THE GHANAIAN MEDIA MUST BE FAIR TO PRESIDENT MILLS!

There are many independent-minded and patriotic Ghanaians, who insist that to argue that a regime led by President Mills and Vice President Mahama, somehow poses a threat to press freedom in Ghana, is to be intellectually dishonest. It is extraordinary that a regime led by those two gentlemen, who have shown so clearly that unlike a majority of the members of our criticism-averse political class, they are tolerant individuals, can be accused of hounding journalists and posing a threat to the media. That pure nonsense on bamboo stilts is yet another example of the way so many educated Ghanaians seem to take Ghanaian democracy for granted. The actions of the few anti-democrats in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who manipulate the police to hound journalists, should not be used to judge the Mills regime. Period.


Perhaps the question patriotic Ghanaians ought to pose is: Why are those influential journalists, who decided, when the new Patriotic Party (NPP) assumed power in January 2001, that they would not allow the kind of negativity that led to the demise of the Limman regime, to be repeated under the NPP regime of President Kufuor, now strangely silent, as we witness the barrage of unfair and unjustified criticisms constantly being leveled against the Mills regime in sections of the media? Are we to assume, dear reader, that those influential journalists feel sufficiently confident that democracy has indeed come to stay for good in Ghana – and that what befell President Limman cannot possibly ever happen to President Mills? Is that why they have closed their eyes to the biased and unethical journalism now in vogue in Mother Ghana – specifically designed to play a major role in ensuring that the Mills regime fails?


Do they not see the disenchantment of ordinary people with a democracy in which only the political elite and their cronies enjoy the so-called "democracy-dividend"? Well, they had better sit up – for, contrary to what most of Ghana’s educated elite think, far from this being a stable nation, the huge disparities in wealth and the presence of a large underclass of young people, who have no hope of a better tomorrow ever materializing for them in their lifetime, coupled with the cynicism generated amongst ordinary people, who are totally fed up with a political class that is forever feuding (and which never delivers on the many promises its members make to get into power!), actually presents the next crop of junior military officers in the June 4th 1979 mould, who are imbued with political consciousness and are nationalistic, with the perfect opportunity to strike and sweep away the corrupt and inefficient 4th Republic: should there be chaos in the aftermath of any disputed elections in December 2012.


It will be a grave error of judgment on the part of the aforementioned influential journalists, to think that ordinary people will risk their lives to fight determined soldiers bent on a “house-cleaning” exercise: as a prelude to ushering in a new 5th Republic – that is designed to ensure that the national interest underpins Ghanaian democracy (i.e. the interest of ordinary Ghanaians: as opposed to what will ensure the material well-being of our corrupt elite!). Those corrupt pro-NPP journalists who sold their consciences for a handsome profit to the powerful cabal in the presidency, which dominated the previous regime during the Kufuor era, when the culture of dog-eat-dog selfishness corrupted our society as greed rose to its apogee, had better revise their notes quickly – for, if the Mills regime fails, Ghanaian democracy as we know it, will definitely not survive.


The pro-NPP media is living in cloud-cuckoo-land, if it thinks that those who want our oil and natural gas revenues to be utilized solely for the transformation of our society into an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia, will sit unconcerned, and allow the corruption and unfathomable greed of the Kufuor era to return again. They had better abandon their self-serving “enkoyie" propaganda agenda and be more professional: ethical; fair; balanced; and nationalistic, in their work henceforth, if Ghana is to avoid a bloody revolution to force real change in society. They must be fairer to President Mills – who is the most honest and caring leader we have had, since the overthrow of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. In seeking to undermine him for purely selfish reasons, they are not only digging his regime’s grave – but their own (and the NPP's!) graves too. A word to the wise…



Tel (powered by Tigo – the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109 & the not-so-hot and clueless Vodafone wireless smartfone: + 233 (0) 30 2976238.