Politicians are willing media subjects. In Ghana, politicians play to the masses and the media. They spout sensationalism on our airwaves and in our newspapers and satisfy the appetites of those with political, and sometimes tribal, allegiances. And our radio stations and newspapers are more than willing to accommodate them.
So why does the media play to these figures, to the very people who, decade after decade, hold considerable, if not sole, responsibility for the country’s slow slide into ruin?
Well, the answer, quite frankly, is that it is easy. Politicians speak when they want on the subjects they want but are less willing to talk when probed about issues which actually matter to the country and the people.
Reporting on ‘who says what’ is much easier, for example, than interviewing a politician about misuse of public funds, or questioning the head of the Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG) about power shortages, or speaking to the public relations officer at the Electoral Commission (EC) about allegations of corruption. When journalists want these people to speak about the issues which affect the country, they are met with stony-faced receptionists, closed doors, countless unanswered phone calls and letters and cancelled interviews.
Short of ambushing politicians early in the morning as they get down from their cars to go to their various offices, it is very difficult to pin down such a person to talk about something they simply do not want to talk about, something that really matters, something that they should be held accountable for. But ask them to insult the opposing party and they will be knocking down the radio station’s door. In fact, you don’t even need to ask. Why? Because slinging political insults distracts from the real issues the country is facing; the grinding poverty, filthy gutters, deplorable maternal death rate, child trafficking, illiteracy, the collapse of local industry, the quagmire that is Ghana’s economy, rising prices, death-trap transport, killer roads and a whole rash of what Ghanaians face on a daily basis.
Good, hard-hitting journalism, the type of journalism which should be featured in our newspapers and on our airwaves, is about finding the facts, interpreting their importance and then sharing the information with the audience.
In Ghana, what we need to be able to do is verify, facts, figures, statistics, reports and allegations with politicians and people in authority and until journalists do that, politics will forever pollute our media, the politicians will continue their political jousting and the men, women and children will suffer, as they have decade after decade of successive governments led by big mouths and empty hearts.
