The die is cast

My association with the Graphic Communications Group Limited as a permanent employee will end this year as I am due for retirement.

I have since the beginning of the year attempted to give account of some of the developments I have gone through serving as a journalist with the company.

As the good book has noted, everything that has a beginning has an end and so after years of service to the Graphic Communications Group Limited since 1983 and truncated by the four years I served as the Executive Secretary of the National Media Commission, I will be separating from the company as a full time worker next week.

I have within the year given account of some of the experiences and developments I have gone through serving the company in various dimensions.

Next week, I may have cause to praise the Almighty God for seeing me through it all, from the turbulent days of the culture of silence through the experimental periods of nurturing democracy to the current consolidated era of constitutionalism.

There is a lot that I can share with the world after my retirement from Graphic, but there are others that I have since the beginning of the year recounted to enable the public share some of the good and bad things I have had to endure and trudge on in serving my nation and company.

As I exit the company, there may be many that I might have wronged unjustifiably and thus would want to ask for forgiveness.

Indeed about a month ago, I went to seek the forgiveness of the Editor of The Mirror, Janet Quartey, for refusing to approve her request for study leave at a time that I had been so berated for not cooperating with management over study leave policy.

However, those who accused me capitulated and granted her approval exposing me as the stumbling block for which she bore me some grudge.

When I went to apologise to her, she assured me that she had forgiven me and I expressed my gratitude.

The elders say that for as long as you have a vagabond child, you will always have to render an apology.

But as a corollary to such developments, I would want to recount two incidents that have become imprinted in my mind. The first involved Daniel Nkrumah, now Dr Daniel Nkrumah of the Pentecost University College.

He was granted a Chinese government scholarship to pursue a doctorate degree during the leadership of Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, then Managing Director of Graphic and now Minister for Business Development.

After Dr Awal resigned, there were agitations against the scholarship because there was no written record.

I argued that Nkrumah did not travel on his own and that he got approval before he left and if there was any lapse, it should not prevail against him.

In the end, he was asked to return home otherwise he would be considered to have abandoned the work.

He was thus compelled to resign to enable him continue his education.

The other involved Gabriel Ahiabor, who received an Indian Government Scholarship to pursue studies in Development Journalism at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication.

I took personal charge of the processes and he travelled to India for the programme only to return to face the possibility of dismissal for ignoring a company policy that staff who have not worked for more than three years are not entitled to foreign training.

This time round I was determined to pursue the matter more vigorously and thus approached the Managing Director, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, that if there was any punishment, I should suffer it since I nominated him for the programme which was processed through the system and formally approved before he travelled.

I argued further that there was no way that he could have refused to travel after he was given formal approval in a memo to that effect.

I said I was ready to lead him to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice if any adverse action was taken against him. In his case, he was saved but he was denied bonus for the year.

I have recounted these incidents as part of the experiences I had gone through and which have helped me to gain better insights into human conduct.

There are some that have strengthened me and others that have demoralised me.

But in the end, both have enabled me to discharge my responsibilities in an objective manner and as I leave, I have the inner satisfaction that I could not have appealed to all who came into contact with me.

However, any failures were not deliberately done to undermine any other except that in some of the situations, my sense of appreciation could not have provided the most effective and efficient action.