TALKING DRUM: The radio gem redefining Accra’s late afternoon

MC Bobby is host of Easy Stream on 3FM (92.7)

“I started school at Bible Faith Experimental School, Anyaano-Kumasi but completed my basic education at Rockanje Presbyterian Experimental School, 4 Miles, Tafo-Kumasi, all in the Ashanti Region,” says one of Ghana’s finest radio presenters.

He is stoutly built, dark skinned and a fashionista with an addictive style of fedora-wearing which is almost becoming his trademark. Nonetheless, you may probably not make him out in town with any of these attributes in mind. Trust me! The first day I saw him in person was at the Agape Seventh Day Adventist Church in Sunyani. It was not after he had spoken that I told a friend of mine that “That’s him!”

Born Owusu Amponsah Bobby Manfred and famed in the media circles as simply MC Bobby, he is the kind of broadcaster every serious media house would want to keep any day. His deep baritone voice commands his teeming listeners to stick to their radio sets. He exudes some overwhelming magic!

Back in the Brong Ahafo region, MC Bobby took the media landscape by storm as he succeeded in consolidating the numerous radio stations there into two whenever it was time for the late afternoon show. Indeed, it was his late afternoon show on Sky FM (96.7) dubbed Buzzy Drive and the rest of the other stations.

Whoever has followed the evolution of radio in the Brong Ahafo region would attest that there cannot be a shortlist of 10 all-time best in that industry without mentioning MC Bobby’s name.  

In a country where identifying talent in our children is as rare as a hen’s teeth, I am not totally surprised that the broadcaster actually has a background in Accounting. After his secondary education at the then Abuakwa State College, he proceeded to the then Sunyani Polytechnic, now Sunyani Technical University.

In a WhatsApp chat with MC Bobby, I asked why he spent three years at the polytechnic studying HND Accountancy when he was all into broadcasting even as a student.

“That’s how interesting life could be at times,” he told me. “For real, Sunyani Polytechnic was my next stop after secondary school where I pursued HND Accountancy and afterwards, to the Catholic University, at Fiapre, also in the Brong Ahafo Region to pursue BSC in Business Management. Can you imagine?” he said.

Shelving his business laurels of certificates, MC Bobby became a household name in the Brong Ahafo region through the power of radio.

MC Bobby

“They used to call me Sunyani Bola Ray. I was that huge and celebrated there. They likened me to Bola Ray probably because of my baritone voice on air and definitely because I was hosting the late afternoon show there and arguably their finest,” he recounts.

Having conquered the Brong Ahafo Region, he decided to make a great decision. He would move to Accra. Here, his aim was to challenge himself even more in the media space.

“I moved to Accra simply because I felt I had outgrown Sunyani's media space or probably that of the entire region. I needed a bit of competition since I was growing complacent. I love new challenges. I love to be challenged any day. So, I said to myself, ‘Why not try Accra? If people are doing it big there, why can't I?’”

As Sam Levenson advises that “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going,” the young man poised to be in Accra to make a difference held his vision tightly like a relay button. He kept going. Having settled in Accra eventually, he got himself the opportunity to host the late afternoon show on 3FM (92.7) – a sister station of TV3. He would host a show dubbed Easy Stream from 4-8pm on Mondays-Thursdays and from 4-6pm on Fridays.

MC Bobby is not the usual broadcaster who does the ‘copy and paste’ that dominates our media industry. Is it not so annoying that every television station now has a show of food cooking just because one started it? Are you not worried that from Paga to Axim, almost every television/radio station has the same format of a morning show? And have you not been malnourished by most of the country’s late afternoon shows where the presenter will read or have in-studio actors on a conversation of a grudge between two lovers so listeners call in to discuss such?

I do media monitoring very much. And if I compare even the ‘known names’ of late afternoon presenters in the capital city, I can say without fear of contradiction that MC Bobby is redefining Accra’s late afternoon show.

Working with a well-coordinated content on his show, Easy Stream, such as Poll Mondays, Easy Talk, Smart or Dumb among others, his teeming listeners hardly flick their dial. It is, therefore, not surprising to hear his listeners almost always requesting to meet their rising star in person to know who he really is.

