President Obama Has Come and Gone

So President Obama has come and gone. Prior to his coming, Ghanaians waited impatiently for his arrival. I quite remember Ghanaians following with keen interest the American elections even more than the Ghanaian during the campaign stages. We were Obama supporters by default. Some folks did not even care to know who he was running against and others, who Joe Biden was. We were clouded by Obama’s aura. This “Obamania” was not only common in Ghana; it was a world wide frenzy that was hard to escape from. Never had a U.S election drawn so much interest the world over like last year’s election.

I am not an everyday blogger like Ato Kwamena Dadzie, neither the seasonal type like Ekua Kwansema, I am no professor of creative writing at a community college, but I just wanted to put out some observations I made during Obama’s just ended visit to Ghana.

A lot of people especially Ghanaians abroad were so eager to hear Obama’s much publicized speech in Ghana. I woke up quite early that Saturday morning and I was disappointed. All over the world, we saw the blurred images of President of the United States (POTUS) and an incoherent speech that was no fault of his but our very own GTV, which could not give us a good enough feed.

GTV and Metro TV are mudslinging to this day with each one of them pointing accusing fingers at the other. Obama’s speech was not meant for just Ghanaians, it was a speech aimed at the whole of Africa for which he chose Ghana as his platform to deliver that speech to which we could have done an outstanding job of projecting Obama’s message with crystal clear pictures and crisp sound. (But) instead, our TV networks did a yeoman’s job screwing up. A once in a lifetime opportunity flushed down the drain.

When he visited the Cape Coast castle, I watched on CNN as the pictures bounced around from President Obama and his family to the Chiefs of Oguaa, then to some by-standers who kept staring straight into the camera for hours an end. I was surprised to see one of the cameras at some point zoom in on a sniper on one of the roof tops. We complain when the western media don’t give a good reportage of Ghana and Africa in general and we had the opportunity for our cameras to reverse those negative images only for it to be worsened. How does zooming in on a sniper inform anybody outside the shores of Ghana about our beautiful country.

I would have thought the ministry of information, tourism, protocol or whoever was in charge to arrange for the curator and the touring group to have microphone or listening device to transmit the sound bites to the viewing public so people could hear the history behind the slave trade and the reactions of the first family. Don Lemon of CNN complained about the lack of the sound bites from the tour of the cape coast castle.

I believe that if people had heard Mr. Blankson, the tour guide; give a detailed description of what happened in those dungeons, it would have struck a chord with a lot of people who would not have hesitated to add the Cape Coast Castle and Ghana for that matter to their next vacation hot spots. This was a perfect opportunity to boost the tourism industry of Ghana. It was the opportunity to show people in the Diaspora their true origin. This was a missed opportunity to cash in on tourism. I have no idea how the Ministry of Information gives or sells accreditation to TV networks, but if we have important events like this where we can showcase Ghana, lets not leave it to just anybody.

I honestly think Anderson Cooper did a better job showcasing Ghana than our local folks and that is quite pathetic to say the least. Maybe it our educational system that teaches us that when giving formal speeches, the person giving the speech should address the chair as many times as he/she can. Joy fm had the speeches of the Speaker, President Atta Mills and President Obama in its entirety. I heard Pres. Mills say “Mr. President” almost at the beginning of every sentence and it got old after a while. The speech writers might have to tone it down a little bit the number of times a speaker addresses the chair.

On a lighter note, did I hear the people of Mankessim threatening to set up road blocks to prevent Obama from travelling to Cape Coast because they claim Asabee was being unfairly treated. I was wondering how they would have succeeded when Obama flew right over their heads to Cape Coast and back to Accra. Maybe those trouble seekers might have to come up with smarter ways to block the air space over Mankessim too.

All in all, I think Ghana was very lucky to be chosen by Barack Obama as his first place of visit in sub Saharan Africa. We should be proud of accomplishment as a peace loving country.

Long live Ghana and may the economy of Ghana take giant strides to grow and stabilize itself.

Wisdom Gbediame (Wis2g2@hotmail.com)