Talking about allegations without proof, I think our President shouldn’t forget how he got here. .
In terms of opposition being desperate, it is a fact that the NPP as an opposition was more aggressive and desperate than this NDC, that’s a fact.
Allegations without proof has been the hallmark of our politics, our president shouldn’t pretend this is new. The NPP accused everyone in the previous government of corruption, two years in office, we only have a special prosecutor practically stealing a living. That office is looking more like smokescreen
About drones and Guineas fowl comparison, I think we need to elevate the national discourse, it was an opportunity for our president to address the issue and allay fears but he resorted to sarcasm.
One thing our president shouldn’t forget is that it isn’t only the opposition who have issues.
When every descenting view is seen as the mechanisation of the opposition, then we are pushing honest people into the partisan politics box. This has always been the tactic for silencing objective voices
Also, it is not up to our president to be establishing the substances in allegations and be giving verdicts on allegations
Presidential Meet the press is gradually becoming meet the government, we want our president to be seen to be well briefed and on top of happenings within his government. There is the monthly meet the press by ministers, we don’t need them to interrupt when it is time for an exclusive session with the President. People claim it is a sign of team cohesion, I see it as the absence of it, one measure of teamwork is information flow, if the top is seen to be starved of information, people coming to bail the boss can’t be said to be a demonstration of teamwork.
If there is any back up at all, it can be the Vice President, Senior Minister or Minister in Charge of Monitoring and Evaluation.
From the outside, the president appeared honest and also one who takes what his appointees say hook line and sinker. You can see from his reaction to the Foreign Minister’s response despite the matter being before Parliament. That explains why he was misled. That kind of emphatic public posture on such matters can be embarrassing if future events prove his appointee lied. I hope not though.
I will commend the government for giving the initiative to GJA to plan the session, kudos to Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, I remember how the former minister refused to even let the GJA President speak when Ghana hosted the World’s Press Freedom Day. This is, therefore, a plus and commendable.
It is however clear that GJA invested too much thought into the program. This is meet the Press, get the Press there and allow them to ask questions as they come. Don’t segmentize the questioning, it was unnecessary and placed restrictions on people. At such programs, you can realise an important question after one is answered, this arrangement prevented that.
It is exciting to meet the President and the desire of every journalist to have that opportunity, what journalist need to appreciate though is that they are the voice of the people, in such encounters, they represent the people.
What are the issues of interest to the public? In a country like Ghana with so many happenings, it should be easy to ask the right questions.
On that score, we didn’t do so well, the only way forward is an improvement and I know we shall.
The public bushing is key to this end.
Going forward, media houses should discuss questions to be asked with their reps before they get to the venue instead of allowing them to use their discretion to reduce some of the waste of questions.
Finally, we don’t need a 50 minutes speech from the President and 50 minutes given for questioning. If it’s a two-hour event, at least 90% of the time should be for questions and answers.
If the president has a statement, it should be passed on in print to the press prior to the session. (I will write to the office of the President and make these recommendations
This is not a state of the nation address, it is meet the press and so spending half the time reading a speech is akin to eating into the media’s time.
That said, as a people, we can be glad that our country has reached this stage, a time when a young man can question the president without fear. It is even better than this has been sustained between 4 different presidents.
As journalists, we must, however, make it count and stop the nhwehwenim
I’m still recovering from the one district one stadium question.