Prince Minkah Describes Oppong Nkrumah’s comments On His Attack Disappointing, Unprofessional

Convener for the Free Media Vanguard, Prince Minkah who reported an alleged act of vandalism at his home less than 24 hours after his group embarked on a procession to protest the closure of some media houses by the National Communications Authority (NCA) has taken the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah to the cleaners.

Here is the full open letter

“Dear Kojo Oppong Nkrumah,

I’m highly disappointed in your unprofessional, inhumane response to the attack on Prince Minkah, the Convener for Free Media Vanguard. Of all the weaknesses and mortal sins that one can reasonably expect from a budding politician, deliberate lies and utter disregard for the lives and safety of a family is not one of them. However, your comments have proven that I, and all people who had so much revered you and lauded you for decency, can no longer hold so much of a regard for you, we can no longer believe that you’d be different from the stock, given your background in journalism.

That you can so unconscionably impugn ill motive to the attack on a family, and blame the victims for same leaves much to be desired. That you can, with unscrupulous intent, blame an attacked journalist, while conveniently absolving his attackers of any responsibility, makes nonsense of our criminal justice system.

You see, when you announced your entry into active politics, I was one of the very many who cultivated the newfound belief that your participation will bring sanity to the game, that your presence heralds a dawn of hope and safety for journalists, and that your participation will inject public regard and respect for the works and principles of journalism.

Sorry to tell you I have long suspended any belief in a messianic Kojo. As erudite as you are, the sane and professional thing for you to do, is to condemn the attack and treat it as a purely criminal matter that must be investigated.

The Kojo I knew would have been genuinely concerned and worried about the trauma caused to the victim, his family, and his children. But no, you are the least bothered, because you have become a sorry shadow of your former self—the truthful, humane, professional, and decent Kojo who until now, never sacrificed his lofty principles for partisan peanuts.

Young journalists like me, once caught in a maelstrom of hope and hormones, and inspired by your works, is now left wondering what fate awaits us when our very own has enlisted in the league of unsympathetic souls who administer our country with Orwellian dictates, using our laws as a cudgel to oppress the press and pressmen.

In all of this, you need to bear your duties as Information Minister with temperance, decency and professionalism and to realise that you have a responsible political career to build. For we, Ghanaians, are apt to, in the very near future, hold you to account for your present reckless exploits as a Minister.

Dear Kojo, I’m convinced, and so do many who have heard your response to the attack, that you’re infinitely aware of the attack, and your complicity is unquestionable, unless of course you never meant those disgusting irresponsible outbursts. I shall like to remind you that we shall not founder in our demands for press freedoms and safety for journalists.

No, we shall not. And like all others who have advocated for freedom of the media, we query and cry along with the American Revolutionary Patrick Henry, “is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!.”