Deputy Director of Communication for the NPP, Samuel Awuku has slammed President John Dramani Mahama for accusing some media practitioners of unprofessionalism and practicing “lazy journalism, saying the president’s latest outburst deepens the notion that he lacks understanding of “democracy“.
President Mahama in an interaction with Senior Editors and Executives of the Ghana Journalists Association last Friday, chided media practitioners for using their medium to set agendas which do not enhance national development.
An unamused President Mahama, expressed concern about the quality of radio presenting in the country, especially the daily newspaper review segments and political talk-shows which pitch persons against each other, describing it as a lazy format.
In a sharp riposte to the president’s comments on Okay FM’s “Ade Akye Abia” programme, Sammy Awuku criticized President Mahama for behaving like an alien who resides in another country, when it was clear that most of the unproductive issues developed from his party members.
He explained that it smacks of hypocrisy for President Mahama to lambast the media when his own General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia has been using and had used the same avenue in the past, to call the NDCs’ founder, a ‘barking dog”.
“Jerry John Rawlings attended an event at the Conference Center and remarked that the NDC had killed his body through severe insults. At another event, he made it clear that promotion in the NDC was spurred by who could best insult,” Awuku said.
Cataloging a litany of events to back his claim, Samuel Awuku pointed out that not too long ago when former President Kufuor offered a piece of advice to government on how to handle Hon. Kennedy Agyapong’s “treasonable” comments without heightening tension in the country, then vice president Mahama declared via the media that they (government) would use a ‘bulldozer to kill an ant whose intention is to foment trouble’ for the nation.
He went on to reveal that it was the same president who deemed it fit to use the word “baloney” to describe people who opposed the STX housing deal.
“When the late former President Mills passed on and Haruna Iddrisu, a member of the funeral planning committee came out to tell Ghanaians that the late president would be buried at the Flagstaff House, President Mahama directed people who raised concerns about the burial grounds to stop their ‘useless talks’. Meanwhile the ‘useless’ talks were provoked by a minister of state,” he added.
Source: Peacefmonline.com