Professor Mills Protests Too Loudly

At another time, all he would have done would have been to simply cry to his boss and fingered his tormentors in order to get his critics and assailants dumped in the slammer. No questions asked or answered. And so one can readily fathom the burning frustration that must be gnawing at the entrails of the unopposed flag-bearer of the so-called National Democratic Congress.

In his latest gripe with the media, Professor John Evans Atta-Mills is reported to be protesting to the National Media Commission (NMC) to put the kibosh on the publishers of the “Moon” and “New Punch” newspapers (Ghanaweb.com 10/2/07). The complainant's main beef is that the publishers of the aforementioned tabloids are knavishly attempting to make a presidential campaign issue out of the nebulous status of the health of the former University of Ghana law professor.

If, indeed, the NDC candidate for President in Election 2008 is hale and hearty, as it were, then Professor Atta-Mills has nothing to worry about. And here, also, it bears recalling that making an electoral issue out of the status of Professor Atta-Mills' health is nothing new. In the past, for instance, the former Vice-President has been widely reported by the media to have sough medical treatment in such far away countries as South Africa and China. And quite significant to note, Professor Atta-Mills has not denied the preceding observation. One only needs to couple the preceding with the popular saying that “There is no smoke without fire,” in order to arrive at the reasonable and logical conclusion that all may not, indeed, be well with the purported taxation wonk.

It cannot, however, be gainsaid that the status of the NDC presidential candidate's health would have been aptly and legitimately deemed to be a purely private matter, were the former Young Pioneer scout not a public figure and a quondam Vice-President, to boot. In other words, not only is Professor Atta-Mills a prominent public figure, having served a four-year term as Mr. Rawlings' second-bananas, but even more significantly, it is the crucial stewardship of the country that is at stake. And on the latter score, the health status of all presidential aspirants and candidates is fair game, as it were.

Our beef here, though, is that rather than sophomorically complain to the National Media Commission (NMC), as Mr. Mahama Ayariga's representative letter sought to do, the NDC flag-bearer would have done himself and the rest of his fellow citizens better by promptly causing the release of his medical records to the public, via the media. This would almost certainly have put paid to all attempts by his alleged detractors to impugn our subject's ability to serve as President of Ghana, in the highly unlikely event of his election as such.

Instead, by rather unwisely resorting to the National Media Commission, in his ineffectual and undemocratic attempt at muzzling the media, Professor Atta-Mills has virtually ensured that the status of his health would remain a major campaign plank from now until December 2008.

In sum, the NDC presidential candidate could, for instance, have authorized his doctors, or physicians, to unreservedly engage the media in a discourse, or public conversation, regarding the status of his health. That would have been the surefire way of “putting and end to The Moon and The New Punch's unethical brand of journalism,” as Mr. Mahama Ayariga, Member of Parliament for Bawku Central and spokesman for Professor Atta-Mills, cavalierly sought to cast matters.

Indeed, about the only “unethical brand of journalism” is that which wantonly seeks to malign its subjects by “publishing and disseminating falsehood.” Unfortunately, so far, the camp of the perennial NDC presidential candidate has yet to prove its case. And until it does the same, Professor Atta-Mills may be aptly envisaged to be tilting at windmills. For his flat refusal, or even failure, to release his medical records, and thus promptly silence his detractors, achieves precisely what the former veep appears to be seeking to forestall.

In brief, the auspicious abolition of the neocolonialist Criminal Libel Law logically implies transparency at all levels of national endeavor. And should also he fail this rather elementary test of his integrity, Professor Atta-Mills would have prematurely counted himself out of electoral contention. This is not, in any way, to suggest that in the past those of us who have avidly studied his politics of expediency, vis-à-vis his bizarre association with Mr. Jerry John Rawlings, have envisaged Professor Atta-Mills in any different light.

Of course, we are also keeping our fingers crossed to learn of exactly how the National Media Commission handles Professor Atta-Mills' latest complain, even while also firmly observing the incontrovertible fact of the NDC flag-bearer having no right to determine for the Ghanaian electorate, and the practitioners themselves, exactly what constitutes an “ethical brand” of journalism.
*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associated Professor of English and Journalism at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is the author of “When Dancers Play Historians and Thinkers,” a forthcoming essay collection on postcolonial Ghanaian history. E-mail: [email protected].
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