kriskotei

Johan-Allan Namu,

I won’t be bothered if you decide not to be worried about that which is bothering me. It is my headache, and it is in my head.
Does the name Johan-Allan Namu ring a bell?
He is the CNN Multi-Choice African Journalist of the year 2009. He is a reporter from Kenya Television Network. He beat 1665 entries from 38 nations including Ghana’s seasoned investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, to win the title.
If you care to know, the first African American President to ascend to the highest office in the world; President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, singled him out on his visit to Ghana.
Anas is the only journalist in Ghana that I admire so much, and to be recognised by no other person than Obama gladdens my heart.
Though I am not too old to know much, I have come to know names like Kofi Coomson, Malik Kwaku Baako, Kwesi Pratt, Haruna Attah, Kwaku Sekyi Addo, just to mention a few, contributed immensely to help uplift the image of journalism in Ghana, but recent events makes me wonder if the profession has not been reduced to “chop-chop” or better still “soli” job.
I was not too surprised when Obama singled out Anas and said, “We see that spirit in courageous journalists like Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who risked his life to report the truth”. I was embarrassed and wondered what might be going on in the minds of the rest of the journalists we have in Ghana.
Most of them (journalists), if not all, have been reduced to stomach journalists; they only dance to the tunes of people who can enrich their purses or wallets, forgetting that God cannot be mocked.
All things and their seasons; a time to be born and a time to die, a time to cry and a time to laugh, a time to sow and a time to reap.
Posterity will one day judge all of us, especially when we appear before God Almighty to account for what we use our talent for. Just like the servants who hid his under the ground, he was cast into eternal condemnation where there was gnashing of teeth, and don’t tell me you have no teeth. God is watching.
To Anas, I say better luck next time only if there is life. By the way, it is being rumoured that the award was given to the Kenyan to compensate him and his country for the fact that Obama chose not to visit the land of his fathers and rather decided to come to Ghana.
To all other journalists in Ghana, please report the truth, nothing else but the truth and quality human centred stories. Who knows, should you miss Obama’s standing ovation at all, at least CNN might recognise your efforts and contribution to human race.
Kudos to Anas Aremeyaw Anas. Keep on doing the good things you have been doing.