On Sunday, November 25, 2018, MC Bobby acted as a TV host to Ohema, Brong Ahafo Region’s representative for the just ended Ghana’s Most Beautiful [GMB] on TV3.

If you watched the said show, you saw the face behind that voice on 3FM and you would agree his dexterity in broadcasting is exceptionally unmatched. Many have called for MC Bobby to combine radio with television.  

Indeed, few years in Accra I am not surprised to see attempts by equally renowned media houses in the capital that want to poach him. As a close friend of MC Bobby, I get the opportunity to see a flood of emails to this effect. Nonetheless, what he keeps telling me is that he will not rush into taking a decision. He still considers himself as studying the Accra terrain despite his enviable track record of his broadcasting prowess.  

“The competition here [Accra] is serious and makes me sit up any time I'm on air. I mean I'm still a work in progress but I love what I'm building here. So far, Accra has received me well and I know it will get better with time since consistency counts a lot in our line of work,” he tells me.

When asked his worst moment in his radio journey, MC Bobby said that people so close to him he thought could understood his moving to Accra rather narrowly got him giving up.

“My family and ex-girlfriend didn't see the logic in my resolve to move to Accra. To them, ‘Who leaves his job, position and reputation to go start all over again somewhere?’ They not seeing the bigger picture I envisaged and that nearly broke me down. This, perhaps, has been the most difficult moment that I have had to battle in my broadcasting career,” he said.

Well, with his past behind him, MC Bobby is soldiering on now in glory and Accra and Ghana can only wait in the next few years ahead to see him ‘explode.’ If you were not the type that listened to radio because of the overdose of junk content, you now have a great broadcaster in the making to listen to. Yes, a broadcaster assisting us distinguish between wheat and chaff!

“May you live as long as you like and have all you like as long as you live. And always thank God for radio,” is MC Bobby’s closing remarks on radio and also my prayer for you for choosing him.   

The writer, Solomon Mensah, is a broadcast journalist with Media General (TV3/3FM). Views expressed here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organisation.

Email: nehusthan@yahoo.com

Twitter: @aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: The girl who turned her lemon into lemonade

Small as the campus of the Ghana Institute of Journalism [GIJ] is, the bearers of the rumor succeeded spreading it across all corners the way a smothering fire does on a refuse dump. Trust me, it was a big news! When journalists – people trained to be professional gossipers – get hold of your secret information, you are better a dead person.

“She is pregnant!” was the infectious chorus. It was on every lip.

The girl who received the torrential blows, the way falling mangoes hit the ground in a windstorm, was Auguster Asantewa Boateng.

A very beautiful girl and the crush of many guys on campus, Auguster came to school after the rumor mongering with a protruding stomach. She was indeed pregnant. For those guys who dreamt of dating her, she had not only disappointed them but herself.

“How could she get pregnant? Who scored that goal [impregnated her]?” were but few of the questions that followed after the rumor was confirmed.

Auguster was not that a close friend of mine. We only exchanged pleasantries whenever we met. This account happened during our days at GIJ while studying Diploma in Communication Studies. Five years later after surviving the silent but loud troll for being pregnant, I have always wanted to tell her how brave she was.

This was a young lady who braved the bulging eyes of gossipers to sit in the lecture halls to complete her course. Many of us wouldn’t have been able to survive such an unwanted attention.

Auguster, a professionally trained journalist, holds a mini MBA (Leadership Development) from the Accra Business School. I am convinced that it will interest you to know she has an initiative dubbed SHERecovered and also the founder of the Butterfly Effect.

“SHERecovered seeks to mentor teen mothers by providing them capacity training, skill acquisition, vocational training, counselling and financial empowerment,” she tells me in a WhatsApp chat.

Auguster says SHERecovered empowers these teen mothers discover their self-worth, self-esteem and confidence and also to make something out of themselves. Our elders say, “We do not tell the child to go play on the refuse but when they do and get themselves injured, we do not leave them to their fate.”

Auguster and her son, Nana Yaw

SHERecovered has been Auguster’s support to teen mothers after they went ‘playing on the refuse’. She understands them better after going through the ‘ordeal’ herself though she was not a teenager when she conceived.

