A local based radio station in the Ashanti regional capital Kumasi, owned by the Chief Executive Officer of Kessben Group of Companies, Mr. Kwabena Kesse is running commentary on the ongoing election petition at the Supreme Court without recourse to the basic principles of Court proceedings. Kessben fm, though sacrosanct by law to operate as a media house is interpreting and projecting the outcome of the case even before the star witness in the box take leave of it.
The widely tuned and most listened radio station in the Ashanti region, Kessben fm according to a jingle of the radio is once again raising the hopes of the vulnerable supporters of the Petitioners by twisting and reshaping facts to fit into people’s prejudices and political persuasion. They do this by mixing legal terminologies with twi dialect to get their listeners glued to their radios. It is a dangerous primacy by the team of Kessben fm in charge of this land mark case with such low scratch annotations in retrograde.
Ashanti region is the hub of NPP and the supporters and sympathizers of the party consider every information in the airwaves in favour of NPP as the truth without ascertaining the veracity of it. Legal words are mostly technical and cannot easily be replaced in local dialect as regards to practices of the presenters who consider themselves as journalists in charge of Kessben fm Court case program. The issue at stake as retorted by the President of the nine-member panel bench of the Supreme Court has two legs. The political aspect must be put aside to avoid the usurpation of the judges’ duties in the public proceedings.
Suffice herein is Confidence K. Baah, a regular member of the team in charge of this session of Kessben fm’s program as the chief of these Men who pour spite in their attempt to educate the market women, the second hand cloths sellers, the shoe makers in the heart of Kumasi central market, garment merchants, the shop owners of Kumasi central business District, Adum and the general public who cannot read between the lines but accept these bogus interpretations hook, line and sinker. It is therefore no surprise to read in the social media by some section of the Ashanti region folks indicating that, the Supreme Court has ruled in favour of NPP even when the principal witness of the Petitioners is yet under cross examination.
Needless to say, the head of the show and head of programs at Kessben fm, Omanhene Yaw Adu Boakye is always playing around the gallery with his incessant commentary of bias against the presiding judge on the case. Justice Atuguba has been very resolute in his decisions concerning the matter pending before the Court and has not compromise his position for any “lazier fair” attitude of any counsel yet was boxed as tilting towards one side. He was accused by the morning show host of the fm station as allowing counsel for the third respondent to always engage the bench in banter. This development does not portend good image for the astute judge before the swamping supporters of NPP who will cast all sort of snarl at him.
What is more ludicrous is the praises strewn on Dr. Bawumia as very intelligent, resolute, and courageous in answering questions from the witness box during cross examination. Indeed, Bawumia is a Ph.D holder and nothing less than what he is doing is expected of him. But again, to take that credit away from Dr. Bawumia, these street lawyers and judges at Kessben fm made it known to the public that, Dr. Bawumia is being coached by Nana Akufo-Addo, thereby rubbishing the fact that Dr. Bawumia is intelligent by implication. What and how unprincipled are these feign loyalist doing to Dr. Bawumia?
Again, Dr. Bawumia is much a progeny of the north just as the head porters popularly known as “kayaye” who are being subjected to public ridicule for the fact that they are coming from the savanna regions and are not Akans, therefore liable to go against the course of NPP. Why would Dr. Bawumia be seen differently and adored by the same market women, the hawkers at Kejetia, the idle hands sitting and playing “Dame” at various vicinity and the likes who scoff at the head porters and call them names in Kumasi central market? This is a testimony that, the Elephants are incredibly consistent with their pick and choose kind of respect for everything.
Nonetheless, the case is not even half way, yet Kessben fm had made it known to the people of Ashanti region that, the Petitioners have a solid case by going into the merits of it. The second Petitioner in the witness box repeatedly indicated categorically to the counsel for the third respondent that, he is afraid of the TRUTH that is why he is not interested in his analysis. Well, in court of law, truth does not necessarily matter but evidence and the witness has vividly and rock solidly presented enough of those. Until then, the TRUTH of this case is that, the accusations of the Petitioners are conspicuously rife in other places which are forensically and selectively omitted and are not pleaded and deposed in their affidavits.
However, there is this admission with conviction by level headed individuals in Kumasi and its environs that, the legal brains who sometimes are invited to the show are doing marvelously well in their interpretations of the Court proceedings. Unfortunately, this is what the proletariat are not interested in. They prefer the likes of Confidence K. Baah, Omanhene Adu Boakye, Ali Baba Dankanbari and Okuoko Kwarteng who will leak the floodgate for falsehood to decant to soothe the teeming followers of NPP and cover the weaknesses of their leaders. This is shameful in no less certain terms and must be condemned by the good people of this country.
The sanctity of the judiciary must be held supreme to safeguard the integrity of the institution. This kind of education will not augur well for Ghana’s future and stability as soon as people turn to lose confidence in the judiciary when their expectations are not met. I admonish the team at Kessben fm to take a cue from the ignominious act of the NPP secretary, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie on his declaration of the election results on the 8th of Dec. 2012 in their favour which turned to be otherwise.
I am a regular listener of Kessben sports and had followed some three gentlemen whom I think are doing quite well during my days in Kumasi. I still listen to them online at my current base in Helsinki. They truly approach issues with professional eye and mind. One of these admired individuals was once invited to take part in the interpretational duties of the Court session program and had acquitted himself fervently just as he does on my favourite sports program. Fred Kofi Acheampong has much wider scope of knowledge on all proceedings and more importantly very fair and ingenuous in his presentation. The other two individuals I love listening to are Awal Mohammed who is off for sometime now and Siasia as affectionately known by fans. Keep the good work and never compromise your integrity.
In sum, Kessben fm must take notice of the work of those holding the Supreme Court case program to come out with modalities within which they must operate to avoid the opinionated and personal vendetta sort of commentary. This will save the individuals and the radio station as a whole from incurring the wrath of the law to trigger further turbulence. This case will surely get to its zenith where commentaries and media ruckus will be meaningless.
We must remember that, the first/third and second respondent are yet to mount the witness box to present their side of the story which makes this case far from determining now. Again, we must also consider the fact that, there is no perfect system anywhere in the world, not even the advance democracies. As indicated by Sir Winston Churchill, “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”
Kashaa Nuhu babnuh11@yahoo.com
