New Patriotic Party (NPP) National Chairman aspirant, Sammy Crabbe, has criticised what he describes as Ghana’s overreliance on emotion and inadequate use of data in public discourse and decision-making.

Speaking to Channel One TV on Tuesday, September 22, Mr Crabbe said many public discussions were not sufficiently grounded in facts and evidence.

“I think we’re not analytical enough. We don’t engage facts. There’s too much emotion in what we do. Most of what we do is not really grounded in data. And so we keep shooting from our lips,” he said.

According to him, the failure to engage with data contributes to poor decision-making, particularly among leaders.

“Our leaders, when you speak to people, you realise that they’re not deep, they’re not engaging, they don’t ground anything in data, and so decision-making is really poor,” he said.

Mr Crabbe said the limited use of evidence also creates room for claims to gain public attention even when they could be tested against available data.

“They talk plenty. I know this is not going to work. Because all you need to do is just go out there and then pull out data and say, no, this one is just talking,” he said.

He said the public can become enthusiastic about such claims before discovering that the information presented to them was misleading.

“People get excited, and then they follow it, only to find out later that actually they were seriously misled,” he added.

Mr Crabbe also called for greater emphasis on critical thinking and analytical skills, particularly among young people.

He said Ghana would need stronger analytical capacity to prepare its young population for an emerging global economy increasingly driven by knowledge, creativity and innovation.