Be Aware Of The Changing Landscape Of The Media In Ghana Today

EVEN though I agree in principle with the guy, his language appals me.

In perfect Twi, he not only calls a spade a spade, but goes ahead to bring out the fact that a spade is the main instrument used for dealing with faeces! Oh – and he does not just say “faeces”. He uses a four-letter word!

“He” confesses that he does not accept the concept of polishing one's language when one is saying important things. “Hey, as for me, I don't know how to say “sɛbe”or “tafrakyɛ” oh!”, he announces. So he comes out straight to say: “moagyimigyimi!” or“moyɛnkwaseafoɔ dodo” [all crass variations of the English insult:“You're a damned stupid lot!”

What makes the guy's language most shocking is that he isn't just insulting anyone. No – he picks on chiefs and – Ministers!

“He” is a guy who appears on Youtube, telecasting a “rant”-TV show in which he displays a picture of a galamsey site, as well as some prominent chiefs sitting in state. So his targets are not hidden. As he lets rip – without bothering to introduce himself or the programme, he states:

“When you guys were made chiefs, your ancestors left you with good water sources which you and your people were glad to to drink. But because you are so, so stupid, you have taken money from galamsey people and have allowed them to turn the good drinking water into mud. So much so that if you were to give what is called water in you locality to a dog to drink in this place where I am speaking from you would be sent to, prison for twenty years! Why are you, Africans,so stupid that you can't see that what you are doing is

terribly wrong?

“You are all so-called big people yet you watch silently and allow this galamsey to happen on your land – without saying anything. But you should all be destooled and better people put in charge of your area. You are stupid! You make God Himself sorry for creating you! How can a human being not appreciate the value of water, let alone a human being who has been trained to be the chief of his people? An you big chiefs you say you know who they are, and you have power tyo remove them, and yet you won't do it! Tweaaa! Fools!”

Even as one is deprecating the guy's language, one is forced to admit that he's absolutely right in the generality of what he actually says. Oh, if only he could be persuaded to tone downhis language! For he is saying the right things in the wrong way.

But hey, wait – who is to determine what's the “right” way or the “wrong” way in today's world? What he's asking is this: when the chiefs were taking the galamseyers' money, did they consider what was “right” and what was “wrong”? If they didn't bother their consciences with “right” or “wrong”, but allowed the galamseyers to do the wrong thing and kill the rivers, then why should anyone else bother to address them in the “right way” or the “wrong way”?

The guy appears to be under 30 years of age, and the depth of his anger should frighten even those who are no friends of galamseyers or the chiefs who take money from them. He says, “Read my lips!” And what I'm reading from his lips is that if he had a chance, he would make the “Let The Blood Flow” chants of the followers of Jerry Rawlings in June 1979 look like the somnolent murmurs of pious nuns and monks. Is this the type of guy we are breeding in this country?

Now, please note that I ran into his Youtube programme by accident. So others, too, can be caught to watch it without meaning to. Apparently he has a good following, and I warn our big chiefs and public administrators that people are watching their actions whose reactions and utterances go beyond what the “mainstream media” has accustomed us to. These “silent watchers” are so technically “savvy” that when they decide to go public, their output cannot be controlled. (Ask General Muhammadu Buhari about what headaches Twitter has given to him with regard to his reputation in Nigeria!)

The only way to stop such guys is to take care not to give them an excuse – let alone a genuine excuse – to fill the airwaves with such over-the-top criticism. They engage in such criticism precisely because things have been allowed to degenerate – as far as galamsey in this country is concerned – under our hypocritical attachment to what we think is “politeness”. That is what has caused some of these guys to adopt a raw, unmitigated exposure of the deliberate blindness cultivated by some of our authority figures. To them it's the only way forward. Listen to the guy:

“When America was faced with 9/11, the security services of that country went into hyper-action to find signs of future events of that type, and they immediately stopped any further incidents of that nature. Over here, even in rural America, if there is an incident in the street, cameras will capture the action, and helicopters would be flying everywhere trying to identify the faces of people who look like the offender. Even when police helicopters fail to catch the offender, helicopters used by media investigators are able to do the job! But stupid Africans who are put in charge of public safety can't do anything like that!”

Does this guy hate Africans? Has he been converted by American racists into a self-hating Blackman?

I don't like the way he keeps using the term, Obibini [African] in a derogatory manner. But who am I to tell him he shouldn't look down upon his own kind? He's looking at the factsthat have confronted him in his own life and he's arriving at the only conclusion that the facts lead himto: that Africans who allow their drinking water to be turned into mud – for money's sake – are really stupid. Who can change his mind without presenting counter-facts to challenge the empirical knowledge that he's gathered for himself? Do any such “counter-facts” in fact exist?

Even the mainstream media is now often talking about galamsey in a manner that should warn our new Minister of Lands and Mineral Resources that he ought to be extremely careful NOT to continue with the old methodology hitherto used by the Minerals Commission. The Commission tried, in the past, to be too clever by half – it issued licences to mine, or prospect for gold, any intention of enforcing the conditions under which the licences were ostensibly issued. It also issued the licences on the blind side of Parliament, which is supposed to ratify such licences. The Mineral Commission, in short, tried to attempted to politically “manage” the galamsey issue in the past. Now, things have reached so far that no-one takes the Commission seriously.

In fact, things have reached so far that some Ghanaians have become “metaphysical” in their approach to galamsey. For instance, writing in The Spectator weekly on 14 June 2021, Magnus Naabe Rex Danquah posed the question whether a nation can avoid the consequences of fate? Ah?

Yes, he thinks our current country, Ghana, is the “second coming” of a nation of the same name and that what happened to[the] old Ghana Empire? May be waiting for us!” His sub-title to the piece is brazenly apocalyptic: “A nation against itself [amid] threats of galamsey”.

He argues pessimistically that “the human race never learns from past mistakes. We keep living cyclical lives of repeating the mistakes of Adam and Eve from generation to generation [and] from dispensations to dispensations” He then asks: “Isn’t it funny that we aren’t learning any lessons from ARCHAEOLOGY?...But more importantly, what about the meanings, understanding and impact of names and what they proffer for those named after others?Do they impact or influence their lives or lifestyles?

He goes on: ”What does the future hold for our great nation, Ghana from the exploits, failures and conquest of the former Ghana Empire? Any real lessons to learn to avoid the mistakes of their era or dispensation? That’s why the way we are handling the issues of GALAMSEY is sad and worrying. Those of us crying... do so because we are afraid of what lies ahead of us as a nation and as a people!”

If that's not a nightmare scenario, I don't know what is. Can we save our grandchildren from seeing it enacted before their eyes? I SHAKE in my boots as I wonder!