Comment: Ostrich mentality on Lordina Mahama

Much as it is our resolve to resist any attempt at dragging us into needless and undignified hostilities as being instigated by our detractors who probably out of overzealousness and uninvited blind loyalty, elected to jump to the ‘defense’ of First Lady, Madam Lordina Mahama, over accusations on her alleged role in government, we shall be failing in our responsibility of not exposing the double standards associated with this calumny.

The Al-Hajj shall continue to be guided and counseled by the wise statement by the venerable former South African President, Nelson Mandela, who once said he “will not allow the evil and obnoxious apartheid regime create a monster out of me”.

We shall not allow this unfortunate smear campaign from people who don’t know the depth of the water they are stepping into as far as what information is available to us, and who should know better but, akin to mourners weeping more than the bereaved, want to dare us mad about putting into the public domain what we know, some of which we dare say may not only be injurious but also very disturbing.

As former President Jerry Rawlings recently remarked. We at The Al-Hajj refuse to be part of the “ostrich mentality”; we will unceasingly strive at maintaining a balance in whatever we seek to do. What we won’t do is to yield to fainthearted behavior by engaging in distant shadow bout calculated to stifle our editorial opinion, Toofiakwa?

Since when has it become a crime for a media house to mirror the concerns of society such that to incur the spontaneous displeasure and scorn of colleague media persons, who themselves, and ironically, have engaged in worst forms of similar enterprise in the past and indeed, continue to do so now, or is it that other people are less Ghanaians?

In an obviously unsolicited reaction to a publication by The Al-Hajj on how some senior members of the current government and kingpins of the National Democratic Congress are murmuring and getting agitated about how the First Lady, Madam Lordina Mahama, has allegedly and suddenly derived powers that allows her interfere in the affairs of the state, some media houses took it as the most perfidious offence in world history.

Ironically, these saints of Journalist, as they want us to believe have in one way or the other been neck deep in the pursuit of presenting the feelings of the public, and or, adverse reports gathered about other individuals and running commentary thereon without any single soul raising eyebrow let alone questioning their editorial discretion.

Oblivious of the information available to us as a credible media house, and for very strange reasons that beg answers, they deliberately sought to equate the sentiments expressed in the publication as views of managers of The Al-Hajj, published and passed all manner of uniformed comments in reaction to the publication.

It is even more worrying and an affront to the ethics of Journalism when those of our colleagues hounding us for committing a crime of a magnitude of high treason because Madam Lordina Mahama was involved, have and continue to publish same and even dangerous things along the same line.

We at The Al-Hajj dare ask them whether the First Lady is more Ghanaian than those they in equal measure published stories about or is it the case that the magnetic field around the First Lady is so powerful that they are easily attracted to it and such is not the case of those they have negatively portrayed in some of their publication?

The Al-Hajj is highly convinced that the attacks on us by the self-acclaimed defenders of the First Lady will not only fail but sooner than later we shall stand vindicated because we hold no ill-will against anyone, neither did we intend to malign anybody, we simply reported what we honestly believed represent the concerns and views of well- meaning ordinary sympathizers and activists of the ruling National Democratic Congress and Ghanaians who want issues streamlined.

We will not be drawn into the arena of glorified praise singers, but will rather give praise when it’s needed and censure, or better still put out the feelings of Ghanaians no matter the attacks from any quarters in the media.