The communication team of President John Dramani Mahama is not effective in carrying the message of the president across to citizens, the founder of the African University College of Communications (AUCC), Kojo Yankah, has said.
His comments come in the wake of Mr Mahama’s allegation that a media cabal in the country was blocking what he said was his transformation message. Mr Mahama made these accusation in a recent interview with Ovation magazine.
But Mr Yankson held the view that the strategy to transmit what the president really wants citizens to know is not being carried out excellently by his team.
He disclosed this in an interview on Class FM’s 12 Live on Wednesday, October 19, 2016.
Asked by the host of the news programme, Naa Dedei Tettey, if the reason for the message not getting to citizens could be attributed to the ineffectiveness of President Mahama’s communication team, he answered in the affirmative adding: “It is likely because if people do not stand on the message [of the President] and divert attention to what the other parties are saying, then you get distracted from the main message.”
He continued: “If you spend your time on reacting to negative information from other sources and fall into the pattern of sometimes insulting and you leave the main message, of course the message is left out and that is what happens.”
A political communications expert at the University of Cape Coast, Dr Eric Opoku Mensah, who contributed to the discussion on the same programme, also disagreed with the president’s assertion.
For him, if there was anyone to cry foul, “it should rather be the opposition parties”.
He was of the view that the media, especially the state-owned ones “have done very well for the ruling party”.
He indicated that it was sometimes difficult for the media to decipher which programmes were campaign-related and which were for the state.
He said he was surprised about the comments because he believed “the media has done a great job because Mr Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have taken advantage of the presidency and the state media” to bring achievements of government into the public domain.
In his view, the president was probably not getting the kind of response he desired from the public and was directing his frustration at the media. The president, by such remarks, Dr Mensah said, was not being “fair” to the press.
He said the media had done a lot for Mahama because even before he commenced campaign activities, the media covered his Accounting to the People tour and other events the party subtly campaigned with.
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