NMC appoints Acting General Manager for GNA

Accra, June 28, GNA - The National Media Commission (NMC) on Tuesday appointed Mr Boakye-Dankwa Boadi as Acting General Manager of Ghana News Agency (GNA).

This was based on the recommendations of the Agency's Board of Directors.

The appointment letter signed by Mr George Sarpong, Executive Secretary of NMC, requested the Chairman of the GNA Board of Directors to take the necessary steps for Mr Boadi to take office with retrospective effect from June 22, 2011 to September 7, 2011 when he would proceed on leave prior to retirement.

The NMC expressed the hope that Mr Boadi would work hard to justify the confidence reposed in him by both the Board and Commission.

Mr Boadi was born in Kumasi, on November 2, 1951 to Opayin Kofi Boadi, a Cocoa Farmer, and Madam Akua Obiyaa. He was the third son of Akua Obiyaa and the eighth child of Kofi Boadi.

He had his basic education at Asem Boys School in Kumasi, incidentally the same school that the Former Secretary General of the United Nations, Busumuru Kofi Annan and the Former President of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufuor had attended earlier.

He had his college education at Ghana Secondary School, Koforidua. Boakye-Dankwa taught at Kumasi High School, Kumasi, where the Former Minister of Finance, Kwadwo Baah Wiredu was a student, after Sixth Form before continuing his education at the University of Ghana, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Ancient History in 1975.

Mr Boadi served his National Service at Acherensua Secondary School in the Brong-Ahafo Region and went back to the University Of Ghana School of Communication Studies to read for Post-Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication in 1976/77.

In October 1977, Boakye-Dankwa went to Nigeria in search of petrol-naira, - that was the period of oil discovery and many West Africans trooped there. He practised as a Freelance Journalist, a Teacher and a Lecturer and became the Head of the Social Studies Department at the University of Jos Advanced Teachers' Training College at Oju in Benue State of Nigeria from 1981 to 1985.

He returned to Ghana and joined the GNA in October 1985. In March 1986 he was posted to Tamale as the Deputy Northern Regional Manager.

In October 1987 he was made the Regional Manager of the Upper East Region and moved to Bolgatanga. He returned to the Headquarters of the Agency in Accra in 1998 after 12 years stay in Northern Ghana and worked at the Home Desk as a Gatekeeper. He rose to become the Chief Gatekeeper.

In February 2007, he was appointed the Supervising Chief Editor of GNA after a competitive interview. By the GNA hierarchy, the Supervising Chief Editor is the Deputy of the General Manager. He has the final word on what gets on to the Agency's Network.

He is a part-time lecturer of journalism at the Ghana Institute of Journalism, Ghana's foremost and prestigious journalism school, in Accra. Mr Boadi in the course of his professional career has played very critical roles in safeguarding the stability of Ghana.

It was a story he wrote about President John Evans Atta Mills conceding defeat in the 2000 General Election that paved the way for the smooth transfer of power from one elected government to another elected government in the history of Ghana. The Hawks in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) had insisted that the Elections were rigged in the Ashanti Region and, therefore, the results from there should be discounted.

If that had happened it could have thrown the nation into a possible post-election violence. President Mills acknowledged the strategic role the story played when he met Mr Boadi at the Greenland Hotel in Swedru, Central Region of Ghana, some years later.

Mr Boadi was in charge of the GNA team that covered the May 9, 2001 Accra Sports Stadium disaster that enabled the Agency to come out with the correct number of 126 dead as against figures put out by other Government agencies and media houses. The 127th victim died two weeks later.

In March 2002, another story Mr Boadi initiated made the warriors of the Andani Gate from Tamale, who were on their way to attack the Abudus in Yendi, following the assassination of the Overlord of Dagbon Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, to return to Tamale and thereby prevented a possible bloodbath.

Again in 2008 a story Mr Boadi wrote in which he stated that Former President John Agyekum Kufuor had directed all to accept the results of the 2008 Presidential Election Runoff when declared by the Electoral Commissioner, dissipated the tension that had engulfed the whole country and paved the way for the peaceful transfer of power from the New Patriotic Party government to the National Democratic Congress.

The vigilance Boadi exercised aborted Newmont Ghana Gold Limited's attempt to cover up cyanide spillage at its Ahafo Mine in October 2009, which eventually earned the country GH¢ 7 million in form of a fine imposed on the Company by the Government.

He has written many articles on topics ranging from archaeology to zoology. The 2011 Easter story 93Ghanaian Christians celebrate Easter" was selected as the topmost Easter story in the whole world by the Master computer of Google and made accessible to billions of people.