For young children, especially girls who have not gotten pregnant, Auguster’s Butterfly Effect comes in handy to assist them progress steadily in life.

The Butterfly Effect, Auguster tells me, is a registered not-for-profit organization and human rights advocacy initiative. It was founded with the aim of using effective and sustainable strategies to promote and protect the rights of the African child/youth. It focuses on their health, education and self-empowerment.

Nana Yaw smiles to the camera

Auguster says, “The Butterfly Effect aims at creating an environment that supports children/youth and increases educational and health opportunities for the vulnerable in rural communities. This is done through viable social schemes and an informed knowledge that contributes to a higher standard of living.”

Today, Auguster Asantewa Boateng has been mounting one platform after the other telling not only young girls but women how she turned her lemons into lemonade.

I have for some time now monitored Auguster’s exploits on social media, specifically Facebook. Like Qatar Airways, Auguster is going places together with her empowered youth.

On March 20, 2018, Starrfmonline.com carried a thrilling story with the headline: “Butterfly Effect founder adjudged ‘Most Outstanding Female Personality in Education.’ Auguster won that award at the 4th Feminine Ghana Achievement Awards.

The award-winning social entrepreneur is also a teen personal development counselor and life coach. She is a teen mom mentor and child health and education advocate.

Auguster is also the Executive Secretary at the International Youth Parliament and the country representative of Youth Volunteering for Sustainable Development Goals. She also volunteers for several other organizations and recently volunteered as a rapporteur and protocol for the 2nd National Adolescent Reproductive Health Summit held in Accra, Ghana.

“I believe that there is enough hidden inside everyone and it is important that we find that unique thing, work on it to become better people and also inspire others to do same,” Auguster says.

She has an upcoming program dubbed Power House Series that looks at inspiring the next generation of girls through the lens of outstanding women in society.

Indeed, Abraham Lincoln was right when he opined that, “My great concern is not whether you have failed but whether you are content with your failure.” Auguster might have failed along the line but she was not content with her failure.

She had lemons but was creative enough to turn them into lemonade that, today, hundreds of children across the country are enjoying a sip of that juicy ‘drink’.

If you thought of giving the fast-rising young lady a present for this Christmas, Auguster says that what she will appreciate most from you is telling her you are determined to also turn your lemons into lemonade for it is possible.

The writer, Solomon Mensah, is a broadcast journalist with Media General [TV3/3FM]. Views expressed here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of The Probe/his organisation.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: Can Ghana contain Hurricane Grace?

Grace Hammoah Asare

She is beautiful, intelligent, hardworking, probing and has an undying passion in literally reciting the good old poem: ‘Good better best. May I never rest, until my good is better and my better, best.’

Poised for success and perfection, if you see her in the newsroom at her desk taking an unwavering stare at her phone with her earphones tucked into her ears, she is oftentimes learning pronunciation of words. What’s more, she spends time listening and watching both local and international news anchors.

She strives to polish her voice to be as outstanding as that of Radio Ghana’s Mercy Sowah and to master the unflinching confidence and interviewing skills of Aljazeera’s Jane Dutton.  

“I always see my viewers/listeners as an intelligent group of people who deserve the best from me,” she would tell me.

Grace Hammoah Asare is the name and the new face on Ghana’s leading television network, TV3. She anchors News@10 on weekends and News in Brief on weekdays. As her self-acclaimed manager, I monitor her as though she is my daughter.

“When you see my message or call, relax. Remember, I have promised you not to be a sycophant but only your watchdog,” I tell Grace.

From messages of compliments people send her via WhatsApp and other social media platforms, it is clearly obvious that I am not the only person happy seeing Grace Hammoah Asare climb higher the career ladder.

If she happens to anchor Midday Live on TV on Sundays, her church― led by the pastor― would urge they close early. Why? Right in the church, they would mount a television set and watch their own read the news. Is this not beautiful?

On Sundays when News@10 has to be rescheduled way beyond 10:30pm due to the ongoing Ghana’s Most Beautiful, Grace still has loyal viewers staying tuned to TV3 to watch her read the news. This is the level of support Grace’s church and many Ghanaians are giving to the promising news anchor.

