Is Airtel Promoting Treasonable Conduct In Ghana?

The Public Relations Officer of Airtel, Mr. Kwame Gyan, has been reported as having expressed the desire to see Ghanaians revolt against the constitutionally elected President of the Republic of Ghana as just as Ukrainians are currently doing in Ukraine.

Mr. Kwame Gyan, who, by virtue of his position as PRO of Airtel has become the public face of the telecommunications company, posted on his facebook wall on 21st February, 2014, that "I wish we [Ghanaians] had guts like the people of Ukraine]; a post that can only mean that Mr. Gyan was calling for violent revolt against the constitutionally established order.

In present day democratic Ghana, where the people of Ghana have decided to give themselves the option of retaining or rejecting a political party in a four-year cycle, it is disheartening to find that a citizen in a responsible position as a Public Relations Officer of a corporate entity like Airtel would use the very freedoms guaranteed him under the 1992 constitution to call for an overthrow of that very constitution.

While we recognise the fact that Kwame Gyan has his personal views and that his personal views may not necessarily reflect the position of Airtel, we find it most intriguing that several days after Mr. Gyan's irresponsible facebook post, Airtel has not found it necessary to let the Ghanaian people know whether or not they share Kwame Gyan's views.

This rather loud silence from Airtel is leading to all manner of speculations, with some even speculating that Kwame Gyan may have been publicly ventilating thoughts that may have been quietly expressed in the Airtel boardroom.

It is important that Airtel ends these speculations so as to put the minds of her numerous customers at rest. This is because the more these speculations are allowed to endure the more likely it is that some customers of Airtel would convince themselves that continued patronage of Airtel products means putting monies in the pockets of people who could end up using that money to sponsor violent overthrow of the constitution of Ghana.

Mr. Kwame Gyan was not just another employee of Airtel, he was the public face of the company and so it is important that Airtel management does not only tell us what they think of the post, but they must demonstrate clearly that they do not subscribe to the kind of violent unconstitutionality that their PRO is proposing for Ghana.

As a brief background, it would be recalled that President Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev, the capital of Ukraine on Saturday following about twelve weeks of very violent protest against him that began after the November 21, 2013. Resulting in at least 80 Ukrainian citizens losing their lives.

IBRAHIM YAHAYA WONDER MADILO

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