Why The Ghanaian Media Must Fight The Impunity Of The Hajia Fatis In Our Nation's Politics

The New Patriotic Party's (NPP) Hajia Fati is obviously a very powerful member of her party. She has to be - to be able to successfully prevent the party's suspended former chairperson for the Greater Accra Region, Mr. Sammy Crabbe, from picking up nomination forms for the upcoming national executive council elections, from the NPP's national HQ building.

Like many violence-prone politicians, she is also clearly contemptous of marginalised people in Ghanaian society - in her case it obviously includes the demographic partly made up of impoverished and unimpressive-looking female onion sellers. She is also said to be a passionate party supporter of President Akufo-Addo's leadership of the NPP. Our president, who believes in the rule of law, does not need such friends. Definitely not.

The tragedy for our nation is that so many decent and moderate politicians do not seem to understand why their parties should have absolutely no truck with verbally-aggressive and physically violent characters - such as the thugs and criminal-types that often make up the membership of the private militias of political parties: examples being the NPP's so-called Invincible Forces and Delta Force; and the Azoka Boys and Bolga Bulldogs of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Journalists aren't much liked by these groups of often-lawless individuals. Sadly, on their part, it appears that the vast majority of media professionals in Ghana do not understand that there are always small groups of powerful individuals who join political parties simply to enable them shield their nefarious activities from the long arm of the law, and to enable them act with impunity whenever that suits them, during the years their parties' rule the country. Ditto greedy and ruthless businesspeople out to increase their net worth to stratospheric heights at Mother Ghana's expense, who embrace political parties, solely for that purpose.

Naturally, all such self-seeking people who pepper the political landscape of our country would dearly love to control the Ghanaian media if they could find a clever way to do so by stealth. Buying journalists or intimidating them is often their strategy-of-choice: and there are allegedly plenty of takers in the Ghanaian media world who are on the make and on the take, who are happy to strike secret Faustian pacts with them, alas, according to bush-telegraph sources.

And then there are the vested-interests siphoning off trillions of Ghana cedis from our country who collaborate with such nation-wrecking politicians (from across the spectrum) for their mutual benefit, and fund the nationwide political activities of those selfsame parties, who also want a malleable media in Ghana. As an old wag I know queried: "Kofi, if the media understood the threat such individuals pose to our nation's stability, and to Ghanaian democracy's long-term future, why would so many of them be in their very deep pockets?" Why, indeed.

Journalists in Ghana need to understand that they must resist the blandishments of all such nation-wreckers, and that, above all, powerful and influential people who physically attack journalists must be immediately reported to the law enforcement agencies by the media houses who employ them, who must also ensure that all such perpetrators are prosecuted and jailed by the law courts for causing bodily harm to journalists carrying out the lawful and constitutionally approved mandate empowering reportage exposing wrongdoers, as well as the reporting of events impacting society generally and highlighting newsworthy occurences across the nation.

Food for thought for Ghanaian journalists who never seem to learn any useful lessons from such disturbing occurrences: What redress has poor Latif Iddris - whose health has been ruined by the vile and unprofessional rogue police officers who brutally assaulted him - recieved thus far, even as we speak, today? Haaba.

The question is: Will Ohemaa Sakyiwaa Ahwenepa be the Yaa Asentewa-figure whose fight for justice (against the Hajia Fatis in our country) finally ends assaults on Ghanaian media professionals playing their watchdog role in society and speaking truth to power as the fourth arm of government holding the other three arms, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary to account, on the citizenry's behalf - to ensure that we are never enslaved as a people, and that tyranny never returns to our homeland Ghana again? Hmmm, Oman Ghana - eyeasem o: asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa.