<<Print>>

Over the past few days, the Ghanaian public have witnessed some of the most bizarre episodes of confrontation between public officials and the ‘almighty’ Ghanaian private media.

It started with the Sports Minister Mahama Ayariga and then to the Spokesperson of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) Sannie Daara.
All these public altercations were as a result of the successes chalked by the national soccer team, the Black Stars, in the just ended Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.

While the national soccer team has put up one of its splendid performances in recent years at the competition and therefore deserves some recognition and national honours, some media organizations in the country are as part of their watchdog roles asking the relevant questions to ensure that the tax payer is not fleeced in the process.

The aL-hAJJ under normal circumstance does not have any problem with the probing and intrusive questions the media is asking those officials, especially regarding issues of budget and general financial accountability.

However, what beats our imagination is the seeming synchronization of the negative media campaign targeted at certain individuals and by extension the national soccer team itself.

One is tempted to construe it as a ruse to divert the attention of the Ghanaian public from the successes made by the soccer team.

There are widespread allegations in the public that some political interests in the country have not been comfortable with the recent successes of the soccer team because of the possible political capital President Mahama and his government will extract from it.

Therefore, lackeys and surrogates of those political interests are being used to put a spanner into the senior soccer team’s achievements by using peripheral issues to divert attention and create some doubts and anxiety in the minds of the Ghanaian public.

The modus operandi of those media houses and media personnel exposed the latent arrogance and tyranny that has characterized the Ghanaian media in this country since the inception of the Fourth Republican Constitution.

While the 1992 Constitution itself bestowed on the media the enviable accolade of the Fourth Estate of the Realm, some media personnel have rightly or wrongly perceived it as license to abuse members of the Ghanaian society especially those holding public offices.

Media personnel have been used as front for political proxy wars in this country leading for serious injuries to people’s reputations.
However, the media itself has over the period grown to be impervious to criticisms and any-body who attempts to expose the wrongs of the media is tagged as either undemocratic or intolerant.
The question TheaL-hAJJ wants to ask is are the media personnel not human beings and institution of the media not made up of human beings?
If they have the right to point out the society’s problems why can’t the rest of the society also point out their deficiencies to them? Don’t they also belong to the society?

The arrogance and insensitivity, the deception, the tyranny and of course the lies that have characterized the Ghanaian media must be a source of concern to everybody who cares about the sustenance of our fledgling democracy.

Freedom everywhere in the world cannot be enjoyed without responsibility.

While we will be the first to defend media freedom and all libertarian principles of democracy, TheaL-hAJJ will nonetheless continue to be the advocate of responsible media in order to create a better democratic society for everybody, including the generation unborn.

We will not hesitate to expose undemocratic tendencies wherever they are even if in the media.

Recently the Sports minister has come under a tidal wave of attack in the media for using the ‘useless’ word to described certain questions the media were asking regarding the budget of the Africa Cup of Nations.

Not long after that, the Spokesperson of the GFA, SannieDara was also attacked for similar reaction to the media.

According to the media, the Spokesperson of the Ghana Football Association [GFA], Ibrahim SannieDaara has hit back at sports commentators and journalists who have questioned recent donations to the Black Stars for their second placement at the just ended Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.

Sannie tagged some sports journalists as “Witches and Wizards” for setting up agendas to rundown the Black Stars.

“Anyone whose aim is to destroy the Black Stars is a witch. There’s this growing calculated campaign to demonize the Black Stars just because people are appreciating their [Black Stars] efforts for the brilliant performance they exhibited in Equatorial Guinea. I don’t understand why people are campaigning against the Black Stars. Black Stars players are also Ghanaians,” he said.

The GFA spokesman opined that, sports journalists now envy the Black Stars just because of donations given to them.

News broke earlier in the week that players of the Black Stars and members of the technical team would each receive a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee worth $76,000 from government for excelling in the tournament, a story which the Ghana Football Association initially denied.

The FA changed their stance on the issue confirming that 30 models of the above mentioned car will be distributed to members of the playing body and not officials of the team as earlier opined.

However, the Minister of Youth and Sports MahamaAyariga also came public to dismiss rumours making rounds in the media that government funded the acquisition of the Jeep Grand Cherokees.

MahamaAyariga noted that “Before the tournament there was a promise by Tanink Ghana Limited that if the players won the cup they will mobilize resources to get each player and not management members a Jeep”.

According to MahamaAyariga, Tanink Ghana Limited only required government to grant it tax exemptions but journalists still insist government fully funded for the cars whiles the country is in crisis.

Nonetheless, SannieDaara on Peace FM’sPeace Power Sports lamented that it is wrong for journalists to accuse government of neglecting the unending power crisis to spend on the stars.

“Why must Ghanaians be aggrieved if some company is willing to donate cars to the Black Stars?” he questioned. Adding that “Government did not purchase those cars”.

Forced by host Dan KwekuYeboah to explain some spending at the GFA before and after the AFCON tournament, SannieDaara furiously labeled Dan as going "bonkers".

“You are going bonkers Dan… aren’t you? You are going bonkers!” Sannie fumed during a live radio interview.

But, Peace FM’s "Kokrokoo" host Kwame SefaKyei interrupted the live interview to calm Sannie down and prompted him to be cautious with his choice of words on radio.

“You [Sannie] have worked as a sports journalist for years and worked with BBC before. What do you think BBC will do if someone tells their presenter live on air that he is going bonkers?” Kwame asked.

But the GFA spokesman was firm to have said “They [BBC] will do nothing if such word is used live on radio. Do you understand the meaning of bonkers? What kind of argument is this…Dan is going overboard”.