Kofi Coomson salutes VRA Boss

The absentee capo of Chronicle Media Limited, publishers of the Ghanaian Chronicle newspaper, has sent a congratulatory message to the Chief Executive of the Volta River Authority (VRA) and failed presidential aspirant, DR Yves Charles Wereko-Brobby, for his “rigorous and excellent distillation of the concept of media responsibility and official accountability.

Nana Kofi Coomson, who is currently engaged in private “enterprise” in Europe, sent his message through the Chronicle newspaper, and noted that “it is heart warming that there is someone with the mind and spirit of “my friend’ who is prepared to put his neck on the line in pursuit of what he believes in.”

He said he was very impressed that Tarzan suggested that he believes that the action of the a “defining moment” for journalism, because he is right and the Chronicle newspaper and every other media, must be guided by the principles espoused by Tarzan in his pronouncement and treatise.

Coomson said the man credited with pioneering investigative journalism on the Ghanaian media scene said he is has to agree with Dr Wereko-Brobby on this principled and professionally sound comments, even though it goes to deepened the irrelevance of the GJA ethics committee, which he had slammed from the word go because it appears to show some teeth.

He noted that the National Media Commission appears to be getting it acts together with its recent decision to go to act to enforce a directive. He said that the VRA boss’ action, he believes, will force journalists to be more responsible in the long term interest of the profession, and will hasten the demise of ‘fifth-columnists.”

“It will also make rumour-mongering and cheap malicious reporting unattractive and unrewarding for those seeking to increase sales by making cheap, unfounded shots at public officials,” he added. Kofi Coomson, however, challenged aspects of Tarzan’s remarks, saying that after reading Tarzan’s widely disseminated statement on the internet, he was worried that he would be drawing VRA into the line because he personally knows that Chronicle has no problem with the VRA as a corporate body.

He said Tarzan should face the Chronicle newspaper on his own steam and from his own personal resources, because Chronicle is the “umkhonto we sizwe”, (A South African Zulu slogan meaning Spear of the Nation).

The cries of the VRA workers have reached out to us in the firmaments, and we are doing what we have bee doing in last eleven years-resisting dictators, bullies, political demagogues and pretenders at great personal costs. Continuing, Coomson observed, “Wereko-Brobby should not be exploiting VRA staff and resources, and that of the tax payer to prosecute his personal agenda.”

He complained that distinguish personalities, like VRA company solicitor, Mrs Angelina M. Domakyaareh, a distinguished lawyer of such stature, could be pushed around to run such “personal errands.” “It would be interesting to se how the VRA boss would establish that every action he takes and took would stand up to scrutiny and that they were taken in the best interest of Ghana.”

Coomson indicated that he would be helping in the defense of the paper, which Wereko-Brobby is a staffer on sabbatical. “There is no malice, just business as usual, in line with the tradition that I have established and which I demand from my reporters and editors…bold, investigative…no he said, she said,” type of new, Coomson added.