Professor Michael Kpessa Whyte Has Been Here Before.

When IMANI raised alarms over the SIC insurance controversy, he responded with much the same pomposity now on display over the State Ownership Report. The public was effectively told that critics had misunderstood sophisticated state policy. Yet SIGA’s own December 11, 2025 letter was literally headed “Directive to State Owned Enterprises to Prioritise the Use of State Owned Insurance Companies.” It even sought compliance information. The later attempt to present the arrangement merely as encouragement was contradicted by the paperwork itself.

The document quietly shot the defence in the foot.

Now we have the sequel.

On Newsfile, Bright Simons challenged SIGA’s 2025 State Ownership Report. Professor Whyte responded by questioning whether critics had properly read it, invoking SIGA’s experts, complaining about AI, and suggesting people should come to the Authority for explanations.

ADVERTISEMENT

Then came an exquisite little contradiction.

He said nobody had approached SIGA seeking clarification.

Shortly afterwards, he said other people had come to SIGA, explanations were given, they understood and walked away.

Professor, which queue are we joining?

The empty one containing nobody, or the one containing the people who came, received explanations and peacefully departed?

Then Bright Simons produced the report itself.

SIGA says 108 audited statements out of 162, representing 66.67 percent, constitute the highest proportion ever used in a State Ownership Report.

Unfortunately, SIGA’s own historical table records 95 audited accounts out of 139 in 2021.

That is about 68.35 percent.

Bright Simons was right.

Professor Whyte then migrated from “proportion” to “absolute number.”

A charming escape route, except numbers have immigration officers too.

Yes, 108 is the highest number.

No, 66.67 percent is not the highest proportion.

The report says proportion.

Then there is the 2021 arithmetic.

SIGA reports GH¢56.19 billion revenue, GH¢104.97 billion operating expenditure and somehow emerges with positive GH¢2.15 billion PBIT. The expenditure figure is identical to the 2023 figure.

That is not Bright Simons being arrogant.

That is subtraction filing a complaint.

Nor does “these figures came from audited accounts” rescue matters. Fifty four entities in the report relied on management or draft accounts, and SIGA itself admits that earlier published figures were subsequently restated.

The deepest irony is that Professor Whyte kept saying nobody has a monopoly over knowledge while repeatedly invoking SIGA’s institutional expertise as though expertise itself were a rebuttal.

It is not.

A professor can be wrong.

An institution can make mistakes.

A 481 page report can contain excellent work and still require correction.

The intellectually powerful response was available all afternoon:

“Bright, that appears inconsistent. We will check it.”

Instead, Professor Whyte chose combat with a calculator.

The calculator won.