Stand Down, Ken Korankye

It’s the folly of too many, to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom” – Jonathan Swift, Anglo-Irish poet and satirist.

“It is becoming disgusting that anytime President John Evans Atta Mills decides to go out and speak, he goofs by misrepresenting facts”. That was not my piece. I found it in one of the articles by Ken Korankye? The name should ring a bell to all discerning minds in the country. Oh, please don’t say you have not heard the name. These days, they tell me one of the hottest raps in town is…haven’t you heard me on Bobie’s programme? You still don’t remember that name? The name Ken Korankye also should ring a bell to all readers of Ghanaian newspapers, especially my brothers and sisters who hang around news vending spots on days when the newspapers are in overdrive. The name Ken Korankye should also ring a bell with all listeners of radio particularly Peace FM’s flagship Kokrokooo morning programme. Then if you are addicted to Kwabena Bobie’s programme on weekday late noons on Asempa FM, you would have heard from the gentleman known and called Ken Korankye. I guess he appears on other mass media but these are the ones on which I hear him most of the time. He may probably be on some TV programme somewhere but due to my schedules, I am getting increasingly infrequent TV time and I have not been able to locate him on any channel yet. If you know where he surfaces, kindly let me know so I can put face to the name. Its obvious then. If I ever sit on the Metro with the said Ken Korankye, I would not be able to make him out. If I met him on the pavement, he might probably elicit a greeting from me because Afua taught me to greet people when I met them. But in all sincerity, I would not be doing that because he is Ken Korankye. For the purveyors of the newspapers, the man I am compelled to write about is also the editor of a newspaper called “The Daily Searchlight”. It is a newspaper that appears on most weekdays and which is gaining a lot of notoriety as a fastidious anti-NDC paper and by definition a dyed-in-the wool critic of Uncle Fiifi.

Ken Korankye has a caustic mouth!!! I am not one to fuss about freedom of speech. As Uncle Bob said, every man’s got the right to decide his own destiny, for on the judgment day, there will be no partiality. I have enjoyed some of the discourse Ken has got into particularly with Alhaji Bature sometimes on Bobie’s show. He seems articulate and works hard at getting his point across. But Ken Korankye has a caustic mouth!!! And he does not seem to distinguish which personalities are at the end of his vitriol. This piece was triggered by one of such vitriol that he spewed on Bobie’s programme some time ago and after several headlines in his newspaper that sought to attack the very integrity and personality of His Excellency, The President of the Republic of Ghana, Prof. John Evan Atta Mills. Ebei, wo nua no sen na anbin? In a reference to the President during one of the Bobie programmes, Mr. Ken Korankye referred to the President in these terms “… that nation wrecker”. I flipped. I hope all listeners to the programme who have not been blinded by the visceral battle between the elephant and the umbrella also did. How can anyone with access to public radio and a journalist at that, call the First Gentleman of the land a nation wrecker?

In these times when every issue is viewed either through elephant glasses or umbrella lenses, it should not be surprising that the ones who have sworn to their positions come out with increasingly amazing feats of intellectually implausible propositions on who and what their perceived enemies stand for and even lie down for. When was the last time a radio or TV news analysis panel was announced and you were not spot on where the panelists stood on the issues. Sometimes, its uncanny when you can even anticipate the words they will use. You look at them in the face, particularly the TV programmes and you want to weep for some of them. People have virtually sold their souls and come on air to say with all their might, what they don’t know and have not seen. JOY FM would not miss a moment to let all listeners know that the vitriol that’s about to be unleashed is not of their doing or their making or of their volition. The commentariat are lucky that Ghanaian journalism has not developed the ability to pull out what has been said in the past and match that against the present. So you can get someone, and I don’t mean Ken Korankye, who used to sing the praises of the NDC who due to no ko fio syndrome jumped unto the elephant gravy train having been assured that the chop-chop will be paradisoic, still in shock from what Uncle Fiifi has done. Stroller, Saratoga, Jerry, Baba and Publus all have assured me that when a man is in shock, he may do many things and say loads of stuff without necessarily meaning to. Shock does a lot to the mind which does a lot to the body which does a lot to the stomach which does a lot to the mind which does loads to the body. Shock makes many a person call people all sorts of names. But there is a limit to what vitriol a man is entitled to and more importantly, at whom it is thrown. Since Uncle Fiifi assumed the Presidency, check out Ken Korankye's headlines. Here are samples:

Monday, June 29, 2009: “A Govt of 419 People”.

