Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings (middle) with the GJA Executives
Former
President Jerry John Rawlings has described the leadership of the National
Democratic Congress (NDC) as one that lacks “political sensitivity” — a
shortcoming he says makes them lose sight of the wishes of the Ghanaian electorate.
He
said the inability of the hierarchy to gauge political atmosphere in
constituencies made them often support persons who are not loved by the
electorate.
He
said the outcomes of such decisions had eventually led to abysmal performance
and loss of seats during elections.
“If
you have any political sense, straight away, call your man to step aside and
give it to the man whom the people have shown such warmth. And when I had such
problems, I tell the people’s favourite to go and stand as independent
candidate. If not, we will lose the seat to the opposition,” he said.
Mr.
Rawlings, who was speaking to executives of the Ghana Journalists Association
(GJA) at his office in Accra on Thursday, said even though he had made a
similar assertion at a recent gathering of the NDC in Kumasi, no media outlet
captured the remarks in their reportage.
He
said, “This goes to show how influenced the media landscape has become by elites
in societies who use money to determine what the media agenda of the day should
be.”
The
former President tasked the leadership of GJA to put up what he called a fight
of positive defiance to weed out “mercenaries” in the landscape who thwart
justice by concealing the truth.
“Without
truth, we can’t develop, we can’t move ahead and development will be stunted;
it will be extremely expensive and idealism will be partially crucified,” he
stressed.
Besides,
he called for the safety and protection of journalists by all stakeholders, and
encouraged journalists to be discerning enough to make informed judgements by
saying that “you cannot afford not to know enough; you have to know it all”.
“You
have no idea as to the kind of joy and satisfaction you give to people when
they can read a line of truth,” he added.
The
GJA delegation, which was led by its President Affail Monney, paid a courtesy
call on the former Head of State to invite him to its upcoming awards ceremony
which climaxes the GJA 70th anniversary celebration held under the theme:
“Democracy, freedom and independence of the media in Ghana: 70 years of GJA’s
contribution”.
The
24th edition of the awards ceremony is set to take place in Accra on November
23, 2019.
By Issah Mohammed
