The Chameleons are here

By Kofi Akordor

On Thursday, February 19, 2009, the President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, delivered his maiden State of Nation address to Parliament as prescribed by the 1992 Republican Constitution. In simple terms, in the State of the Nation address, the President is to render account to Ghanaians on the true state of Ghana, outlining among other things, the state of the economy, social and industrial infrastructure, security and national stability and to tell the citizens how he is going to remedy the weaknesses identified and sustain and improve upon the gains made.
Even though it is reasonable to expect that some people may have political interest in the State of the Nation address, its importance and significance go beyond partisan considerations. Our interest as a nation is as to whether the address has identified our problems or not and as to whether the President has outlined strategies and programmes to address our concern.
It is, therefore, necessary that as much as possible, discussions on the State of the Nation address are handled by serious-minded persons in a fair and objective manner devoid of any party coloration.
Multiparty democracy demands that political parties take a critical look at the programmes and policies of their opponents and hammer on their weak points to advantage. That is good for the political game but not necessarily for the sake of it. Where national interest is at stake, an impartial and fair discussion on matters will serve a more useful purpose than mere politicking.
It is our life, our fate and our future that are at stake and, therefore, the address needs to be subjected to a critical analysis so that the President and his advisors, if they value public opinion, fair comment and objective criticism, will draw useful lessons from the debate and enrich the national agenda for development
That is why any attempt to turn the discussion into another political funfair of condemnations and praise singing should not be countenanced. On Friday, February 20, 2009, panellists were just warming themselves up for a discussion programme on the State of the Nation address on Ghana Television (GTV), a Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) television network’s Breakfast Show, when there was an abrupt stoppage.
Many thought the programme might have been a victim of the country’s erratic power supply system, more so when the host told viewers that the programme had suffered a technical hitch. Later there were rumours that the long arms of faceless but powerful figures in political authority were interfering with the programme. Then came the information that the programme was stopped in that abrupt manner on the orders of Mr William Ampem Darko, the Director-General of the GBC.
Mr Ampem Darko confirmed in his own words that he caused the abrupt end of the programme with the explanation that the panel was skewed in favour of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which had two panellists as against the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) one panellist. In the first place, why should a discussion on the President’s State of the Nation address on a national network be a matter between the NPP and the NDC?
What type of balance was the Director-General of GBC aiming at that compelled him to disrupt a national programme that was already in motion? The position of Mr Dan Botwe, Member of Parliament (MP) for Okere, that Mr Ampem Darko’s action was only to court the affection of the NDC cannot be brushed aside. Since when did it dawn on him that there is something called balance, when managing a national asset like GBC? If the Director-General had conducted himself professionally when it mattered most, he would not have found himself in this tight situation, where he is compelled to behave like an overzealous convert, in trying to interpret the rule of fairness, equity and objectivity.
Mr Ampem Darko, by that action, might have been trying to couch a new image for himself as someone who knows the rules and wants to play by them. Unfortunately, he has ended up exposing that characteristic common with most Ghanaians, who at the least opportunity change their tunes. He has also succeeded in creating a bad image for the government, since many Ghanaians were interpreting that Friday’s interruption as an attempt by the new government to overpower dissent or opposing views by emasculating the media, especially those that are state-owned.
Those who work in the media will testify about the pressures that practitioners have to overcome. This even becomes more serious for those who work in the state-owned media, where those in political power want to have their way. The dilemma of Mr Ampem Darko, and many others, can, therefore, be well understood.
Notwithstanding that, it is still possible for those who want to exhibit true professional standards to do so, if even in a limited way. Very often, some media practitioners are just in a hurry to please people in authority when even no pressure has been exerted on them. They are just happy playing the sycophantic game and satisfied with the falling crumbs that go with them without any regard for honour and integrity. Journalists are supposed to be fair and objective in their professional practice and I think if they should take sides, they should be on the side of the poor, oppressed and marginalised and not those who wield enormous state power, which they use to inflict more hardships on the people.
A combination of sycophancy and opportunism on the part of the media only destroys the nation and brings bad image and damnation to the governments we claim to be sheltering.
This is a new government and Mr Ampem Darko’s action was going to set it on a collision course with the public and dent its image even before it sets its feet down to do serious business.
During the election, we saw how people denounced their parties and celebrated their switch of allegiances. Some had dreams and some visions. Today, they will be wondering why they were driven by survival instincts to make fools out of themselves.
With a new government in place, sooner than later, we should expect more of the type of Mr Ampem Darko, who, like a chameleon, will begin to change colours to match the new environment. Those, who just yesterday, saw Professor Mills too sick to govern this country, will soon start pouring praises on him. Survive, we must, but it pays to operate within standards and with principles. At least those who are entrusted with state institutions should be bold enough to operate within the rules and even suffer the consequences so that they do not find themselves in a situation where their immediate past masters will begin to ridicule them in public for selling their conscience to them, when they should not have done so, while on the other hand, the new masters doubt their loyalty.
It is generally known that our politics is full of vindictiveness. But good and fair-minded people cannot fail to spot out those who have held their offices professionally and kept level heads in extreme conditions. Such persons should not fear any change in government.
Mr Ampem Darko will surely suffer scorn and disdain from his NPP colleagues and he should not think that his newly cultivated acrobatic stunts will endear him to those in the NDC either. He should have exhibited the qualities of independence, fairness and objectivity towards the parties when they were all in the trench fighting for the votes of Ghanaians. The NPP for all you know might not have given any instructions to the Director-General to be biased against any party during Election 2008. But as had been proved over last weekend’s incident, Mr Ampem Darko might have taken certain decisions to please the government of the day and once those decisions were pleasant to the government, the men and women in authority will remain silent. But in doing that, his professional integrity will be on the line. That is why today, he finds himself in this quagmire. But as it is now, both ways he is a loser.