I was flabbergasted when I received a phone call from the National Media Commission (NMC) last Friday - and learnt that they wanted to talk to me about an offensive photograph in my newspaper, The National Review.
Trouble is, The National Review, although registered with the NMC, is yet to be published - because, unlike so many of the owners of the plethora of newspapers that are set up to do the bidding of those wealthy and powerful individuals who secretly fund them, I refuse to accept money that comes with strings attached: and consequently have decided to seek a bank loan to set it up with, instead.
Suffice it to say that those who have gone down that super-expensive financial route in Ghana to fund their projects, know that it is not an easy path to trod. So until a bank loan does eventually materialise, alas, what I hope will be an example to other newspapers in Ghana and command the respect of society generally, will continue to remain unpublished.
Which brings me back to the invitation from the NMC - which sounded more like a request to come in for a friendly chat, than the summons it really actually is.
However, with the greatest respect, my time is precious to me - and I don't see why I should trudge all the way to the NMC's offices, in a part of town so hard to get to in Accra's maddening and never-ending-traffic-jams, merely to discuss a publication I am not in fact responsible for, in any shape or form whatsoever.
After all, even primary school children can tell that there is a difference between Ghana Review International, which is the only similar-sounding example that comes readily to mind (having checked online!), and The National Review. The NMC can do better than that, for goodness sake - they register sodding newspapers in Ghana, do they not?
And as I pointed out to the big-wigs from the NMC I spoke to last Friday, there is no shortage of ruthless enemies of mine, perfectly capable of, and devious enough, to want to destroy one's credibility - by printing any old rubbish: and calling it something similar to The National Review.
As I speak, some clever Dick is actually online, publishing www.ghanapolitics.net - clearly seeking to give the world the impression that somehow it is associated with my Ghanapolitics google-blog.
Clearly, that online crook, seeking to illegally profit from what is my intellectual property, obviously thinks that he or she is on to a good thing - and will drive most of the search traffic for my Ghanapolitics google-blog, to that plain Jane of an online rag: www.ghanapolitics.net.
Such is life. And it won't also surprise me one bit, if turned out that the selfsame geniuses who somehow succeeded in getting www.ghanaweb.com to prevent me from continuing to publish my "Thoughts of a native" blog on Ghanaweb's blog section, are behind that www.ghanapolitics.net plain Jane of an online newspaper. Such, indeed, is life - which is why, regrettably, I shall not be honouring the NMC's friendly invitation to come in for a chat, any time soon: even though I have the highest regard for all those who run it and also work for it. Hopefully, they'll have the nous to let sleeping dogs lie. A word to the wise.
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
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