Bature bares teeth

The man who claims he is the originator of the Alhaji & Alhaji programme on Radio Gold has warned the station not to mess with him. This was in regard to the incessant use of the title which he maintained was his intellectual property.

“Don't mess with me, for I am an honest man!” Alhaji Bature hissed at his former radio station.

This warning opens up a new wound in an already fractured relationship between him and the media house.

The controversy between the Maamobi-based programme host and Radio Gold, which generated some media heat when Alhaji Bature severed links with the Baffoe Bonney-led Radio Gold sometime ago, got worse when he pitched camp with a sister radio station, Hot FM.

The previous radio polemics between Alhaji Bature and his antagonists in the persons of Mr. Kwesi Pratt, regular panelists on the programme, and Mr. Baffoe Bonney, the Chief Executive Officer of Radio Gold has given way to fiery text messages.

Alhaji Bature is said to have warned the station which still runs the programme under the same title to drop or face the consequences.

In a text message to the station, Alhaji Bature described as deceptive, the continued use of his intellectual property, Alhaji & Alhaji for the talk-show and asked why the station was finding it difficult to develop a name for its show.

“Why are you finding it difficult to develop, nurture and christen your own programme?” he asked.

Alhaji Bature wondered further why after 11years of broadcasting, Radio Gold still felt it was so difficult to develop a programme: “What you are doing is simply plagiarism and deliberate public deception.”

That he had restrained himself from taking action against the station for its continued use of Alhaji & Alhaji, he stated, was born out of reasons he said were obvious.

“I don't think I can continue doing that now (especially when people know the whole truth and how 'Alhaji & Alhaji' came to Gold and circumstances surrounding my exit.)”

In a rather robust fashion, he warned the station not to be deluded by what he called “the vain protection” of those he said thought they knew everything on earth, because according to him, “when the day of unmasking comes, we shall all see the asses that they are.”

Alhaji Bature chastised Radio Gold for rejoicing over a Daily Guide report, which according to him, only confirmed his position that he brought the programme to the station.

The romance between Alhaji Bature and Radio Gold started when the Mamobi boy took the talk-show to the media house, which soon earned for it immense popularity on the media scene.

Alhaji Bature was said to have felt slighted when an Outside Broadcast arrangement for the programme was changed without informing him.

This, sources close to Alhaji Bature pointed out, was one of the instances that dented the bond between him and the station's management.

Alhaji Bature's attempts at engaging some social commentators for the Alhaji & Alhaji talk show programme met with resistance from some Rawlings apologists.

Kwesi Pratt Jnr was reported to have vowed not to let Alhaji Bature have his way, a position shared by former President Rawlings.

Information reaching Daily Guide indicate that Alhaji Bature was not being remunerated for his service to the station and that he bore the cost of the jingle and other ancillary expenditure for the programme.

Daily Guide has learnt also that there had been some behind-the-scene maneuvers to get Alhaji Bature to shelve his anger for now.

Whether the peeved radio host who has now pitched camp with Hot FM would keep holding his fire or not, remains to be seen as the days elapse and especially if Radio Gold continues to use his Alhaji & Alhaji baby.

Culled from Daily Guide