

If there is any Ghanaian whose lifetime exploits, save his academic qualification, has been nothing more than a case of fishing expedition on the Sahara desert, then no one comes near the Chief Policy Analyst of Ghana Institute for Policy Options, Dr Charles Yves Wereko-Brobby.

From the days when he was nicknamed “Tarzan” for going against an order not to run a private radio station to date, all the numerous activities Dr Wereko-Brobby has engaged in, with hopes of achieving desired results, have all turned out to be fiasco.

Graduating from University of Leeds with an enviable BSc degree in Fuel and Combustion Engineering and PhD in Solar Energy Engineering, with a promising career in the energy sector, Dr Wereko-Brobby’s life has been one full of controversies and miseries than what he had anticipated.

Aside facing family issues which later ruined his marriage, the energy expert has been at the receiving ends of numerous humiliations and tribulations resulting from act that, but for his own conduct, could have saved him from public odium.

Perhaps, New Patriotic Party stalwart and columnist, Kwame Okoamp-Ahoofe may have summed up Dr Wereko-Brobby’s jerky life when he described him as “the poorest excuse of a major Ghanaian politician to have emerged since Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah's declaration of Ghana's reassertion of sovereignty from British colonial domination in 1957.”

To kick start his bumpy life journey, Dr Wereko-Brobby, after a brief stint with the Rawlings regime on his return to Ghana, defied all odds and attempted to venture into operating a private radio station (Radio Eye) without the requisite license at a hideout at a time government, through the then Minister of Communications, Totobi Quakyi, had warned against such activities. That ended his dalliance with radio, never mind, he would have been the ‘father’ of private broadcasting in Ghana.

As if to say he enjoyed all the controversies that surrounded his conduct, Dr Wereko-Brobby again, after falling out with the NPP ahead of the 2000 elections formed his own political party, United Ghana Movement (UGM) to contest that year’s elections as President.

But, far from being destined not to succeed in anything he lays his hands on, he managed to bag a humiliating and paltry 0.3 percent of the total votes cast in the 2000 elections, thereby closing the chapter on his presidential ambition.

Having realized his folly in attempting to grab such a privileged position, with no signals of him succeeding in the foreseeable future, Dr Wereko Brobby abandoned his party, the UGM, and activated his connections in NPP which later ended him a call up in the John Kufuor administration as Chief Executive of Volta River Authority (VRA).

His days at the VRA, as former General Secretary of the NPP, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, once asserted, ended up tainting the public image of the state power management company.

In the words Okoampa-Ahoofe, Dr Wereko-Brobby was “summarily fired by President John Agyekum-Kufuor as CEO of the VRA, primarily due to his gross managerial incompetence and taxpayer-unfriendly extravagant lifestyle.”

Despite Dr Wereko-Brobby’s not-too-smooth days at VRA, former President Kufuor shipped him to the Ghana@50 secretariat as its Executive Director, a position that nearly sent him to jail as he was made to face several committees of enquiries over how funds for Ghana’s 50th anniversary celebrations were spent.
While many would have thought Dr Wereko-Brobby would have learn some lessons to probably call it a quit, he, as if to say he was possessed with the ‘never say die’ and/or ‘can-do-spirit’ has been more vociferous on national issues, especially at the energy sector.

It is for no reason that another NPP stalwart, Rockson Adofo, described the former VRA boss as a “spoiled child that can never mend his evil ways and intentions”
After occupying privileged positions on the ticket of a party he tagged as undemocratic at the time of jumping ship in 2000, he took the party and its flag bearer to the cleaners over their decision to challenge the 2012 election results.

For exhibiting a behavior that put the party's image into disrepute, the National Executive Committee of the NPP imposed a two-year ban on him, and to date, he is yet to be reinstated.
Controversial as Dr Wereko-Brobby would always be, he was recently quoted in the media requesting for an extension of the suspension handed him by his party two years ago, saying that he is comfortable without commenting on issues concerning the party.

According to Dr. Wereko Brobby “The NPP, as a group seeking justice and redress from the highest legal body of the land, the Supreme Court of Ghana, has itself acted unlawfully and capriciously in its apparent suspension of my membership of the party.”

The NPP founding member expressed satisfaction at the relative peace he has enjoyed since his suspension asked that his time out of the party be extended. “It is been a long time I spoke on issues concerning my party but it is fantastic because I shall live in ignorant glory without commenting on any issue.”

What has in recent times been the claim to fame of the former VRA boss is to threaten court action at the least instance.
He started these theatrical and empty threats when he threatened to go to court after miserably failing to garner maximum votes to annex the party’s National Chairman Post.

He repeated this when he was quoted in the media to have announced his readiness to go to court to compel the National Petroleum Authority to reduce prices of petroleum products.
The irony of Dr Wereko-Brobby’s case is that, in all of these cases, he did not muster enough courage to carry through his threats.

Aside these empty threats of court actions; Dr. Wereko-Brobby, after not long ago announcing to make his new program on Multi TV, “Tarzan’s Take” a toast of viewers, two years down the line, one does not know what has happened to the otherwise insightful show.
His recent activity that has left many wondering when he will ever get things right in life was his move to use the court to stop the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation from collecting Television License fees.

Dr. Wereko-Brobby filed an application for an order of interlocutory injunction restraining Ghana Broadcasting Corporation from sharing monies collected with the National Media Commission (NMC) and the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA).

But an Accra Fast Track High Court declined the order and instead authorized the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation with power to collect TV License fees from owners of TV sets across the country.

After failing to get the court to grant his wish, he has again launched a public campaign to collect one million signatures to stop the GBC from re-introducing TV license fees.

The question on the lips of many Ghanaians is that “when will Dr Wereko-Brobby ever get it right?” Maybe, he might just be lucky this time round to succeed with his operation one-million signature campaign!!