Organising the annual Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) awards is no small work. Before I served on the national executive committee as a Deputy National Secretary, I had from time to time joined the ‘backroom staff’ of the then GJA President, Kabral Blay-Amihere, helping in one way or the other to get things done.
When I eventually joined the executive committee in 1996, I further felt the real heat when it came to organising the awards night. Sometimes, even to get sponsors for the various awards was not an easy task, not to forget that some senior journalists called to serve on awards committees sometimes declined.
In 2000 when the then General Secretary, Bright Blewu, who had until then become an absentee husband like I have been in the last three years, was, under subpoena and special arrest warrant from his wife, hence, he was whisked away to Germany where madam had waited for such a long time. Bright, thanks for the tutorial you gave me, I have been able to step in your shoes for three years now and I’m sure to suffer the same fate – to be whisked away by a special arrest warrant.
In view of that, as the acting General Secretary for the whole year 2000, I became the lead organiser of that year’s GJA awards night, and had a real experience. It was a real learning process, though worth going through. For this reason, I could imagine the trouble Affail Monney and his executive might have gone through to get the awards night come on last Saturday. I, therefore, commend them for, at least pulling the awards ceremony off.
The atmosphere at the Banquet Hall of the State House that night was very splendid with a real feel of the presence of young and old journalists, offering some of us the opportunity to meet with old-time journalists and other media practitioners, many of whom some of us had not met in years.
Despite this, the real function lacked a few things. First, though I haven’t attended any of the awards night since 2000 and therefore cannot compare the night to recent awards nights, no one needed to tell me how boring the function was.
Organisation
It was sad that a function organised by journalists and communicators was without the usual “ live” experienced at GJA awards nights. With due respect to my colleague Rogking Clottey, the GJA Organising Secretary, who was the sole master of ceremonies (MC), it must be said that he was very boring and took the life of the awards night away. Some colleagues I had chats with during and after the function, including a former GJA President, all agreed that the MC was boring.
I have never known that an executive member must at all cost be the MC for an awards night, when we have a number of GJA members who could have run the programme. Also, why no female member was paired with Rogking is not clear to me.
In fact, the night had one of the best icings any cake would need to become the best decorated cake – the speech by the special guest speaker, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene. Otumfuo’s speech was one of the best soul-touching speeches I remember hearing at any awards night. Perhaps, his majesty was the one who gave some of us a bit of life that night.
Interference
And for how long must the GJA executive continue to interfere with its own awards programme which is supposed to be competitive? There have been a number of times where the decision of the awards committee had been interfered with and the executive going its own way to select the journalist of the year.
Having been a victim of such executive injustice, I’ve always felt bad when other journalists suffered or continue to suffer the same fate. Once upon a time, the awards committee selected Frankie Asare-Donkoh as the journalist of the year, but the then GJA executive decided to give it to another person by an executive criterion. The secretary for the awards committee was Mr K. K. Dako, one of the friendliest bosses I ever worked with at Daily Graphic, with veteran Kafui Asem as one of the members of the committee. At least two persons are still alive.
In 1999, the awards committee recommended that no entry deserved the journalist of the year award, so no award would be given. The national executive of which I was a member (the individual dissenting views of some members is irrelevant here as the decision became a collective one) decided to give the award to Joe Aggrey, a very respected sports journalist, but who had done no exceptional journalistic work that year.
Selection
In 2000, the awards committee selected William Nyarko as the journalist of the year, but again, the executive (which I was still a member) gave the award to one of my very respected and loved journalists, Kweku Baako Jnr who did not file any entry.
In fact, Kweku was initially selected by the executive as one of the award committee members. I wrote to him in my capacity as the acting General Secretary to invite him to serve on the committee, Kweku did not only write back to decline the offer, but with his high respect for the association came to me in person at the Press Centre (then at Circle-Kokomlemle area) to tell me that due to his editorial duties, he would not be able to function effectively as a member of the committee.
If the GJA awards are said to be competitive, how come the national executive has over all these years been choosing journalists of the year in disregard of the decisions of the awards committees whose members have always been very seasoned journalists and media practitioners, and still want us to believe that the awards are competitive?
This week I heard the GJA President, Mr Monney, boldly defending how the executive interfered again in the selection of the 2013 journalist of the year crowned at last Saturday’s awards night. If the executive can competently select the journalist of the year, why can’t it select all the other awards?
I don’t have any evidence about the 2002 awards where my late colleague, Komla Dumor, was adjudged the journalist of the year. That, like some of the previous awards, generated some controversy. The story which won Komla the award was in fact, first broken by a Ghanaian Times reporter before Komla did some follow-ups on his morning show programme. Whether Komla did more than the originator of the story still remains unanswered.
Last Saturday, the citation that went with the journalist of the year award only mentioned Mabel Aku Bannaseh’s coverage of the election petition at the Supreme Court. Last year, there were some very exclusive stories by some journalists, some of which uncovered massive corruption in some institutions through which the nation was to be saved some millions of cedis. I have always enjoyed Mabel’s reportage, but the question is, was Mabel adjudged the journalist of the year solely because of the Supreme Court reportage?
We need more answers from the GJA executive, while we expect the association to restore the dignity and value of its awards.
PS: Is the Ghana Police Service being responsive to the citizenry or it believes it is above the law. What about its Public Relations Department? This is the 34th week since this column has sought answers from the Inspector-General of Police over the unlawful killing of Adjei Akpor, the 22-year-old man, his men killed at Adenta on January 6, 2014 but both the IGP and the Police Service have not deemed it fit to respond, neither has the service instituted any enquiry. The widow and children of the decease deserve justice and we shall continue with this fight until the IGP and his service behave as modern police service who are responsive to the public. One lawyer has graciously offered to take up this case, but the family needs funding for the court fees. Meanwhile, we still await other human rights lawyers to join in fighting this case for the defenceless family, as well as philanthropists to donate to cater for the court filing and other fees.
The author is a Journalist and Political Scientist. He is the Head of the Department of Media and Communication Studies, Pentecost University College, Accra.
