Ghana’s journalism gone sour

“Although the media is witnessing the gradual collapse of the country’s economy, they are silent due to the fact that they have been paid. There is a gripping hole, the country is collapsing. We don’t hear anything from our journalists, they are happy because they are being paid monies. They keep quiet and expect someone to talk; we cannot leave this country to continue to be like that. We cannot” – Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings – Former First Lady

But for Mr. Martin Amidu, the sacked Attorney General And Minister of Justice, some of us in the inky fraternity would not know about anything called ‘Rented Press’. We cannot be blamed because until the NDC came to power in 2008, the media landscape was devoid of monetary inducement.

I must admit that even though some of us were letting loose our mischievous selves, vitiating the niceties of journalistic etiquette, we were doing so because Ghanaian journalists were striving to wean themselves from nearly two decades of stultifying authoritarian dispensation.

Rawlings’ regime introduced the Criminal Libel Law to gag journalists so when Kufuor took over power and repealed that fearful law which sent some journalists to prison, we started to practice provocative journalism, waxing pedantic and philosophical and prancing away with obstinacy and bombast. Rawlings, the man who introduced the Criminal Libel Law was not spared at all because journalists had been gagged for far too long.

We acted like goats released from their cage, jumping and running here and there. That is why it is dangerous to gag people. The repealing of the Criminal Libel law paved the way for journalists in Ghana to freely say it as it is without fear. In those days, newspapers which moved in sympathy with one political party or the other propagated the gospel according to their political parties.

As the years rolled by and many newspapers found their ways to the newsstands, charlatans seized the opportunity to join the trade. One had to attend one of the mushroom journalism schools to be called a journalist and with no field experience; and they only spin out rubbish.

Today because of money there is abundant lack of professional touch in most of our newspapers. Facts are freely mixed with comments and speculations are presented as a fact. Sometimes the level of reasoning is almost tantamount to a declaration of war on logic or even common sense.

In no time, some newspapers could not hold their heads above water because of financial constraints.

That was where the NDC seized the opportunity to buy some journalists working for some of those newspapers. With more money coming into the country through loans, the NDC has made sure a chunk of what they received went to the rented press so that they could do damage control any time they goofed. And so when Martin Amidu the Citizen Vigilante started exposing corruption in the NDC government, starting with the Woyomegate, the NDC rented a section of the press to come to their rescue by publishing damaging stories about the gentleman, hoping that he will recoil into his shells and keep quiet.

In fact, with every bad story that they wrote about the man, they hoped that he would grow fearful, retreating with his tail stuck between his thighs. That was a very serious mistake they did. When the NDC defied all cautions, Martin Amidu shouted: “Dare me if you can?” Martin, the fearless man from the North made sure he defined his terms, and did not leave it in the hands NDC rented press.

Incensed by the lies being told about him, Martin, the Northern Lion, donned his armor of confrontational discourse and took on the government ruthlessly. Unable to gag him, the NDC had no choice but to boot him out. Having tasted honey during the Martin Amidu saga, the rented press felt they could also milk the cow. That is how come we have reached this place where rented press houses are now parading as government propagandists. In fact, that is why the standard of journalism in God’s own country has fallen so drastically.

If any other person had made the above-quoted comments by Madam Konadu, people would not have taken it serious. But for a seasoned politician whose husband ruled this country for close to two decades, Ghanaians should take her serious and join the fight to uncoil ourselves from the grip of corrupt politicians. In fact, if Nana Akufo Addo had made the comments, people would have read many meanings into it.

People would say: “He is in opposition and wants power. That is why he is making such comments” When the NDC was being formed, Mr. Mahama and his wife were nowhere near the meeting place. It was Nana Konadu who proposed that the new party should use an umbrella as its symbol. Yes, indeed she, like her husband did put their noses on the grindstone to form the NDC.

Nana Konadu had to leave the NDC and form her own party because of the stinking corruption that had engulfed the party. She recalled how she organized the 31st December Women Movement which played an integral role to bring the NDC to power and the selfless service cadres played to sustain the revolution and the NDC.

It was not for nothing that Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings challenged the late John Atta Mills during their Sunyani Congress. Even though she lost, it sent a notice that all was not well in the party. For the first time in the political history of Ghana, a first Vice-chairperson challenged a sitting president.

During the hearings at the National Reconciliation Commission, we were made to understand by one retired soldier who testified at the commission that as many as thirty coup de tats were staged by some soldiers were foiled by soldiers loyal to Rawlings. This woman had the courage to stay in her matrimonial home despite the risk.

I don’t think there is any woman in Ghana who has risked her life more than Nana Konadu. And indeed, there is no woman in Ghana who can tell me that she knows the inside out of the NDC more than Nana Konadu. My problem with Nana Konadu is the way she generalized the issue of journalists being bribed. Not all journalists receive monies from the government. In fact, for example, the NDC will never give money to any journalist working with the DAILY GUIDE because they know that if even the journalist receives the money he or she will still expose them.

Nana, do you think if the NDC gives me money I will put “my car at reverse gear?” By implication, Nana Konadu was referring to journalists who are in bed with the NDC and surely yours sincerely is not part of these bribe-taking journalists. The Akans say: ”Akutia biara nim ne wura” ( If an insinuation is cast, the one being referred to knows that he is the person being referred to).

Apart from the fact that some journalists keep silence in the face of the gradual collapse of Ghana’s economy, some of them have been bribed to take on Nana Akufo Addo and make him look like a person who is not fit to rule Ghana. They deliberately concocted stories which are not near the truth and slap them on the face of Nana.

Sometimes you look at the face of a journalist who insults Nana and you begin to think whether a gentleman should enter politics. They know the pedigree of the man but because they have received monies from the powers that be, they close their eyes and take the man to the cleaners unfairly. In recent times there have been unguarded instances when journalists spew forth vitriolic invectives and imprecations on Nana Akufo Addo which were nothing short of outright insults.

They persistently howl at him in very prickly jargons simply because they have been paid to do so. Sadly the monies they give to these shameless journalists are part of the tax I pay to the state. Thankfully, Nana Akufo Addo has chosen to treat these people with ordinary contempt.

To me, that action of Nana is the mark of a gentleman. The irony is that if Nana becomes the President of Ghana (something which will come to pass, Insha Allah!), and things are turned around and the economy booms, these same shameless journalists will ditch the NDC and start writing and saying good things about the man with the hope that they could be bribed like what is going on. My brother, it is very difficult to quit a habit cultivated over decades. I feel like puffing my favourite cigar but a promise is a promise.