The Paradox of a Human Rights Lawyer President And a Journalist Information Minister
Folks the value of representation is something that goes to the heart of every leadership selection process, we do not engage in such rigorous diversity search and tedious considerations because we do not have any thing to do with our precious time, No!
In all spheres of life, in all manner of leadership roles, if there’s more than one person to choose, the key consideration would be not to concentrate power in the hands of one group of people.
That is why there are affirmative action policies to get women into some roles to represent the interest of women, disability policies to get persons with disabilities into leadership to represent and reinforce the interests of persons with disabilities.
It is trite to say that this narrative do not only apply to women and persons with disabilities, they also apply to professionals as well, Journalists, Lawyers, Doctors, Teachers etc.
What this means is that when people elect a human rights lawyer to the highest office of the land, the key consideration is that issues of rule of law, human rights and the enforcement of personal liberties would receive more attention than anything else.
That when a Journalist is appointed as the Minister for Information, the obvious expectation is that issues affecting journalists perhaps would recieve an even biased attention and that challenges or impediments to work of journalists like attacks on press freedom would receive an aggressive reform that would eliminate same if not reduced to the acceptable minimum.
Doesn’t it therefore comes off as rather strange and ironic that Ghana has a self-styled human rights lawyer as President but have received its worst ever human rights reviews in the history of the Country, reviews way worst than anything we could have imagined during the periods of millitary annexations.
Isn’t it rather awkward that we have an award winning top class journalist as an information minister yet journalists have recieved the worst attacks and harassments ever recorded in the history of this Country to the extent that a journalist had to pay the ultimate price with his life through a gruesome assassination? How is it possible that under a revered journalist as a Minister for Information, Ghana has received its worst Press Freedom rankings yet, how??
The economists may refer to the “paradox of thrift” for possible answers to these striking questions, but we would take solace in these two paradoxes that…“ you can cloth yourself with all the accolades you want but the exigencies of power would expose you”
“You can chastise the local media and dissenting opinions all you want, the reality of the International Agencies would expose you”
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you President Akufo-Addo and his Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah the two destructive pair of hands who have shuttered Ghana’s press freedom and human rights credentials from the beacon of hope on the Continent to a degraded territory whose current compatriots are now the likes of South Sudan and Iraq.
I guess Standing Ovations are in order gentlemen!!
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