Grace at VOA's media workshop

Who could have thought that that young girl who did her secondary education at Wesley Grammar School will someday be the one reading to the nation the news we yearn for? Such is life!

Grace has been a close friend since our days at Ghana Institute of Journalism. She was my senior, I must say. When she joined Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom’s then First Digital TV (now GN TV) as a national service person, she had it at the back of her mind not to despise such a platform. She was determined to make a mark there. Truly, her hard work got her employment there. She worked for some months before joining Media General [owners of TV3, 3FM, Onua FM, Connect FM, Akoma FM and 3news].

For her two year stay so far with Media General, Grace Asare’s unique style of presentation is doubling her admirers. So, what is this style about?

“Solomon, aside my busy schedule, I do make time to read. Larry King in his book ‘How to Talk to Anyone, Anywhere’ got me my winning formula. ‘To be a good speaker, you must be a good listener. Good follow-up questions are the mark of a good conversationalist,” Grace says. “Dale Carnegie will tell you that to be interesting, be interested.”

Though this might seem that simple, it’s never simple to many interviewers. To be able to elicit good follow-up questions is a full topic for another discussion. This is the craft the young woman is mastering.

A friend of mine, Augustina Yeboah, once asked me: “How old is Grace? I mean TV3’s anchor. She appears young but mature enough in what she does. I’ve watched her squeeze all the needed answers from her interviewees.”

Indeed, Grace Hammoah Asare is steadily rising. But, she is not rising to the top on a silver platter. She is a ‘rebel’ who, at times, fights her comfort to push forward her dreams. On one Friday, she came to work at dawn. When she closed, she was instructed to sit in for the News@10 anchor, Stephen Anti. This meant she had to stay at work till after 10:30pm.

While she read the news that day, a friend phoned me. I was at home.

“Are you watching your girl?” he asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Why is she blinking her eyes too much tonight?” he asked again.

I had not taken notice of that. When Grace paused the news for a commercial break, I called her to ask why.

“Charley, you can’t believe I’m feeling sleepy,” she said.

“Ajala! [comic exclamation]. Please, 30 minutes will elapse soon and you’ll be done. Finish hard. I’m waiting to say to you that ‘you did it’.”

Here was a young lady rebelling against nature. Many young folks, of our generation, would have picked their bags and left the office when told to do extra hours.

If you ever heard her name or voice on 3FM [92.7], you were not mistaken. Grace Asare combines radio with television. She partly does the 6am news on radio as well reads the Business News on Newshour [6pm news] on 3FM.    

Grace reads on 3FM [92.7]

Grace is workaholic who makes sure the job is done and dusted before she says ‘goodbye’. When she’s off work, however, she relaxes.

She keeps telling me she aspires to be an international brand. In the near future, when Grace Hammoah Asare becomes a household name as TV3’s Alfred Ocansey and a few others, do not envy. She worked hard for it.

The only question I keep asking myself ahead of such a day in her life is, “Can Ghana really contain a ‘Hurricane Grace’ considering the momentum she is gathering?”

The writer is broadcast journalist with Media General [3FM/TV3]. Views expressed here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organisation.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: When the media blamed Menzgold!

They came back from their hunting expedition, yet again, with apparently horrifying tales of near torture.

"They seized my phone," said one.

"Some threw blows at me which I had to retreat," narrated another.

It was a narrative told by journalists who had gone to the various branches of the embattled gold dealership company, Menzgold, to report on affairs and proceedings after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Ghana instructed the company to immediately shut down for violation of the law.

This daily ritual of journalists nosing around for news was not taken lightly by some customers and staff of Menzgold, we were told, hence, 'pouncing' on the journalists who went to the headquarters and other branches of the company.

This wave of attacks on journalists, in any jurisdiction, across the globe, must be condemned and abhorred. Journalism is not a crime! The public and persons who come under the radar of journalists must understand that getting to get information, on a subject, does not warrant beatings and assaults.

As I write this piece, Al Jazeera's Mahmoud Hussein has been detained by Egypt’s government for over 636 days. His crime? Mahmoud is accused of "disseminating false news and receiving monetary funds from foreign authorities in order to defame the state's reputation."

