Edward Mensah writes from Chicago:

Wow! Etuk is mad and I do not blame him.Right on, man!! And Ayittey is sitting
pretty because each time he is attacked it amounts to being cited. He can
count all those attacks as citations of his ideas. In the last week alone he
must have been cited more than a dozen times. The guy is hot!. At least he
writes, and most of us simply do not write because it takes quite a lot effort
to be peer reviewed and published in economics and other scholarly fields.
 I am currently preparing a synthesis of all the attacks on Ayittey. And what
will evolve is a bunch of diatribes and name calling of Ayittey, who, by the
way, is not responsible for all the rampant corruption and ciminal
incompetence of our leaders.
Why is it that an African leader like Gbagbo of Ivory Coast disenfranchises
half his population, unleashes a civil war, and we sit here and blame
colonialism, cold war, artificial borders? How is  colonialism directly
responsible for the irresponsible policy of Ivorite?  Yes, slavery and the
attendant cold war were awful. The cold war in particular denied African
governments the capacity to develop the culture of compromises that
democracies engage in daily in order to arrive at solutions acceptable to the
majority. Without compromising the alternative will be to fight each other.
How long can we keep blaming others for our total failure in governance?

Let us talk about how we can come out with ideas that can assist the growth of
democracy on our dear continent instead of beating up on Ayittey.
There is nothing wrong with the African character and everything wrong with
most of our governments. Ideas that can improve education, health, and food
supply are not new. Keeo writing but be constructive.