Rejoinder To JOY NEWS Item 26 -12- 2016

My attention has been drawn to a publication (article) dated 20-12-2016 on myjoyonline.com by the regional correspondent of JOY NEWS in the Upper West Region in the person of Mr. Rafiq Salam on the caption, “The rise and fall of the NDC in the Upper West- a worm in a rose”

This article is subsequently picked from that portal and further spread on other social media platforms.

In that publication, Mr. Rafiq Salam leveled a number of allegations against me as the Regional Communication Director. I wish to state unequivocally that the allegations leveled against me by the writer are untruth nothing but an attempt to tarnish my hard earned reputation.

First and foremost, the Regional Communication team has never gone on strike ever since I took over office as the regional communications Officer as alluded to by Rafiq Salam. I challenge him to prove otherwise.

It is also factually in accurate that “there have been several instances where the communication Director had altercations with subordinates over money meant for them to make phone calls and yet he was alleged to have been greedily keeping the largess close to his chest” and that “anybody who dares to challenge him is excommunicated from the communication group” I challenge him to mention anybody who was excommunicated from the regional communication team based on the above allegations. I must say that I have had the best of relationship with my colleagues’ communicators over the years.

As communicators we encountered a lot of challenges as far as our work is concerned, but that did not prevent us from working tirelessly for the party, and that did not also make us boycott the airwaves on a single occasion as alleged by the writer.

As the leader of the communication team, I have done my best to motivate my colleagues. Let me hastened to add that, my communicators gave out their best over the last few years in defending government policies.

In the Communication team, we have a treasurer and his deputy whose duty is part of keeping finances of the team and they have done just exactly that and they have all our financial statement well-kept in our books. I don’t keep money meant for the communication team; if any money is given to me I give it out to the treasurer for onwards decision to be taken. So in this case how can I keep communication largess to my chest and threaten any member who dares to find out?

The issue of money for phone calls is my initiative; it used not to exist, I introduced it into the team through my dynamism and lobbying skills just to make members feel part of the system and to also boost their moral to enable them give off their best. There was nothing like that in the erstwhile communication team from 2009 to 2012 when I was a member of the team.

As a leader of the team, I have been able to make available some working tools/logistics for my communicators and serial callers/ media monitors all in the name of resourcing them to give off their best and I have also been able to get them credit for phone calls from time to time. This has never happened in the history of NDC communication in the Upper West Region as far as I am concerned. If people wouldn’t praise/ pat me at the back for all these remarkable achievements, I don’t deserve to be treated this way.

As communication Director, I did my possible best and have been able to organize a number of seminars and capacity building workshops for my constituency communication officers, some constituency communication team members, serial callers as well as regional communication team members just to prepare them to be able to abreast themselves with communication skills.

Yes! As human as we are, I may have my shortfalls, but I think I have lived up to expectations as far as defending all party/government policies/issues on the airwaves are concerned. I can say without any shred of doubt that I am doing exactly what my party wants.

As a people, things didn’t go the way we all wanted it concerning the 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary elections in the region, but I think we as communicators did our best by defending almost every policy/issue on the airwaves despite our challenges, and I salute and thank my communicators for their yeoman’s job over these years.

I am committed today and anytime to defending my party on any platform as I have being doing and I will not be detracted by some of these unfounded allegations.

I wish to also use this platform to thank all my lovely brothers and sisters from the inky fraternity for their love and support given to the NDC and the communication team in the Upper West Region over the years. Equally, permit me to also say that as partners in development; let us always try to do crosschecking of allegations like these before going forward to do any publication since the damaging effect can be very devastating and damaging to one’s hard earn reputation.

In conclusion, all the allegations in the publication leveled against me are false, there is no iota of truth in it, and should be disregarded by all. It is an attempt to paint me black but the good Lord is watching all of us and will pay us in our own coin

Long live NDC
Long Live Ghana
Thank you.
……Signed……
Issah Kantagyere
Regional Communication Officer, NDC, UWR