Ghanaians are such an interesting people sometimes. There's been so much blather about Rupert Murdoch - and the baleful influence of his multi-media empire, in a large part of the English-speaking world.
Yet, I do not know of a single media entity in Ghana, which can be compared to the Murdoch multimedia empire - in the power that until recently, it wielded in a large part of the English-speaking Western democracies.
And neither do I know of a single individual, in the Ghanaian media world, to whom politicians are beholden or enthralled by - as was the case with Rupert Murdoch: who was courted by many of the leaders of the English-speaking democracies: because of the enormous power he wielded.
I doubt if much of it occurs here, but any hacking of mobile phones and emails that goes on here by journalists, will not be in furtherance of scoops - but merely to serve the interests and the agenda of their political paymasters: or, more credibly, will be done illegally, by secret service types, at the instigation of politicians, for their hirelings in the media to do their bidding with.
We are not - in a nation in which a large swathe of the media landscape is in the pockets of our ruling elites, and a majority of journalists are individuals who lack personal integrity, and see toadying to our ruling elites as a ticket to riches - in any danger of ending up under the thump of the Ghanaian media: as has apparently hitherto been the case, in some of the Anglo-Saxon democracies of the West, which Murdoch bestrode like a Colossus.
Over there, as we now know, apparently, national leaderships were often unable to see clearly what was good for their people - because they were engulfed by the thick fog of the miasma of Rupert Murdoch's mean right-wing views.
In any case, the Ghanaian media is too emasculated to pose any threat to those powerful philistines amongst our ruling elites, who debase our democracy with their tribal-supremacist triumphalist nonsense on bamboo stilts - and are slowly destroying the moral fabric of our society with the unfathomable greed that drives them.
The idea that professionals who are often unethical, and a majority of whom are unable to master even the basic tool of their profession, the English language, are somehow feared by the thick-skinned and powerful plutocrats, oligarchs and plain criminal-types, who masquerade as democrats to enable them more or less control the Ghanaian polity, is laughable - and we shouldn't go round chasing red herrings, within the Ghanaian media world, in looking for those who actually pose a real threat to Ghanaian democracy.
For that, we must look to those dangerous tribal-supremacist hypocrites, who cloak their perfidy in such ostentatious fashion, with the fine and smooth silken garb of multi-party democracy, but are in actual fact quiet contemptuous of it.
Our democracy is threatened, not by the cheap sensationalism of unprincipled and dissimulating Ghanaian hacks, but by those who profess to believe in the rule of law, but evidently think that somehow they themselves are above the law - and cleverly manipulate our legal system for their own ends: which certainly aren't benign.
And in what is a unitary Republic of diverse-ethnicity, and in which no tribal group is inferior or superior to the other, they threaten the cohesion of our united country, with their Kokofu-football politricks and endless nepotism - and the ridiculous notion that they and their ilk were born to rule our country: till the very end of time.
They are the kingpins of the tribal-supremacist cabals that hijack political parties, and use them as convenient vehicles, to enable them achieve their secret political agenda - of perpetually dominating Nkrumah's multi-ethnic Ghana.
It is that dangerous and sly lot, dear reader, who threaten Ghanaian democracy. Not those who merely serve them as useful tools - a large part of the Ghanaian media world.
And it is critical that Ghanaian patriots and nationalists understand clearly that those plutocrats and oligarchs in our midst, are those that the good people of Ghana really ought to be wary of - and constantly focus their attention and energies on: in protecting Ghanaian democracy. A word to the wise...
Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Post Script:
It will be recalled that in that infamous tape-recording, of a meeting held by a number of New Patriotic Party (NPP) legal luminaries, to strategise on how best to ambush Ghanaian democracy, after failing to manipulate the legal system successfully to achieve that end (because the judge they thought was one of the "right judges" who could be counted on to do the NPP's bidding, turned out to be no judicial-puppet at all!), which was aired during Radio Gold FM's "Election Forensics" programme in December 2008, the loquacious Honourable Atta Akyea, who says he believes in the rule of law and democracy, was distinctly heard saying in Twi, in apparent frustration, and obviously exasperated that he could not prevent power slipping from the hands of his fellow-travellers: "Saa democracy nonsense yi!"
He epitomises the type of Akan tribal-supremacist individual referred to above - and his party's upper echelons are jam-packed with people of that ilk.
It is in reference to individuals like the Atta Akyeas of the world of Ghanaian politics, that a rather uncharitable cynic I know, once said to me: "Kofi, those of us who believe in the enterprise Ghana, must always be wary of people like him: and deal firmly with them always, when they cross us - lest they beguile is with their charm and smoothness, and steal our freedoms from us!
Quite right, too - and words of wisdom indeed, say I, dear reader. It is said that inherited privilege is the greatest enemy of meritocracy.
Consequently, we must be eternally vigilante and constantly keep an eye on the Atta Akyeas and their insufferable tribal Chieftains - who apparently think they can neither be contradicted nor be criticised openly.
Their hidebound system (with its insular nature and demand for endless sycophancy which encourages megalomania), is a menace to liberalism and fans hypocrisy in Ghanaian society.
If truth be told, it poses the single greatest threat to the cohesion of our homeland Ghana - and to the well-being and continued existence of our young democracy. There is nothing benign about what is the last bastion of age-old tribalism, in Nkrumah's Ghana.
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