Last Saturday, President John Mahama, in the Eastern Region, spoke against the insults that had crowded public discourse in the country and urged religious organisations to devote time to fight them.
He further stated that the impunity with which some people disrespected and rained insults on their leaders and the elderly was unGhanaian.
This is a timely caution to all of us by the President, especially to those in political and other public offices who regularly interact with the public. Taking insults away from our public discourse will also help us sanitise our charged political atmosphere.
One fact we should all remember is that the public never easily forget what state officials and politicians say to them. Sometimes there are words or phrases that we all use almost every day, yet politicians and public officials must be extra cautious in using them without considering the platform on which they speak. This is the reason why they need public speaking skills.
Another important thing our politicians and public officials must know is that they never speak to themselves, but to the public—the world at large.
Some troublesome statements
We still remember Nana Akufo Addo’s “all die be die” statement. Nana Addo has since found it difficult to get out of this, not because it was a statement or phrase none of us had heard before, but his critics dwelt on the platform on which he made the statement and how different people interpreted it.
And what about what President Mahama was recently reported to have said in Kumasi that Ghanaians had short memories and that the people of Kumasi (or Ashanti Region) were ungrateful to the extent that even if gold was put on their roads instead of coal tar, they would still not appreciate it.
Oh and our friend Kwabena Adjei’s “there are many ways to kill a cat” phrase. My very good friend, Bernard Duose, who is an Ewe, knows this phrase right from his infancy, just as many of us know. However, apart from the usual jokes associated with known traditions of our various ethnic groups, to the extent that we know Ewes consider cats a delicacy, and, therefore, killing a cat must be a pasttime for many Ewes, different negative meanings were given to Dr Adjei’s statement because of when he said it, how he said it and whom it was said to.
We still also remember Gen. Nunoo Mensah who told Ghanaians to leave the country if they found the economic situation unbearable. And according to Peace FM, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Julius Debrah, this week, insulted its News Editor on phone when he was called to speak on a crucial national issue.
Mr Ebo Barton Odro, a Deputy Speaker of Parliament, was reported this week as telling business owners who had complained that their businesses were collapsing due to lack of electricity that the collapse of their businesses was due to their lack of business management skills and not the ‘dumsor’. Following that, the Public Affairs Secretariat of Parliament tried to straighten what Barton Odro said, but without mincing words, that attempt was very lame and rather worsened the situation.
Recently, the National Democratic Party (NDC) communication team member, Eric Ametor Kwame, told Ghanaians on a radio station to use bicycles if they considered the price of fuel expensive. Ironically, he drove a car to the radio station. Maybe, the fuel in his car was either paid for him or given freely because he is a government appointee.
Importance of public speaking
Public speaking skills are, therefore, important ingredients which all politicians and public officials must acquire. This is the most important reason institutions and organisations have public relations officers (PROs) who are supposed to be experts in directing their institutions and officials on how best to interact with their publics.
Public speaking is an art of human communication in informing and persuading others, and it begins with the speaker’s attitude. public speakers must be able to enlighten their listeners and positively change their minds about them or their organisations.
Each of the three elements of public speaking — voice, articulation and bodily action – must be carefully considered by public speakers to achieve a meaningful discourse which will satisfy their audience and also promote themselves and their organisations positively. But above all, one must always know their audience and the platform on which they speak, avoiding pomposity, and rather being intelligible.
Last week when the PRO of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Numo Blafo, was called on a radio station to explain why the AMA was charging shops and institutions which had written their names and address in front of their properties, he flared up and cut the line.
The radio station gave the AMA free airtime to explain itself but Numo Blafo fell short of his role as a PRO. If AMA wants to charge shop owners for writing the names of their shops in front of their shops because, according to the AMA, that was advertisement, then why does the AMA not charge all the vehicles, including commercial and company ones with company names written on them, as well as the various commercial vehicles with inscriptions on them?
The issue was a very thorny one which the AMA needed to discuss with the public but its PRO rather insulted the public. If the AMA should charge all adverts, then people wearing any clothing promoting an organisation or product must be charged too. In fact, Numo Blafo would have been sacked the same day if he worked for me.
Useless questions?
What has rather shocked many Ghanaians this week is the demonstrable show of arrogance by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mahama Ayariga. First, he says he doesn’t report to journalists, and secondly journalists asked him 'useless questions'. But the questions the journalists were asking him were about the taxpayer’s money he is in charge of.
Mahama Ayariga was a Minister of Information, from where he was moved to the sports ministry. During his time as information minister, he did not stop the ‘Meet the Press’ series which that ministry had for many years been organising for ministers of state and even the President to answer questions from journalists. As a lawyer, at that time, he never knew that the President and ministers of state did not report to journalists and journalists would ask them useless questions.
What Ayariga must be made to understand is that he has become too arrogant and that will not take him anywhere. When he was campaigning for the Bawku Central seat and chased journalists to give him publicity, he never realised that they were brainless people who couldn’t ask sensible questions. Is he going to use the media again in his campaign for his seat?
Before Mahama Ayariga became a Member of Parliament (MP) in 2005, veterans like Ransford Tetteh, the current Editor of the Daily Graphic and other senior journalists had reported perfectly and sensibly on Parliament for years from its infancy when many of the MPs did not even understand some of the parliamentary processes.
If journalists could stand their grounds, people like Mahama Ayariga would be avoided by the media completely so that journalists wouldn’t ask him ‘useless questions’.
Despite my being an unintelligent journalist, according to Ayariga’s estimation, I remember that the budget for the Black Stars’ participation in the Brazil World Cup was presented before the tournament started, yet he, being intelligent, said he refused to present the budget for the Afcon tournament because that was his weapon to win the cup.
I hope the President listens to all the very ‘useful things” this minister has been saying to Ghanaians who pay him his salary and all the allowances.
The author is a Political Scientist, and Media and Communication Expert.
