They came out of the crowd unnoticed. They said they were journalists and that they belonged to the Inky Fraternity and the 4th Estate of the scheme of things and we believed in them. They hopped from one radio station to the other, pretending to be presenters. We were deceived. In no time, they jettisoned their stained journalism robe and donned the armor of confrontational discourse.
Today, their stock in trade is insults, vilification and attack on people with hard earned reputations. They don’t distinguish between men and women as they go on their insulting spree. They make some of us regret the day we chose journalism as a profession. To them, journalism is all about insults no matter who they attack. Decency has been thrown to the dogs and they seem unstoppable because we have people who shamelessly pay them and push them to fool around. Their days are numbered in journalism. Mark my words.
One of such wayward so called journalist who is a vexation to the spirit of many Ghanaians is the one who calls himself Captain Smart. The guy is an irritation to well-meaning Ghanaians but sadly he doesn’t know. When he is on air, he behaves as if he is the embodiment and epitome of wisdom and Mr. Know-All. He doesn’t know that gradually, he is becoming a nuisance value to his listeners. Some of us can do worse things than what he thinks he is doing right but journalism and society for that matter have tamed us and we are civil. This guy came too late to experience what we went through before the NPP came to power to repeal the Criminal Libel Law. He must be thankful to President Akufo-Addo who worked tirelessly to repeal the law when he was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice under President Kufuor. Times have changed.
When you are operating in an atmosphere of law and order where you can run to hide under the ambit of the law, you have that funny feelings that you are brave and untouchable. So Captain Smart can say the President is a fool and even all Ghanaians are fools and mad and go scot free. This is a man who insults himself without knowing that he insulted himself. As a Ghanaian if he thinks all Ghanaians are fools and mad then one will ask him to go and look into the mirror and see how a foolish man looks like. The other day I watched him on Youtube, basking in borrowed robs and swaggering after making an unfortunate statement that all politicians are monkeys. Just imagine!!! There I sat by my television with my mouth wide opened in awe, May be when he was making those unfortunate statements, he was carried away when madness entered his belly. Other than that, no sane person will go that far. In other jurisdictions this guy would have been whisked to the psychiatric hospital.
Even though we are all political animals, I want to believe that politics is destroying some young men who have the future. This boy used to be my idol when he used to analyze the Auditor General’s Report. Some of us did not have time to read the reports but this guy spent his time to read through the reports and brought to us some information which awakened us. But sadly, when success entered his head he went haywire and started messing around. The Captain Smart I used to admire is now a jester. Now people are digging his past records and bringing to the fore, the real Captain Smart that we did not know. Can he scoop back his lost glory? It is not for me to decide because the sages say the person who weeps in the rain is the one who knows where his tears are coming from. The guy is old enough to take a right decision. He must choose between money and honour else honour will be peeled from his riches.
Another guy who calls himself a journalist and who is also playing the buffoonery is the jailbird called Salifu Maase alias Mugabe, from Kumasi Mossi Zongo. This was the new comer who led the Montie 3 fools to take then candidate Nana Akufo-Addo to the cleaners. He was so reckless that he took his journalistic peccadillos to the doorsteps of the Supreme Court and did find himself behind bars. He now goes with the tag of a jailbird but instead of thinking twice before he speaks, he is at it again. This time around, Salifu Maase should go for a crush helmet because the battle will be hotter. Some of us will not sit down for such an upstart and opportunist to drag the name of our president in the mud.
We won’t sit down for somebody to come from Mossi Zongo to muddy the waters for us. If the people of Mossi Zongo can contain him, he should be content with that but surely not all of us will countenance his rudeness and silliness. I listened to him the other day when he treated Hon. Kennedy Agyapong like dirt and I asked myself: What is politics doing to us in this modern era? His paymasters are to blame for the absurdity of this crook. In the run-up to the 2016 General Election, this guy was smart enough to work for the NDC. He and his Montie 3 guys simply concentrated their efforts at tarnishing the image of Candidate Akufo Addo, knowing that if you cut the head of a snake, the remaining is a rope. To the good people of this country, it did not wash. They were rewarded with V8 vehicles and other goodies by power thirsty John Mahama and his cohorts.
To them, Nana Akufo-Addo was the devil incarnate and not fit to be the president of Ghana. Mr. Mahama liked the way they were treating Nana Akufo-Addo and urged them on. Unknown to Mr. Mahama these guys were destroying his chances of being re-elected as the President of Ghana. You see, Ghanaians abhor insults particularly when such insults target elderly men and women. This Mugabe boy and his equally irresponsible bunch of hoodlums thought they were on a demolition exercise but before they realized how stupid they were, Ghanaians dumped them in the dustbin of history. Mr. Mahama paid dearly at the polls when he lost by over one million votes margin. And that was something which has never happened in the 4th Republic. The late Professor Mills won with a margin of nearly forty five thousand votes. The Akans say the elderly person who sits unconcerned and allows children to eat a viper meat is also counted among those who ate that type of meat. Mr. Mahama exposed his support for these crooks when he hurriedly organized for members of the NDC to sign a petition so that he could trigger a constitutional provision to release the guys from jail.
Today, two of the Montie 3 who are not northerners have fallen off, leaving a visibly drugged Salifu Maase (or is it Salifu Mossi) to do the dirty job. The NDC is good at misusing northerners for the dirty job and Salifu is a ready cannon ball. It is the buffalo who said he was very sorry that even though the cow is supposed to be his brother, the cow allows himself to be pulled around by human beings to the slaughter house to be killed. Can the NDC use me, the irrepressible Angel Gabriel, who dwells in the firmament like the way they are using Salifu? Shout NO!
My love for cigars started when I was in Cuba three decades ago. I have since not turned by back to quality cigars. I used to puff hand rolled cigar which is 100% pure tobacco that is imported from the Dominican Republic. I miss those good old days but since one cannot get a hand rolled cigar here in Ghana, I always make do with the best cigars like Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchill, from Havana. Excuse me whiles I prance and puff away with professorial bombast. After all, life is too short. No bi so?
By Eric Bawah