“Who Judges the Judge” – Kumasi Nhyira FM?

The Nhyira FM radio station presents a programme that helps not only widows but also, resolves many varied problems conveyed to their attention by the people concerned. The programme is called, “Obra”, I should think. It has both a team of three hostesses or a hostess and two permanent female panellists. Anyway, the composition of the presenters of the programme is of no much relevance to the motive behind the putting out of this publication today, Tuesday, 19 February 2019.

I do not have much time to listen to Ghana FM radio stations online. However, I do listen to some when I have time and free from certain vital obligations. I enjoy the programme in question and do give the presenters a pat on the back for doing a great job.

Nonetheless, I have a reservation about the comments made by two of the hostesses who may likely be the panellists as aforementioned above, on a case brought before them on Monday, 18 February 2019, by a “Belgium burger”. The “burger” is a native of Asante Mampong but domiciled in Belgium.

I did not hear the beginning of his story but the gist of his complaint to the radio presenters was about having had a child by a woman who was once his girlfriend. They parted ways. The woman got married to another man and had six children. The “burger” later returned to Ghana on holiday and rekindled his friendship with this former girlfriend who had by then divorced her husband, the father of her children. The “burger” used to take her to hotel and ended up impregnating her after sleeping with her for only two weeks.

The woman alerted the man to her pregnancy and asked if he wanted it and so she has to keep it? The man answered in the affirmative. Nevertheless, another female phoned him up in Belgium to tell him that the pregnancy is not his since the woman is going out with another man, etc.

The woman helped retrieve the “burger’s” building plot from another man who had illegally been putting up a house on it that had reached the lintel. The “burger remitted her only a total of GHC8, 000 (100 million Old Cedis) in three tranches of Old Cedis 20 million (GHC2, 000), 20 million (GHC2, 000) and 30 million (GHC3, 000) towards the construction of the building. The woman added her own money and has been able to build a nine-bedroom house on the plot.

Nhyira FM has got the recordings of all that the woman and the man said so it is pointless for me to narrate the whole story here. However, I want the public as well as the hostesses, especially the presumed two panelists, to note the following carefully.

1. It takes only one round of copulation, with the time duration being irrelevant, as long as the man ejaculates and his spermatozoa is able to reach the woman’s ovum leading to fertilization, for a woman to fall pregnant. Therefore, the two panelists being sarcastic, mocking the woman to have fallen pregnant for the man within two weeks of both sleeping together hence a bit doubtful or suspicious, depicts the panellists’ ignorance about biology regarding how conception comes about.

2. Why had the man on three occasions failed to honour summons to him to appear before the chiefs or the elders of Mampong to sort out the problem between the woman and him but rather chose to come on air with the issue?

3. Was an appointment not scheduled for the man and the woman to appear before the queen of Mampong on Tuesday, 19 February 2019? Why did he not wait to attend the rendezvous but rather chose to come to see you on Monday, 18 February, 2019, a day before the meeting?

4. The man claims the child born after their two weeks sexual intercourse was not his because of what a woman phoned to tell him while he had returned to Belgium after his holiday. He has decided to do a Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test to check if he is the biological father of the child. Has the woman objected to it? No! The woman is even much happier for the child going for that test. What is DNA? “DNA is self-replicating, plays a central role in protein synthesis, and is responsible for the transmission of hereditary characteristics from parents to offspring”

5. Why is the man not going for the DNA test as he intends but disgracefully coming to see Nhyira FM to wash his dirty linen in public? He goes about telling people that the child is not his but is afraid to go for a DNA test to confirm his worst nightmare. He is simply being irresponsible.

I still want the programme presenters to note that Mark Twain said, "if you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything”. The saying “assumes that one always remembers the truth or the reality of what actually happened or what actually is the situation. In contrast one may forget the lies told”. Could you see how confidently and fluently, without any pauses, the way the woman narrated her side of the story? Was it not in conformity to what Mark Twain said about telling the truth?

It is just unfortunate for the two panelists to suppose that the woman is trying to take the man’s house. They question why the woman did not buy her own plot to build her own house but rather added her money to the man’s to build the house on the man’s plot? I find this view of theirs to border on ignorance if not utter malicious. The woman did not change the title of ownership of the plot to her name but still maintained it in the man’s name? Did she? Is this a person who wants to claim the man’s property?

Let the panellists understand that we rather encourage husband and wife to have joint accounts and execute joint projects. This is the view admonished by marriage counsellors and the way forward to bringing harmony into married homes. Where has the woman sinned here, please tell me?

How does the man see you as better solving his problem at stake than the chiefs or the queen hence refusing to see them but rather coming to you? With the view as expressed by the two panellists which I consider as infantile, if not injurious, yes, you can help him because he shares the same view as the two panellists.

I shall end here without going any further to avoid being carried away by emotions to take the panelists to the cleaners. They do a great job so I shall give them the benefit of the doubt as to err is human.

However, when I turned to my wife to question why the women were making such utterances which I found injurious and baseless, she said, “it is women and their usual jealousy”. That said, I straightaway understood why both panelists behaved the way they did.

If the panelists helping to resolve or arbitrate cases do behave that way, then seeing them as unfair judges, my question then is, “who judges the judge”? These panelists are being judged by their programme listeners many of whom are very intelligent and wise so they have to be very careful and analytical.

Rockson Adofo