On Monday, September 3, 2018, a Myanmar court gave a seven-year sentence to Reuter’s reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo for breaching a law on state secrets. This was when they reported of the massacre of Rohingya men. These kind of attacks on the media and journalists are certainly not the best of news anyone would want to listen to or read. Each one of us must resist this calculated attempt at muzzling of journalists.

Whereas fighting for journalists and the media is commendable, I personally feel like strings of hair being pulled from my nostrils whenever I have to argue in favour of the Ghanaian journalist and his/her media. At times, we deserve the public’s uproar at us.

Until I joined the media as a journalist, I thought hypocrites were only found in the church. But hey, right in the Ghanaian media is an avalanche of pretentious acts on the side of both employers and employees.

If Menzgold is haunted by the Securities and Exchange Commission for flouting our laws, I sincerely think majority of our media houses do not have the moral right to send its journalists to report on such. These are media houses that some, I can say without the fear of contradiction, pay reporters below minimum wage. These are media houses that even do not pay some of its workers [capitalizing on such journalists’ quest for job to abuse them]. Again, these are media houses that suppress free flow of information when it affects them.

If my memory serves me right, last year, news went rife that a section of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) was on fire. I later learnt it was its stores specifically. When I got to the entrance of GBC to report on the development, together with other journalists from other media houses, there was a directive indicating we will not be allowed to report on the fire.

This made some journalists suspect arson. GBC, for example, reflects in most media houses I know in this country called Ghana. Writing on his Facebook wall, on September 14, 2018, renowned journalist with Ghana Television [GTV] Abdul Hayi Moomen said: “The problems at TV Africa, are not limited to TV Africa alone. The only difference is that they have sold their sickness to the world. Our elders say, “he who sells his sickness, will find a cure.” There are a lot sicker media houses. But they have chosen to live on several doses of tramadol.”

TV Africa had laid off some of its workers and a leaked letter of termination of employees’ contract went viral on social media. We have had some media houses laying of some of its staff and failed to capture that in their treatment of the issue of the recent massive job losses in the country. These media houses, I monitored, mentioned every single company in the country that had laid off workers, backing their stories with infographics. If you are a journalist working on such a story and you include your own media house, which had equally laid off workers, you are assured of the reaction that follows.

Where would you place this in the context of press freedom? What about in the context of right to information?

So, if Menzgold’s staff and customers ‘attacked’ journalists, it is not news. The media that ought to be professional in the free flow of information becomes mute over such when the ball is in their court.

The sad part of the narrative is that journalists that go all length to get justice for others being abused are themselves silent when they are equally being abused.

Abdul Hayi Moomen in his media lamentation adds that: “The instinct for survival chases many unpaid, underpaid, underemployed and unemployed journalists to create a new salary scheme called ‘soli’ [monies event organisers pay journalists for covering their programmes].”

One day, my Facebook Messenger buzzed. It was a message from one of my lecturers at the Ghana Institute of Journalism.

"Why does it appear you are against press freedom?" asked my lecturer.

I took time to explain to him my position on an issue that related with journalists and press freedom. He was satisfied with my explanations. The truth hurts but it is about time we told ourselves the hard truth. Most media houses are gleefully abusing their journalists directly or indirectly while these same journalists pose to the outside world that everything is so fine with them.

Let’s stop the hypocrisy of treading the line of saints yet in our cupboards are skeletons of pungent odor. As Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba would say, “I am not a Jewish prophet and not claim to be one but I can say that this attitude of ours will lead us nowhere.”

Mark Anim Yirenkyi, a Seventh-day Adventist gospel musician, in one of his songs, Ԑyɛ Adom Bi, admonishes that: “It is better for a man to die than to live without conscience.”

Let our employers live with the conscience that they cannot continue to make money at the expense of people who break their backs to make their businesses succeed. And let our journalists be bold to speak truth to power for merely condemning an outside attack on us to endure an excruciating one within our workplaces beats imagination.

The writer, Solomon Mensah, is a broadcast journalist with Media General (TV3/3FM). Views expressed here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organisation.

