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Multimedia Group Needs to Enforce the Noble Practice of Responsible Journalism

Feature Article Multimedia Group
MAY 15, 2018 LISTEN
Multimedia Group

There is an article circulating on the Internet captioned “ ‘It Is Unjust’ – Cuban Government Demands Payment for Its Doctors in Ghana,” produced by either a reporter or reporters in the employ of the Multimedia Group, parent company of MyJoyOnline.com, in which we have Ms. Marcia Cobas Ruiz, Cuba’s Deputy Health Minister, mordantly accusing the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of having callously and irresponsibly neglected to pay the salaries of expatriate Cuban doctors in the country since September of last year. This is rather ironic, because the alleged stoppage of the payment of the salaries of these putatively hardworking Cuban doctors occurred at about the same time that President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo rolled out his globally acclaimed fee-free Senior High School policy initiative.

In her demand for the doctors working under the aegis of the Cuban Health Ministry overseas, Ms. Ruiz is reported to have pontifically noted that even relatively under-resourced African countries like Chad have cultivated a healthy, laudable and responsible habit of paying their Cuban expatriate doctors on schedule. Now, this is a damning blotch on the image and reputation of Ghanaian leaders, in particular the leadership of the ruling New Patriotic Party. That is, until we further learn that, in reality, most of the $ 5 Million (USD) outstanding arrears or indebtedness to both the Cuban Medical Brigade and the Cuban government itself, were actually racked up by the Mills-Mahama-led governments of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) during the 8 years immediately preceding the assumption of the democratic reins of governance by President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

In other words, the arrears that the Deputy Cuban Health Minister is bitterly complaining about are debts that were deliberately, callously, irresponsibly and systematically incurred by the pontifically shameless and criminally self-righteous former President John Dramani Mahama and the latter’s immediate predecessor and former boss, namely, the late President John Evans Atta-Mills. Now, we don’t know precisely what percentage of these salary arrears is owed by the Akufo-Addo Administration. But reading from the caption of the afore-referenced news story, one gets the erroneous impression that it is the Akufo-Addo government that has been derelict or neglectful of its obligations to the Cuban doctors who, we are told, number 100-plus and are stationed in at least 5 of the country’s 10 regions, namely, the Upper-East, Northern, Volta, Eastern and Greater-Accra regions.

It is quite clear here that the movers-and-shakers of the Multimedia Group have some sort axe to grind with or vendetta against the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party. Else why would their reporters be so cavalier in faulting Jubilee House for giving short-shrift treatment to these hardworking Cuban doctors when, in reality, it was rather the Mills-Mahama regimes of the National Democratic Congress that created such unnecessary economic hardship for the Cuban doctors? For this writer, though, what is especially disturbing is the fact that Cuba’s Deputy Health Minister, or the Cuban government, waited for nearly a decade before bringing up this most crucial matter before the Deputy Northern Regional Minister, Mr. Solomon Namliit Boar.

It is also quite interesting to note that in the news report under discussion, Mr. Boar is erroneously described as the substantive Northern Regional Minister when, in fact, he is actually the Deputy Northern Regional Minister. At any rate, the logical question that needs to be asked here is whether the Cuban government is in cahoots with the leadership of the faux-socialist main opposition National Democratic Congress to embarrass the Akufo-Addo Administration. And for what purpose? It cannot simply be a happenstance or pure accident, speaking for myself, in view of the apparent decision by the operators of the Multimedia Group to thoroughly boycott my writings and columns.

To be certain, it is because of this seemingly coldly calculated boycotting of my columns that has made me extremely reluctant to weigh in on the recent widely reported mauling of a reporter employed by the Multimedia Group by a prominent woman executive operative of the ruling New Patriotic Party, to wit, Hajia Fati.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
May 14, 2018
E-mail: [email protected]

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