Dr. Wilberforce Dzisah
A press release from the Governing Council of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) is the source of an investigation being conducted into the stewardship, as it were, of the Dr. Wilberforce Dzisah-led management of the premier tertiary journalism institute in the country and indeed Anglophone West Africa.
Investigations into the operations of the school’s management under the aforementioned rector were definitely informed by certain occurrences which came to the notice of the authorities who assumed its directorship recently.
A few years ago, snippets of worrying information filtered into the inky fraternity about anomalies which threatened the integrity of the GIJ. The facts were scanty and difficult to authenticate and so sleeping dogs were allowed to lie – the issues automatically becoming subjects of street-side gossips. There is wisdom in establishing the proprietorship or otherwise of the stewardship of the crop of persons charged with running the school in trust for the good people of this country. It is governance at the GIJ, a piece of the country, which is being probed.
When DAILY GUIDE did a story based on the concerns of some staff of the institution, the rector described the issues raised as false as though the originators of the worries did not even exist, a rebuttal which sought to impugn the integrity of the newspaper.
Be it as it may, we gave the rector the benefit of the doubt thinking that perhaps he was right and we were wrong. We were obliged to publish his version of the story; innuendos et al, taking consolation in the fact that time will indeed tell sooner or later.
The emanating developments as contained in the press release suggests that there is some smoke somewhere in the ambience of the GIJ, specifically the old order, which is why the newly empanelled Governing Council ordered an investigation into the operation of the institution under Dr. Wilberforce Dzisah and his team.
They are of a pedigree steeped in public service spanning many years – those charged with probing the operations at the GIJ. We, therefore, have no doubt in our minds that they would discharge their assignment creditably with an open-mind.
We call on those who have information that would assist them in their work to be cooperative so that in the end only the truth shall stand prominent. The morass which afflicted the GIJ must be replaced by a new dawn of progress without vindictiveness.
We observed regrettably that the previous management at the GIJ advertently or otherwise pulled the institution into the choppy waters of partisan politics. Certain newspapers especially the DAILY GUIDE were tagged anti-government publications and so delisted from the GIJ library: it was an arbitrary decision which remains mind-boggling to date.
Academic work by this discrimination suffered a shortcoming because students are unable to benefit from the inherent advantages of freedom of expression and choice; as it were.
The politicization of a public institution such as the GIJ, inappropriate as it was, even polarized the staff along partisan lines – a verifiable reality which has added to the woes of the institution.
Under the direction of the Prof. Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh-led Governing Council of the GIJ, it is our hope that they would raise high the banner of this tertiary institution which has lost a lot over the past years.