The National Media Commission (NMC) on Wednesday urged the Staff, Management and Board of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) to unite and work together with trust and maturity for the betterment of the Corporation.
Nana Kwesi Gyan-Apenteng, the NMC Chairman said despite the important place GBC occupies in the country, it was struggling to find its place and voice in the modern architecture of information and governance.
“There are many reasons for this, and many challenges facing the corporation. However, one of the reasons for the palpable decline in GBC’s fortunes and status is that for some people, working together is a zero sum; a game of winner takes all,” Nana Gyan-Apenteng stated in Accra at the inauguration of GBC Board.
“This is a situation in which compromise has become a bad word. For many people in our country today, GBC has become synonymous with negative words such as difficult place, bad industrial relations, unrest and the like. This should not be the GBC story,” he added.
The 10-member Board is under the chairmanship of Reverend Professor Emmanuel Adow Obeng, the President of the Presbyterian University College.
Other members are: Dr. Kwame Akuffo Anoff-Ntow, the Director-General of GBC; Mr Henry A. Kanor, Nii Kwate Owoo, Mr Michael Adumatta Nyantekyi, Mrs. Alexina Naa Ahima Arthur, Naval Captain Dr Kamal-Deen Ali, Ms Roberta Gardiner, Mr John Armstrong Yaw Klinogo and Dr Diana Dzane.
Nana Gyan-Apenteng, who administered the Oath to the Board members, said: “GBC is not a bad place and the people who work here are not bad people, so what is happening here? On the one hand, GBC is responding to the on-going disruption in the broadcasting field ushered in by the 1992 constitution.
“GBC has gone from being a monopoly to being one of the many in a vast field of competitors. Unfortunately, GBC has to compete with its hands and feet tied by strictures which do not apply to its competitors”.
He said the view of the NMC had long been that instead of apportioning blame; “we should do a couple of things; first we must support the Board to ensure smooth functioning of GBC as a going entity, and secondly, to set up a mechanism that will help set the future course of GBC”.
The NMC Chairman urged the Board to work with all sections of the GBC family. “The Board must support the management to do its work, whilst the management must produce an atmosphere in which every worker feels happy and secured working here.
“That is the logical sequence of the position we have adopted; Therefore, let me say very loudly here that the NMC does not take sides in disputes here but we cannot allow disputes to cripple the work of this corporation”.
He said the NMC would put together a committee of experienced experts and professionals from relevant fields to examine the current posture of GBC and produce recommendations for the future.
He commended the out-gone GBC Board for their good works and services to mother Ghana.
Mr George Sarpong, the Executive Secretary of the NMC urged the new Board to use their expertise and experience to turn the fortunes of GBC around.
Dr Anoff-Ntow said since his assumption of office exactly a year ago, there had been significant improvement in relations between staff and management of the corporation; stating that today, “it is possible for management and union to sit together”.
The Director-General said they would once again make GBC a true national cultural institution.
Rev. Obeng on behalf of his colleague Board Members thanked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the NMC for the honour done them by appointing them to serve on the Board of GBC and to serve Ghana; adding that “This is a call to national duty”.
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