As the Daily Guide goes for the NDC?

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

The news report blared it loud: “I am not NPP—Gina Blay”. And we were given the benefit of the details: “The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Western Publications Ltd - Publishers of Daily Guide newspaper—Gina Blay has revealed that she is not a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

But, speaking on Starr Chat, Wednesday, Mrs Blay, who is the wife of the acting National Chairman of the NPP, Freddie Blay, pointed out that owing to her husband’s association with the main opposition she is obligated to sympathise with the NPP. “I’m not a member of the NPP… but I’m a sympathizer of the NPP,” she told host Bola Ray.” (See http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/I-m-not-NPP-Gina-Blay-475096).

“Matter don come,” as my Nigerian friends will put it. What has become of Gina Blay and her Establishment to not own up? Her husband (Fraudie Blay) hasn’t made any secret of his agenda as a strong hater of everything NDC (starting from his days as a CPP man, popularly known as the Ellembele Mugabe, a long-serving MP who got booted out when he least expected it) only to turn coat and dash for political security and survival in the camp of the worst enemies of the Great Osagyefo.

He had been in good contention in Parliament all that while on the ticket of the CPP before switching to the NPP to carve a weird niche for himself as a political chameleon. The crowning moment for his chameleonic nature dawned when he won Akufo-Addo’s heart to be installed as the Acting Chairman of the NPP after the subterfuge that had emasculated Paul Afoko and his team. Still in charge at the beck and call of Akufo-Addo, he is like a kite without its tail).

A bit of recollection here. Vested with the kind of power that his handlers needed to move their agenda forward, Blay ran the fool’s errand and succeeded as such. Until now that his true colours are showing. Indeed, he has combined with his wife (Gina Blay) to use the Daily Guide newspaper to do much damage to the Mahama-led administration and the NDC with little regard for journalistic propriety.

It has all been in the hope that benefits from high sales of their medium would improve their holdings. Sand the sensationalism undergirding their publications fetched them the capital that they anticipated. Until now!!

Folks, we don’t want to plow the entire field. Let’s just settle down now to say that something is happening to give the managers of the Daily Guide the epiphany that they need to remain in business and to tell Ghanaians the truth that they have either distorted or neglected all this while about the political front headed by the Lion of Gonja.

The publications put out there by the Daily Guide have painted President Mahama as the devil incarnate leading Ghana to an irredeemable doom. Gina Blay has used her medium to trumpet that gloom all these years, even when reality proved her agenda wrong. From her perspective, nothing could be good for Ghana for as long as the NDC dominates the political landscape with John Dramani Mahama in the saddle.

So strong is this negative portrayal that the Daily Guide has easily become the barometer by which political opponents have measured Ghana’s fate. It is not alone in this movement of fatalism. Other anti-NDC media as Kweku Baako’s Crusading Guide and numerous mushroom online media, not to talk about pro-NPP print and electronic media, have joined the band-waggon to look for dung where no cow grazed.

They have done all they could to paint President Mahama blacker than he actually is for their scare-mongering purposes. A lot more has happened that we don’t want to bore you with.

But what is emerging now points to something that should worry the pay-masters of such media. The Daily Guide newspaper recently gave a huge and wide coverage to the accomplishments of President Mahama that alarmed the NPP camp. They complained but Gina Blay came out to defend her action. The NDC camp was happy for such a huge positive publicity, even if it paid for it.

The funny part is clear: Which professionally and ethically established news medium will somersault to do what the Daily Guide newspaper did to showcase the NDC the positive light that would overshadow its main opponent?

The ability of Fraudie Blay and his wife to fend off criticism from the NPP camp is a plus. More than that is the open admission of Gina Blay that she is not an NPP member even if she has sympathy for it on account of her husband’s status as the Acting Chair of the NPP. Folks, a hot signal here to prove that times are not good for the NPP. I can foresee where Gina Blay’s heart lies and where she will thumb-print on December 7.

The overarching question is: If she truly believes in the NPP, why won’t she declare her faith in it and fervent support for it? There shouldn’t be any price to pay for doing so; right? But she is now ambivalent, which is intriguing. After all, if she has all these years been convinced that she was using her medium to fight a good cause, why shouldn’t she openly defend that cause and press on for the crown on December 7?

Placed within the context of the publications by the Daily Guide these days that include well-placed adverts on the accomplishments of the Mahama-led administration, are we being conditioned to see a dramatic shift in the pro-NPP medium’s allegiance? What lesson does it teach us as we prepare to vote on December 7?

Of course, the NPP camp has complained, but Fraudie Blay and his wife have justified their stance. No holds barred. Why would they do so at this crucial moment when they should rather be offering their forum to the NPP to project itself and its Akufo-Addo?

In response to the NPP’s complaint, Gina Blay said that she is primarily in business and will deal with all clients seeking to do business with her enterprise. Of course, the NDC hadn’t done business with her till this timer that she’s openly and widely publicized what would boost President Mahama’s public image for Election 2016. A lot here to unsettle the NPP camp for long.

So also have Kwaku Baako and other fierce critics of President Mahama and the NDC done. Kwaku Baako is on record for seeing nothing wrong with the Ford matter that political opponents of President Mahama used the overzealous Manasseh Azure Awuni to do dirty politics with.

I wonder how he feels now and will feel later when the wool falls off from his eyes. Cub investigative journalists of his type fade off even before their sun of success rises!!

So, we are back to square one. President Mahama and the NDC armada are out there on the ground, interacting with the people—and what an enthusiastic reception for him wherever he goes—while his political opponents have chosen to do their politicking through newspaper publications, radio forums and TV presentations. All focused on personal attacks and vain theories of economic development that won’t turn the crank of the Adam Smiths and Co.!!

To conclude, let me just ask why Gina Blay and her medium will suddenly accommodate the NDC, even at a time that Akufo-Addo is expending energy painting the Mahama-led administration black. The management of Daily Guide says it is in business and finds nothing wrong with doing business with the Mahama-led administration, something that it hasn’t done before.

Does this shift speak volumes? How about the apparent silence of the Kwaku Baakos all this while? No criticism of President Mahama, no publication of anything in favour of Akufo-Addo. Indeed, coming events always cast their shadows ahead of them. No more from me.

I shall return…

Writer's e-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com