Email: nehusthan@yahoo.com

Twitter: @aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: Anas, Kennedy Agyapong & the ‘Abobo Yaa’ dancers!

Anas Aremeyaw Anas (L) & Kennedy Agyapong (R)

When the Assin Central Member of Parliament (MP) admonished Ghanaians to be watchful of investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, so he does not get access to our bedrooms, the response from the public was as predictable as the havoc caused by the annual ritual of floods in Accra. An overwhelming uproar it was!

Personally, I asked, “How?”

Kennedy Ohene Agyapong had complained of the journalist’s method of investigating his suspects― that which many have termed as an entrapment. I must say that I do not see that as a problem. If Anas comes to you with money without it being forced on you, why do you take it if you are not corrupt?

Then, a day or two after receiving the barrage of criticisms from the public, the ‘no-nonsense’ MP wades in another attack on Anas. This time, he claimed he had a basketful of evidence which suggests that Anas Aremeyaw Anas is himself more corrupt than anybody else.

“Really? Could this be true?” a friend asked me in a WhatsApp chat. Indeed, we were both very shocked. The public, again, barked at Mr. Agyapong for deliberately thwarting the meticulous effort of the journalist.

I have not conducted any survey but I can say without fear that to almost 90% of Ghanaians, Kennedy Agyapong ‘talks too much’. So… his latest rant on Anas, to them, was only a usual blab.

However, after following numerous interviews granted by the Member of Parliament and upon a deeper thought, I have come to the conclusion that we cannot sweep under the carpet the serious allegations against Anas.

Before showing his Who Watches The Watchman video on Wednesday June 27, 2018, Mr. Agyapong had accused Anas of setting free some of the corrupt officials he caught with his cameras at the Tema Habour and took money from a doctor who illegally conducted abortions at Korle Bu, never publishing such a story.

That was not all. Anas is said to have connived with a state attorney to ‘kill’ a case in court and employed the services of land guards to terrorize innocent citizens. These and many other allegations were levelled against him. Are these not heart-throbbing allegations that we must allow the Member of Parliament to present us with evidence?

This has been my position since the heated banter ensued between the MP and the celebrated journalist. However, the maverick politician has not been given a fair hearing by majority of Ghanaians. On social media, they keep rubbishing his claims at face value.

If we gladly watched Anas’ Number 12 which allegedly uncovers massive corruption at the Ghana Football Administration, why can we not similarly allow Kennedy Agyapong to bring us his evidence without ridiculing him?

On Sunday, July 1, 2018, when I got to Kaneshie in the Greater Accra region en route work, about 15 young men ecstatically were dancing.  Some clad in ladies’ apparel with others in jerseys, they danced heartily while they followed a moving tricycle [known in local parlance as ‘Abobo Yaa’]. It was loaded with speakers in its bucket and it hummed all the Azonto songs you could think of.

The ‘Abobo Yaa’ dancers, I realised, had one aim; to closely trail the invisible footprints of their tricycle. So, they quickly overtook any ‘trotro’ [public transport] that came in between them and the tricycle. These dancers can only be likened to majority of Ghanaians who have decided to closely follow and listen to one side of the argument. That is a good course but giving the other person a listening ear, too, shows maturity. One must not take sides because it concerns their friend, relative or acquaintance.

Not long ago, Member of Parliament for Asawase, Muntaka Mubarak, dragged Kennedy Agyapong to the House’s Privileges Committee for allegedly hurling insults at the legislative body. Subsequently, the Assin Central Member of Parliament appeared before the Privileges Committee of Parliament on Tuesday, July 3, 2018, to respond to questions.

Just as Muntaka took the case to the Privileges Committee, there were concerns that Parliament may shield/protect their own. That, nothing will come out of the Privileges Committee’s probe. This perception goes beyond Parliament. Same can be said of the Ghana Police Service and other public institutions whenever they have to investigate their own.

And the media has always been the platform for trumpeting such a perception. So, how has the media been treating Anas before and after Kennedy Agyapong showed his Who Watches The Watchman?

