Returning to a past
Writinghas been my passion, it has been my occupation. After close to four decades of active writing, I was naturally and eagerly looking forward to retirement.
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When on April 5, 2016 I bowed out of public service and, with it, an end to active journalism practice, I was elated because, finally, I have time to rest, so I thought.
I realised too soon that my source of happiness was a misleading falsehood because it dawned on me that it is truly difficult for the leopard to change its spots.
While on retirement, I have been engaged in writing business and project proposals; making presentations to board members, prospective and practising captains of industry and even though these have been edifying and worthwhile, they have hardly given me the much-needed satisfaction and motivation.
Reminiscing
I sat back and thought deeply: As a journalist all my life, a plethora of events unfolding out there and how they are being handled by both senior and junior colleagues do not only amaze me but continue to influence me to return to the inky fraternity.
I shudder to describe current developments in the journalism profession and how the events are being dealt with; but I say journalism is in interesting and exciting times.
With the exception of only a few journalists, both the electronic and print media continue to bring to their viewers and readers news and investigative stories that continue to educate, inform and entertain them, but hardly do they undertake the much needed follow-ups to enable their audience to have an inkling of their logical conclusions.
And here I doff my hat to Multi-Media’s flagship radio station, Joy FM, for that sterling investigative piece on the heart-breaking catastrophe at the children/maternity ward of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) as well as its abandoned Child and Maternity Block. The Daily Graphic features on sanitation in the country as well as its syndication with others to wage a relentless war on galamsey and its debilitating effects on water bodies, Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, hosted by Kwame Sefa Kayi, work on the same topic and a few other media houses.
Beyond that, the highly unprofessional approach to the coverage of sensitive national issues, more importantly, their overly politicisation, makes some of us weep for journalism practice in the country today.
In times past, incidents such as a vehicle killing domestic animals or birds like cats, goats, dogs and fowls were pitiful sights,which elicited solemn comments as:‘oooh, whose dog or goat is this’? But today they have become daily occurrences, which are considered to be normal. Where are our values as humans?
Contribution
As a young journalist covering the then Upper Region, now Upper East and Upper West, in the 1970s, I recall with pride and nostalgia that as the history of some important economic, agricultural, social projects are chronicled, the humble contributions of some of us will feature prominently.
This is in specific reference to the Vea and Tono irrigation projects.
Today, but for the Tono and Vea projects, the people of Navrongo, Tono, Bolgatanga, Vea and the catchment areas would be experiencing periodic drought and the attendant hunger and deforestation.
I have lost count of the number of articles I wrote on the uncontrolled farming activities which were then fast destroying the vegetative cover of these two dams as well as the Bontanga Dam in the Northern Region and the Barekese and Owabi Dams in the Ashanti Region, to mention but a few.
As citizens, our penchant for parochial, selfish interests should not blur our judgement and make us behave sheepishly, as if we do not care a hoot about the consequences. I recently travelled to Takoradi, Kumasi and Sunyani and believe you me; I was dumb founded about what I saw with the great Pra, Birim and Tano rivers. For starters, the three rivers continue to serve as the major sources of water supply to millions of people. Simply put, the rivers are under siege.
Gosh! They are pitiful sights now and I have not stopped asking myself how the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) is able to treat that visibly dirty and filthy water for human consumption. When contacted, the company corroborated, saying: “The situation is assuming alarming proportions and the cost of water treatment has not only become costly but highly unbearable”.
Destruction
According to Mr Stanley Martey, Head of Communications and Public Relations, even though the company had recently made huge investments in the rehabilitation of its two treatment plants and three intake points on the Pra River alone that serve Cape Coast and Sekondi-Takoradi municipalities and their environs, it continues to pump more money into the treatment of water from the river as a result of the ever-declining quality.
In the case of the Brim River, he said galamsey operators were able to either divert or block the watercourse to the extent that “there are times the company is unable to abstract water at its intake points. At certain times, the Birim River is unable to flow as it turns into stagnant water and only becomes useful when it rains heavily”.
The situation at the Tano River at Abesim which serves the Sunyani municipality is no different, as unbridled sand winning and farming activities continue to hamper operations at both the intake and the treatment plants. The reality today is that our river bodies are polluted, some hardly flow, others have dried up or where water is abstracted, it is costly to treat for human consumption.
Take a trip to Nsawam and the Densu River which flows behind the main lorry park and the market, the source of water supply to some parts of the national capital, is not spared also. Open defecation and dumping of refuse are done with careless abandon. Rather strange to relate, it is the practice rather than an exception and nobody is sanctioned for such inhuman practices.
Come to my hometown, Breman Kokoso in the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District of the Central Region, and you will find out that sites or areas which previously served as sources of water supply to the community, are now residential or farmlands cultivated with cash and food crops.
The streams and rivers are nowhere to be found and no visitor will take you serious if you ever dared tell him/her that those places in previous years served as the community’s sources of water supply. Many towns, villages and communities countrywide have similar nauseating, pathetic narrations which speak volumes of the level of environmental degradation we find ourselves as a people and nation through our wilful acts of omission and commission.
Crusade
I share the sentiments of all those who have joined in the national crusade of waging the relentless war on the galamsey menace. However, I maintain that it is indeed hypocritical on the part of all those who are giving President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo ultimatums to correct the wrongs with what they think are reasonable time-frame to do that.
While I sympathise with all genuine Ghanaians who are of the opinion that the issue of galamsey should be dealt with head-on to protect our water bodies, I believe that it takes bold action and cool minds. Patriots, I deem this as a national tragedy which calls for a non-partisan approach and the earlier our political parties came up with objective and concrete suggestions and plans to solve the problem, the better.
Live up
Our journalists must also consider themselves as part of the problem and, therefore, resolve to be part of the solution and this is what I describe as journalism in interesting and exciting times.
I promise readers that I am back and will continue to be on the edge to help set the agenda for national discourse, thereby helping in the orderly development of the Ghanaian society notwithstanding whose ox is gored. As journalists, we should stop this unhealthy, highly provocative NPP-NDC politics in our analysis of important national issues and concentrate on the practice of responsible and objective journalism.
This writer does not think that Ghanaian journalists are oblivious to how Thomas Jefferson, a former American President, underscored the important role journalists worldwide play in the development of their societies when he posited; “Were I to choose between a country with a newspaper but without a government or a country with a government but without a newspaper, I should not hesitate to choose the one with a newspaper but without a government”.
Ghanaian journalists must learn to live up to their obligations without any promptings. For, the pollutions and land degradation have assumed such intolerable proportions that we must stand up to be counted in the effort to nip them in the bud, and this should be done quickly too.
