EDITORIAL:Peculiar Breed Of Ghanaians

Politicians are a peculiar breed of Ghanaians. They exhibit certain traits which set them apart from the rest of us, making us wonder what exactly drives them to behave the way they do. They easily develop the dangerous and unacceptable culture of taking the people they deal with for granted, quickly blowing away the goodwill they wielded earlier to smithereens. They tend to believe, along the line, what they want people to believe in about the reality on the ground. Journalists have always been at the receiving end of the umbrage of politicians, pooh-poohing or denying their reports when these do not favour them. They even pretend to be angry, sometimes unleashing their human hounds on such poor journalists and presenting the countenance of angels. It does not matter when recorded evidence of their utterances or remarks abound for public scrutiny. The fault of the poor journalists is that they have written or presented what they say and do. Perhaps, journalists should not publish or report what, in their estimation, would enable members of the public to make their informed judgment on some of these actions and utterances by the politicians. Makes us wonder whether by so doing we would be working in conformity with the ethics of our profession. Of late, this crude and ungentlemanly attitude has gained a certain worrying currency, pointing at a certain increased degree of desperation and sensitivity on the part of this peculiar breed of Ghanaians. A couple of weeks ago, we recorded one such worrying attitude from the Presidency and even editorialized on it, with a view to presenting our side of the story so stakeholders, the public, will be able to sieve the grain from the chaff. It would be recalled that Castle hounds were let loose on some media establishments for merely reporting on what President John Evans Atta Mils said during his Ashanti Regional tour. As to be expected, the repercussions of the report were not favourable to the image of the First Gentleman. The result: a flurry of coordinated denials and abrasive descriptions of media houses which sought to cause disaffection for the government. Unfortunately for the hounds and their masters, the reports were carried by three establishments and not Daily Guide alone. No sooner had the heat of the spate of denials and insults died down than the Buipe issue crop up yesterday. We find it amazing at how this attitude of politicians is gaining currency, especially by those who in previous times did not show this horrible proclivity to lie between their teeth. Enter Buipe, Gonjaland. The Vice President turns up for a formal engagement but was advised to tarry a while as a security challenge is managed. Supporters of two claimants to the skin of the paramountcy clash and characteristically, firearms are engaged, causing people to take cover until the situation was brought under control. The usual official denial and indecorous reaction followed the report to, as it were, present the media establishments which carried the story as imbeciles in the eyes of the reading public. Ironically, the Vice President who sought to claim that nothing untoward happened in the location, ordered the Northern Regional Police Commander to investigate and arrest those behind the confusion which occurred during the function, describing the defaulters as enemies of progress. So something really happened? It was not as if our reporter conjured the story from the skies. No; he spoke to the Northern Regional Police Commander on the issue but he too was compelled to disown the story. We pray for an attitudinal change in the way we manage our affairs, especially at the public level in this country. Personalities at the summit of our country stand the risk of losing respect if they persist in the path of such infantile and nauseating lies called denials.