I was horrified when I read a story that is a classic example of the lack of imagination now afflicting much of the Ghanaian media landscape - and which also encapsulates perfectly, the dearth of statesmen and glaring lack of statesmanship, in the world of Ghanaian politics, today.
That dreadful and unprofessional lazy-hack's-story, was posted on the 2nd November, 2011, edition of the general news web-page of www.ghanaweb.com and entitled: "Mac Manu: ‘NPP Will Fight NDC With Guns’" - apparently sourced from the Catalyst, a pro-National Democratic Congress (NDC) newspaper.
Clearly supposed to be the paper's take on a radio interview Mr. Peter Mac Manu gave, which was apparently aired on Citi FM's Point Blank current affairs programme (hosted by that radio station's Shamima Muslim), one wondered why the paper didn't see it fit to contact Mr. Mac Manu and Mr. Jake Obestebi-Lamptey - whose latest gaffe it also mentioned - to question their motivation for making those outrageous, dangerous and irresponsible statements attributed to them.
Were that the case, would the paper's readers not have been given the opportunity to read the responses of those two NPP politicians - instead of being lumbered with the opinions of the opinionated soul who wrote that piece? Ditto the paper's irresponsible eagerness to exploit the two NPP politicians' equally irresponsible utterances - no doubt for maximum political advantage, in furtherance of the Catalyst's apparent mission: blinkered support for one political party (the NDC).
Whatever happened to balanced reporting, I ask, dear reader? I am reproducing that naff one-sided piece, which illustrates so perfectly, the beyond-the-pale depths to which much of Ghanaian journalism and the world of Ghanaian politics have sunk, below. Please read on - and judge for yourself, dear reader:
"Mac Manu: ‘NPP Will Fight NDC With Guns’
Former Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Mr. Peter Mac Manu has said that in line with the ‘all die be die’ philosophy of the opposition party’s drug-tainted flagbearer for the 2012 elections, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, members and sympathizers resort to fighting the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the elections with any weapon at their disposal including guns, sticks and stones. He was however quick to add that the guns they will fight with will be licensed ones only.
Mr. Mac Manu made his version on the NPP’s war declaration ahead of the 2012 elections on the ‘Point Blank’ programme with Shamima Muslim on Citi FM in Accra recently.
He told the hostess of the programme, Shamima Muslim the NPP would not be the aggressor but would only fight in defending themselves since “we no go sit down make dem cheat us every day.” He claimed that the NDC has always been the aggressor in electoral violence in the country.
The 58 year old former NPP chairman reigned from December 2005 to February 2010 when he exited by declining to seek reelection due to internal party pressures on him to quit on the basis of the fact that he failed to deliver victory for the party in 2008 elections.
He was adamant that the NPP members and sympathizers are ready to fight using any weapon they can lay their hands on including guns, sticks and stones among others.
The former NPP chairman’s war declaration came closely on the heels of a similar statement made by his successor, current chairman of the NPP, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey. According Jake, the NPP members will not only be engaging the rest of the people of Ghana in an ‘all die be die war in the 2012 elections but that the “majority” Akan ethnic group will be waging war against the rest of the country in ensuring that the NPP gets back to power at all costs.
Jake revealed that Akans in Ghana will emulate their Ivorian counterparts in waging a relentless war on the rest of Ghanaians to ensure that the NPP gets back from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) its lost political power. Mr. Mac Manu personally participated in the wonton violence that erupted at the 2007 congress of the NPP at the University of Ghana, Legon to elect the 2008 flagbearer, which Nana Akufo-Addo won by default. He engaged in fisticuffs with some others when violence broke in the congress hall, the Great Hall, following an accusation of an Kufuor-Alan boy, Paul Afoko, by Akufo-Addo’s Gabby Asare Orchere Darko that he was distributing money to the delegates in a bid to influence their choice of Alan as the party’s flagbearer.
Paul Afoko, a northerner, has since sunk into political oblivion, having being weighed down heavily by the humiliation meted out to him, which he described as unjustifiable and unwarranted because Gabby’s claims were palpably false. The critical question however is, can the Mac Manus of the NPP stand if an ‘all die be die’ situation breaks out in Ghana? Source: The Catalyst"
End of culled article from www.ghanaweb.com.
Well, there it is, dear reader. Incredible, is it not? One wonders what purpose exactly that story sought to achieve - in the day-in-day-out process of the education of the Catalyst's readers? Surely, both our media professionals and the politicians they report on, can do better than the picture painted in that one-below-the-belt-for-Mother-Ghana example above?
What is going on in both Ghana's media and political worlds is the death knell of the 4th Republic being sounded, no less - the ordinary people of Ghana will have that smug, mostly-arrogant and irresponsible lot, know.
They had better change before it becomes way too late to do so - and the iniquitous elite-rip-off that is the 4th Republic, replete with its cornucopia of endless perks and overly-generous retirement benefits for Ghana's greedy asset-stripping ruling elites, is brought to an abrupt end: in order to usher in a fairer and more just 5th Republic, the constitution of which will underpin the transformation of our country into an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia. A word to the wise...
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