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Mahama’s political foes milking Ford Expedition gift

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We are in an election season and President John Mahama is a sitting duck; his political opponents sensing his vulnerabilities have sharpened their knives eager to cut their pound of flesh. They are indeed taking aim at him ostensibly to knock him from his presidential perch.

To this end, anything the President does is immediately pounced on and relentlessly savaged, even if it is an innocuous motorbike ride to assess flood damage in certain areas Accra, the nation’s capital.

It is no secret that hating the President has become a cottage industry; his detractors run the gamut, from hardcore politicos to some members of the media, the latter a jolting reminder that those who profess to be the watchdogs of society are just stiff-necks, a gaggle of hypocrites.

The constant barrage of criticisms directed at Mr Mahama is unprecedented; of course previous national leaders were also vilified and grossly disrespected by their opponents.

But the current president’s crass treatment at the hands of his enemies has reached a new height, it is a whole new ballgame. Sad to note, it is also an abundant indication of the poisonous nature of our political discourse.

That his opponents will go to any length to discredit and diminish Mr Mahama is borne out by the current brouhaha and the accompanying glee about the President’s admission that he accepted a gift in the form of a Ford Expedition Vehicle worth a $100000 from a Burkinabe contractor in 2012.

His foes always on the alert for anything salacious wasted no time dubbing the president’s acceptance of the gift an act of bribery and corruption despite highly placed government officials insisting that the said gift was immediately assigned to the presidential fleet.

The documentary that purportedly exposed the president’s alleged wrongdoing was conceived by a media organization that is hellbent on derailing his political ambitions and and seriously damaging his reputation.

To accuse a sitting president of graft and corruption is simply mind-boggling, and to do so at a crucial time when the nation is feverishly preparing for major elections, raises a lot of eyebrows.

The expose was, in its entirety, a political hack job commissioned by the President’s ardent enemies and executed by a wet-behind-the ears, wide-eyed, hapless investigative reporter. It was a deeply flawed piece of journalism.

Basic journalism principles were deliberately ignored and cast aside to satisfy the whims of the reporter’s paymasters. There was no editorial supervision of any sort at all. It was lazy journalism of the highest order.

You don’t conduct an investigation of this magnitude and national importance without talking to all the principal characters? There must be fairness and balance. Listen to all the parties, put out their stories to the public to see and make their own judgment.

If I worked at the media organization in question, I would have killed the story long before it saw the light of day.

The president and his officials apparently were not were given the opportunity to lay out their version. The reporter ran off with just one version, that of his sources,  all because he was enticed by the promise of glory.

If only he had held off for a few days to gather all the pertinent information he needed to disseminate to the Ghanaian public, perhaps the nation would have been spared the political drama it is currently going through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 Comment
  1. Ayiku Alex says

    Well said Uncle, as a senior journalist and a season one like you, we need you to come home and air your views on what bad journalism is and what it can cause our nation.

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