My close monitoring of the media reveals a seeming unfair treatment of the Anas-Ken banter. In a UTV interview with Mr. Agyapong on June 29, 2018, the host [whose name I do not know] in playing the devil’s advocate messed up in her questioning. One of such was her fierce defense that one employing the services of land guards is commendable. She saw nothing wrong with the phenomenon of land guards. This was after the MP accused Anas of allegedly terrorising innocent citizens with his land guards.

Could the presenter not have asked for evidence from the MP to substantiate his point rather than trying to be on one side?

In a series of editorial cartooning on the Anas-Ken banter, renowned cartoonist Tilapia, I think, has also not been fair to Mr. Agyapong. From ‘Antidote to Agyapong’s verbal diarhoea’ dated June 11, 2018; ‘Who Watches the Honourable,’ June 27, 2018; to ‘Who Watches the Watchman … Part 2,’ June 27, 2018, all these cartoons favored Anas.

Tilapia’s ‘Who Watches the Watchman… Part 2’ had Kennedy Agyapong pointing to a television set. The television shows the face of Kumawood actor, Agya Koo. Let’s assume without admitting that Mr. Agyapong’s first premiere lacked substance, how certain are we to insinuate that his second premiere will be but comedy as Agya Koo is made to represent such? Are we not prejudging when we have not seen all the supposed evidence from Mr. Agyapong?

On the night the MP premiered his video, TV3 at the same time showed an interview sports journalist Michael Oti Adjei had with Anas. I could not watch that interview. However, a 26 minutes 3 seconds long video of the said interview I watched on YouTube afterwards had Oti Adjei not asking Anas about the allegations against him.

I stand to be corrected if the presenter asked Anas such questions which the 26 minutes long video did not capture.

“Now, the Who Watches The Watchman have you seen it yourself … the video?” asked Starr FM’s Francis Aban when Anas appeared on his morning show. It was a day after Mr. Agyapong’s premiere. I must say Aban’s interview with Anas was somewhat interesting, however, like that of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show host, on the same day, Anas gave clues for follow up questions which the two presenters failed to ask.

Anas Aremeyaw Anas is one journalist I so much admire and revere. From my days at the teachers’ training college till now a journalist, he has been one journalist I so much respect for his exploits. I think, however, that that should not cloud my sense of judgment and reasoning.

We are incessantly told that no one is above the laws of the land and for this, it is only fair that we do not obstruct Mr. Agyapong in bringing us his supposed evidence. The game is fair hearing. If, indeed, the revered anti-corruption campaigner is himself guilty of the very act of people he names, shames and jails as claimed by the MP, then the law must have its way.

“A teacher must be firm and fair,” was a chorus on the lips of many of our teachers at the then Berekum Teacher Training College. Truly, there comes a time that we all must be fair and firm and find the truth. At the end of the day, it is either Mr. Agyapong annihilates Anas or himself.

The writer is a broadcast journalist with Media General’s 3FM/TV3. Views expressed here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organisation.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba

NGO donates towards 'Ghana Amputee Football League' slated for May 5

(R-L) Daniel Nii Mensah, Mavis Hyde & some footballers

Founder and Director of charity organisation Disability Equipment Sent Oversees (DESO), Mrs Mavis Hyde has donated 330 pieces of elbowed crutches to the Ghana Amputee Football League Board, in Tema, on Wednesday.

The donation was a generous support towards the preparations for the upcoming first ever Amputee Football League in Africa.

President of the Ghana Amputee Football League Board and chairman of Dan-Devan Group, Daniel Nii Mensah receiving the items commended DESO for the gesture and promised to put it to a good use.

Mr. Daniel Nii Mensah receives the items

"These equipment would be put to a good use as we earnestly prepare for the maiden Ghana Amputee Football League. We hope to see this project becoming so great that the world would travel far and near to come and watch our players play," he said.

Meanwhile, all eight teams are ready to battle for the trophy starting May 5, 2018 at the Wembley Park at Kotobabi in the Greater Accra region.

Below is the list of the teams.

Eefsa Amputee Football Club

Amugisco Amputee Football Club

Gye Nyame Amputee Football Club

Ayawaso Amputee Football Club

Global Amputee Football Club

Our Hope Africa Foundation Amputee Football Club

Asantaman Amputee Football Club

Maclamp Amputee Football Club

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