Monday June 29, 2009: “The Muntaka Cover-up”

Monday June 29, 2009 Editorial: “Mills’ advisors Must Do Better”.

Friday June 26, 2009: “Mills, A Man Who is Anti-Peace”

Friday June 29, 2009: “Soldiers Shocked by Mills Double Convoy”.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009: “Chasing Damoah Out of the Army”.

Mr. Ken Korankye is unabashedly anti-government and anti-Mills. If you were waiting for a headline that is remotely favourable to the government and to the President, well, go to NADMO and take camping equipment because you will wait till Yeshua Amashua lands from the clouds. It just wont happen. As night follows day, you can be sure that on any and every issue, his twist will be stridently anti-government. But don’t begrudge him that. Mr. Ken Korankye has every right to his opinions. I will support his right to speak them any day. Its how he does them and the manner in which he seems to have fixated on Uncle Fiifi that makes me wade into this matter. What’s drives a man to such desperate measures? Ken, me ni sa ne? Look at Bombay. The man staked himself to the elephant “till death do us part”. In the lead up to the elections, you could hear him say on authority that the elephant will trample on umbrellas into the Palace that Yewura built. He was one of the staunchest defenders of the Nearly Man. Can you imagine what he may have gone through during those agonizing weeks when the dream was fizzling away? Do you? Can you conjure the images of potential pain that will be clashing in the brain as the events unfolded? The spectre of the Umbrella back in power. The spectre of Papa Jay straddling the news again and having a direct line to the Power Source? Can you? Such stress can easily throw the mind awry but Bombay still is standing. Not spewing vitriol as expected but yes, even having the decency to admit on occasion that the Umbrella aint broken as much as he thought. Bombay made my day in the discussion on that raid on the BNI by the Old Elephants Tuesday Club in support of their Honorary President Agya Kodwo who was having difficulty accessing his favorite mail from behind those tall walls. Bombay said point blank that the rush to the walls of the House of Exile was absolutely wrong looking at the quality of the persons involved and the vitriol from them caught on tape. That’s a man with balls. A man who knows that he may not have another birthday bash in a swanky Tokyo Hotel with an Excellency in tow. Even he does not call Uncle Fiifi a nation wrecker!!! He talks about Uncle Fiifi with the necessary decorum. Why cant you do same, Ken? Sometimes your language suggests that of someone who has a personal axe to grind. But for the life of me, I have not been able to contemplate what paaa Uncle Fiifi may have done to you personally for you to be so visceral with your caustic tongue every time you open your mouth about national issues? You really don’t have to do that to make your point. Uncle Fiifi does not deserve any of that. You know that, don’t you? But you think that out here in Ogaykrom, every one can say anything and not be responsible for the comments. Reminds me of the Tony Aidoo thunderbolt on Omari Wadie or some other young elephant in Bobie’s studio. Or is it the akom that infects people when they come close to him? If the Okomfo Bobie himself has his wits about him, how come the people who come close to him in the studio sometimes lose their marbles and spew stuff they should keep in their minds and release only to the madams or at the Coffee shop.

So Ken, I hope I see you one of these days. Stand down wae! Wont serve any purpose to continue walking your route. Learn from all the other senior journalists who make their case in a manner that does not seek to tear down any personalities. You will lose nothing in the process. You will gain something though. You may have had plans. Uncle Fiifi may have put paid to them for the time being. But, embre da ni. Enti gye ahom kakra wae. “Don’t wound yourself” in the process of such a virtually fruitless journey. Uncle Fiifi is for the next four years, our President. A president for all Ghanaians, including a certain Mr. Ken Korankye. Breda Osimi leaves you with an unsolicited advice: “Truth is one forever absolute, but opinion is truth filtered through the moods, the blood, the disposition of the spectator”. You may have an opinion, but how you fashion that opinion and how you articulate that opinion may be fundamental to your cause. Just do that and you will stop getting under the skin of Alhaji Bature. May chineke grant you peace in your heart so that the headlines of the Daily Searchlight will be more reflective of the times. Stay safe and chineke keep you till we meet.

Breda Osimi