'A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS IN THE MEDIA DISCOURSE, PLEASE!'

Accra, Nov. 14, GNA – Not quite long ago, Ghana commemorated the 102nd birthday anniversary of one of Africa's greatest sons, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah. His outstanding role in Ghana's independence struggle, as well as the liberation of the African Continent from colonial rule, remains an incontrovertible historical fact. However what many Ghanaians, particularly those of the younger generation, probably do not know is the fact that before his emergence into prominence as a political heavyweight, the “Messiah” Nkrumah was first and foremost a journalist and prolific writer.

Frank Barton in his work The Press of Africa (1979) says that: “When The Graphic appeared in Accra, a young political firebrand not long back from university in the United States was editing the highly volatile Evening News. He was Kwame Nkrumah …” The return of Kwame Nkrumah to the Gold Coast, and the establishment of the Evening News newspaper in 1948, marked an important watershed in Ghana's press/political history.

In its totality, the press in the then Gold Coast played a pivotal role in the struggle for emancipation from colonial rule. There was “The Royal Gold Coast Gazette and Commercial Intelligencer” founded in 1822. “The Western Echo”, “The Gold Coast People”, “The Accra Herald” (which later became the West Africa Herald established in 1857) There were also the “Gold Coast Aborigines” and “West Africa Times” launched in 1931.

These simple and crude-looking publications, some of them hand-written, became channels for the hitherto voiceless indigenous population to express their discontent against the colonial authorities. And there was one characteristic they all had in common – the anti-colonial tone of their content.

The Boomerang:
The initial reaction of the colonial authorities in the Gold Coast towards the indigenous newspapers was to dismiss them as insignificant. However, the administrators soon realised that by propagating opinions favourable to the course of the nationalist leaders, the press was capable of inciting the people and threatening the whole basis of colonial power.

As a result, the colonial officials began to subject the Gold Coast press to arbitrary censorship and control. In 1950, the colonial administration banned the “Accra Evening News” and arrested its editors for sedition. The paper, which had become the mouthpiece of the Convention People's Party, was a major vehicle for nationalist thought. The clamp down by the colonial administrators turned out to be a catalyst rather than a deterrent. The press became even more hard-hitting as nationalist activity reached a crescendo.

In its edition of Thursday, December 15, 1949, for instance, the “Evening News” published a declaration by the CPP leader, Kwame Nkrumah: "The British Government has tactfully refused to grant the country her true and legitimate demand for self-government ...The people of this country will be waiting patiently for two weeks from today, 15th December, 1949 during which the British Government might announce through the Governor, the acceptance of the principle of a Constituent Assembly to be implemented without delay; otherwise, Positive Action may be declared any time after the said two weeks."

Nkrumah had become a thorn in the side of the Colonial authorities for he did declare 'Positive Action' on Sunday, 8th January 1950. A general stoppage of work ensued throughout the colony and people took to the streets. The colonial government issued orders for the arrest of Nkrumah and five other nationalist leaders later referred to in Ghana's political history as the Big Six, accusing them of having incited revolt. To a great extent, they had indeed rendered the colony ungovernable for the authorities, and for that they were apprehended and placed in detention.

While in prison, Nkrumah continued to guide his party and its followers through his writings which were smuggled out and published in the party newspaper. Nkrumah's imprisonment turned out to be a blunder on the part of the authorities, as his popularity and that of the CPP soared. His party won a great victory in the 1951 elections. Consequently, he was released and appointed Leader of Government Business by the colonial Governor. This victory won by the CPP was repeated later in two subsequent elections, the 1954 polls and the decisive 1956 general election which led to the granting of full independence on March 6, 1957.

Paradigm Shift:
These events are testimony of the vital role the press played in the liberation process in the Gold Coast, and the subsequent creation of the modern state of Ghana. The mass media that once spearheaded the country's liberation struggle and onward march to political independence are also capable of championing the cause of economic emancipation, given the same determination and focus.

Today, however, the country's media landscape has become dangerously polarized, with some journalists throwing professionalism to the dogs and getting openly biased in the way they handle issues in the media. That, certainly, is a deviation from the path chartered by the pioneers as history tells us. The Gold Coast press began with a clear sense of mission – to liberate the nation from foreign domination. Even though most Ghanaians may consider this goal as having been accomplished with the winning of political independence, the argument remains that the most important aspect of our freedom as a nation, namely economic emancipation, has eluded us for the past 54 years.

