When ex-President Rawlings declined to attend our Golden Jubilee celebration, Kofi Akordor and some journalists took him on in the Daily Graphic as well as some private Newspapers with their vile publications.
They portrayed J.J as an enemy of reconciliation. Kofi Akordor poured invectives on him for “letting his admirers down” but he didn’t see the hollow plot to disgrace the people’s hero. However it portended what was to come afterwards. A similar scene played itself at Fathia Nkrumah’s Funeral where Kufuor refused to shake hands with eminent personalities, carefully and deliberately doing so to avoid a face to face encounter with Rawlings. Perhaps a handshake would have been an avenue for the much sought-after peace and unity. Alas! It was not to be. The vile Newspapers and their petty writers saw nothing to report. They were missing in action that day but Kufuor’s action gives Akordor and his ilk food for thought. If the ex-President had honoured the invitation would he have been accorded the honour he deserves? Would he have been respected or ignored? Would Rawlings have been ignored like in the first Parliamentary address of President Kufuor where the former president was embarrassed and not acknowledged? Rawlings is nobody’s fool and will not be used to satisfy the whims and caprices of anyone. And that is the truth. The stomach journalists have brushed aside the ethics of journalism and prudence, demeaning this noble profession for a mess of pottage like the biblical Esau. Gone are the days when noble men showed the nobility of the pen and ink fraternity. Today, pseudo journalists and quasi-media men and faceless people hide behind the cloak of democracy to attack personalities without compunction. Mediocrity is now elevated above sound wisdom. But we still have some fine gentlemen around who uphold the integrity thereof. If any one deserves the stick it is Kufuor. Having set up a spurious kangaroo National Reconciliation Commission with men whose consciences were steamed with a hot iron, the target was one man, Rawlings. The whole world now knows the motive behind this cancerous body. It was just to consume one man. We can’t have a genuine reconciliation in a dispensation where a sitting President has put in place a machinery to destroy his benevolent predecessor. We can’t have it when religious leaders take sides when they are supposed to be the arbiters and catalyst for unity. It won’t work when a Council of State member decides at will to pour vituperations on Rawlings on Radio and nobody bats an eye or calls him to order, never when “chop chop” man Kwaku Baaku, that arrogant braggart sits before television cameras clutching some fake documents and claiming he knows everything under the sun about Rawlings . What we have today is leadership misbehavior under democracy. Genuine reconciliation comes with a pragmatic approach to defuse tension and achieve results.
When ex-President Rawlings declined to attend our Golden Jubilee celebration, Kofi Akordor and some journalists took him on in the Daily Graphic as well as some private Newspapers with their vile publications.
They portrayed J.J as an enemy of reconciliation. Kofi Akordor poured invectives on him for “letting his admirers down” but he didn’t see the hollow plot to disgrace the people’s hero. However it portended what was to come afterwards. A similar scene played itself at Fathia Nkrumah’s Funeral where Kufuor refused to shake hands with eminent personalities, carefully and deliberately doing so to avoid a face to face encounter with Rawlings. Perhaps a handshake would have been an avenue for the much sought-after peace and unity. Alas! It was not to be. The vile Newspapers and their petty writers saw nothing to report. They were missing in action that day but Kufuor’s action gives Akordor and his ilk food for thought. If the ex-President had honoured the invitation would he have been accorded the honour he deserves? Would he have been respected or ignored? Would Rawlings have been ignored like in the first Parliamentary address of President Kufuor where the former president was embarrassed and not acknowledged? Rawlings is nobody’s fool and will not be used to satisfy the whims and caprices of anyone. And that is the truth. The stomach journalists have brushed aside the ethics of journalism and prudence, demeaning this noble profession for a mess of pottage like the biblical Esau. Gone are the days when noble men showed the nobility of the pen and ink fraternity. Today, pseudo journalists and quasi-media men and faceless people hide behind the cloak of democracy to attack personalities without compunction. Mediocrity is now elevated above sound wisdom. But we still have some fine gentlemen around who uphold the integrity thereof. If any one deserves the stick it is Kufuor. Having set up a spurious kangaroo National Reconciliation Commission with men whose consciences were steamed with a hot iron, the target was one man, Rawlings. The whole world now knows the motive behind this cancerous body. It was just to consume one man. We can’t have a genuine reconciliation in a dispensation where a sitting President has put in place a machinery to destroy his benevolent predecessor. We can’t have it when religious leaders take sides when they are supposed to be the arbiters and catalyst for unity. It won’t work when a Council of State member decides at will to pour vituperations on Rawlings on Radio and nobody bats an eye or calls him to order, never when “chop chop” man Kwaku Baaku, that arrogant braggart sits before television cameras clutching some fake documents and claiming he knows everything under the sun about Rawlings . What we have today is leadership misbehavior under democracy. Genuine reconciliation comes with a pragmatic approach to defuse tension and achieve results.
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