I left radio to join politics not hoping to win — Tamale North MP

Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini, has revealed that his decision to leave journalism for politics was not driven by a desire to win public office but by the constant pressure from people who believed his connections to influential figures meant he could solve their personal problems.

According to the legislator, his years in the media exposed him to endless requests for financial assistance and interventions from people who assumed that his interactions with politicians and business leaders made him wealthy and influential.

Speaking at the launch of Newsroom Poverty, a book authored by Abdul Hayi Moomen, Mr. Suhuyini said the experience made him consider contesting parliamentary elections, hoping that a defeat would give him a legitimate reason to explain why he could not meet the expectations placed on him.

“They just come and they are waiting for you at the reception, and sometimes the aroma at the reception changes and becomes uncomfortable.

People sometimes always mistake popularity for wealth and fortune. They listen to you interview businessmen and political actors and in their mind they are your friends, they are people you can ask for anything from to solve their problems and so they come with all sort of problems.

So I used to operate a clinic at Radio Gold even before I joined politics. One day I sat back and talked to myself about joining politics to wield the power to solve problems.

In my mind, I was hoping that when I come for the elections they will not vote for me so that when they come to worry me next time I will say that is why I said you should vote me and I will help but you didn’t vote for me.

I joined the campaign not hoping to win, I joined to get a message that when people come to me I will use it but I won and I have been winning and I am here. The poverty in the newsroom chased me into the headache of politics and I am happy that we are launching this book that will begin a conversation on this important issue,” he said.

Mr. Suhuyini said the financial realities of working in the media, coupled with the expectations of the public, played a significant role in his transition from journalism to politics. He added that the publication of Newsroom Poverty would help spark an important national conversation about the economic challenges confronting media professionals in Ghana.