The battle, therefore, is far from over. Once again it is up to the media to re-awaken the national consciousness and to galvanize the people for action in the crucial struggle for economic independence, without which our political freedom won on 6th March 1957 becomes meaningless. And the press cannot fail in this task because judging from its achievements during the colonial era, its capability to lead and to succeed once it sets the agenda for the entire nation, is absolutely without question. All that is needed is to draw inspiration from Kwame Nkrumah, the journalist with a sense of mission.

The Osagyefo once wrote: “The journalist is one of the major architects of the new Ghana and of the new Africa. It is by his work that our people can have some idea of what we are thinking and know something of the events in Africa and the world. Through his eyes our people are made to know about the machinations of imperialism and neo-colonialism. It is by his pen that the will of the people can find expression and our determination to be free, to unite Africa and to build a new society, is proclaimed for all the world to know”.

With such fiery words, is anyone really capable of imagining what Osagyefo would do now if he were reincarnated as a young journalist in contemporary Ghana! Would he pursue trivialities such as the daily NDC –NPP media discourse or fix his sights on the bigger and more significant national issues? Obviously, the answer could be anyone's guess.

The time has come for journalists in the country to de-politicise the media landscape and transform the mass media into a true marketplace of ideas, where vital issues pertaining to Ghana's march to economic freedom are objectively appraised. The positive use of press freedom, which includes critical but constructive debates on development issues, has contributed to the success and well-being of Europe and America as we see them today. In spite of its abundant human and natural resources, Africa as a whole has remained backward in development terms mainly because she suffers from what some analysts often refer to as the poverty of ideas.

It is the technological know-how and the ideas capable of transforming the country's abundant resources into wealth to solve the myriad of problems confronting the people that are of essence. The media could be of benefit in this regard by identifying and stimulating public debates on some of the key issues of concern such as the national economy, job creation, and evolving an educational system that would make young school graduates entrepreneurs rather than an unemployed mass. Through the engineering of such discussions, the media would allow for a clash of views and cross-fertilization of ideas out of which some useful ones could emerge for adoption.

Resetting the media agenda would not prevent the media from continuing to hold Government accountable to the people. It only calls for a departure from pettiness, the removal of unnecessary media emphasis on politics, and the shifting of that emphasis onto issues about improving the economic and social well-being of Ghanaian society. Moving the debate from politics to developmental ideas. While journalist continue to keep Government on it toes and ensure that politicians are held to their campaign promises. Media practitioners would also use their various outlets to explore/expose the country's rich economic potential, including tourist attractions, to woo foreign investors.

We live in an era when it is becoming increasingly difficult in most instances to distinguish between a journalist and a political party activist. It is the belief of many that the over politicization of the media stems partly from the tendency of those in political power to tacitly reward journalists who toe their line. Therefore, government officials would contribute immensely to putting a stop to the phenomenon of partisan journalism that poses a threat to the nation's stability and democratic development, if they would help to make sycophancy and praise-singing less attractive.

Of equal relevance in resetting the nation's media agenda is the improvement of the conditions of service of journalists in the country so that poverty does not drive them into the hands of unscrupulous politicians. That is the only way to help to transform the media into true agents of positive social change rather than political tools for our own undoing.

More significantly, it is high time media practitioners came to the realisation that the challenges that confront the nation today differ from the political and social circumstances of the pre-independence and immediate post-independence eras. The battle that stares us in the face now is of a totally different nature and demands a different combat strategy on the media front. The fight for economic emancipation in today's technologically sophisticated world is rather scientific and has more to do with the changing of outlooks/attitudes than resorting to rough tactics or jungle warfare.

To continue to use the same old media strategy of the 1940s in our search for economic freedom in the twenty-first century could be likened to the dancer who failed to change his dance-style even after the beat or rhythm had changed. One thing is for certain, though: If the media today should gang up against poverty and under-development with the same determination and sustained effort as the pre-independence press approached the task of de-colonisation, and given a well-focused national leadership, Ghana could score another decisive victory in the crucial fight for economic emancipation – the true independence.

(A GNA feature by Mohammed Nurudeen Issahaq)