On Wednesday, August 20, 2025, BBC headlined the news announcement, “Ghana’s Godwin Asediba named 2025 BBC News Komla Dumor Award winner as prize marks 10th anniversary.”
This piece of news was a welcome breath of fresh air into the putrid atmosphere of news of accidents/deaths that August 2025 brought to Ghanaian news.
The news of TV3’s Asediba winning the award took me back to my September 2023 article, “Home at last in Round 8,” with portions below:
When I heard the news in the early hours of Monday, August 21, 2023, titled, “Ghana’s Paa Kwesi Asare wins 2023 BBC News Komla Dumor Award,” borrowing from Martin-Luther-King’s “free at last, free at last, thank God we are free at last,” I heard myself say, “Home at last, home at last, thank God it is home at last!”
I was elated because, finally, for the eighth award since its inception in 2015, a Ghanaian had won the BBC’s coveted award.
BBC Komla Dumor Award
The Komla Dumor Award was created by the BBC in 2015 in honour of Ghanaian journalist Komla Dumor, who worked for BBC World News and was the main presenter of its programme “Focus on Africa.” He died at the age of 41 in 2014.
I have lived in Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda. Since the BBC instituted the Komla Dumor Award, journalists from the three------- countries have dominated the award-winning twice each.
Zambia has won it once! For me, Ghana's not having won the award since its inception was a source of----- silent pain, which hurt my pride.
Previous winners were: 2015 –--- Nancy Kacungira (Uganda). Runner up–----Paa Kwesi Asare (Ghana); 2016–-------Didi Akinyelure (Nigeria); 2017–---------Amina Yuguda (Nigeria); 2018 –Waihiga Mwaura (Kenya); 2019–----Solomon Serwanjja (Uganda; 2020–-------Victoria Rubadiri (Kenya); 2021--------Not awarded; 2022–-----Dingindaba Jonah Buyoya (Zambia); and 2023–-----Paa Kwesi Asare (Ghana).
The award brought me joy because of the pessimism expressed about a Ghanaian winning, as every year, since 2015, saw fading hopes as non-Ghanaians won.
The pessimism reminded me of one of Boxing’s greatest trainers, Angelo Dundee.
Among the boxing legends he trained are “the Greatest” Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and George Foreman.
Asked how he motivated boxers to the highest levels, he answered: “Criticism is good, but encouragement is better.”
He explained that, while he criticised his boxers a lot, he encouraged them a lot more.
He added that constant criticism without encouragement only destroys.
Unfortunately, Ghanaians appear not to have the patience we have for foreigners, for fellow Ghanaians.
While we bend over backwards to please foreigners even if their activities harm us, we are intolerant and quick to criticise our own, often not constructively.
Our FM radios/televisions are replete with daily insults hurled by Ghanaians of all ages, irrespective of status, at fellow Ghanaians.
Questions
The more I think of Dundee’s dictum, the more I ask questions like: Why are we so intolerant and hard on ourselves, and see nothing good in one another simply for having different viewpoints?
Why do we find it so difficult to praise Ghanaians for their achievements, but so easy to find fault and criticise destructively?
Why have disrespect/arrogance and indiscipline replaced the traditional values of respect for elders and authority?
When the interviewer in a radio programme asked a ‘man-of-God’ what he thought was the strongest attribute of the Ghanaian, he answered “traditional Ghanaian hospitality.” Asked who the hospitality was directed at, he said: “To foreigners.”
However, he could not convincingly explain why Ghanaians direct hospitality to foreigners but not to compatriots.
A contributor quoted the old saying “Charity begins at home” and suggested that if Ghanaians could not be hospitable to Ghanaians but could be to foreigners, then it smacks of hypocrisy/insincerity and dishonesty/pretence in our national character.
She asked how people could be so unkind to their countrymen/women but shower kindness on foreigners.
She called for respect for one another as Ghanaians first, above narrower considerations like ethnicity, religion/politics and strongly advocated a discontinuation of the culture of insults and violence by leadership and followers alike if we are to progress as a country.
Asked in an interview in Germany about Ghana’s greatest passion, football, the famous Nigerian ex-international footballer JJ Okocha had this as his summary for Ghanaian footballers: “…flair... talented… but underachievers.”
He explained that despite all the talent Ghana has produced, we have not done as well as one would have thought.
“I know that Ghanaians are so talented and always produce great players. But they always have issues with coming together as a team.
I don’t know whether it is ego problems, but the big players seem to fight one another. That is why they are underachievers!” he said.
Certainly, we are operating below our optimum as a nation, not only in football, but in all spheres!
An octogenarian friend stated, we do things selfishly, “with malice aforethought!” We must relearn the virtues of respect/humility.
We must also remind ourselves of Abraham Lincoln’s famous dictum, “A nation that does not honour its heroes will not endure long!”
Conclusion
In all human endeavours, Leadership is the most important single factor, hence the saying “leadership is cause, the rest is effect!” Leadership is best by example. Good leaders solve problems and inspire, not explain why problems cannot be solved.
Let us be mindful that endless destructive criticism based on politics/ethnicity/religion takes us nowhere as a country!
Remember Angelo Dundee’s dictum: “Criticism is good, but encouragement is better!”
Paa Kwesi Asare winning the 2023 Komla Dumor Award is a breath of fresh air in the prevailing gloom, which should remind us that Ghana can do better than we have if we eschew pessimism and encourage one another.
Discussion
Komla Dumor regularly quoted from Chinua Achebe’s popular dictum that, “until the lions have their own historians, the history of hunting will always glorify the hunter.”
Not surprisingly, Asediba made the following comments. “Komla’s legacy reminds us that African stories deserve to be told with depth, dignity and a fearless commitment to the truth.
This recognition strengthens my resolve to shine a light on issues that matter and to amplify the voices that too often go unheard.”
One hopes that with the example set by trailblazers like Paa Kwesi Asare, the 8th recipient, and Godwin Asediba, the 10th recipient of the BBC Komla Dumor Award, young journalists will work hard to put Ghana’s name and their names on the world map of journalism.
May Komla Dumor’s soul RIP!
Leadership, lead by example/integrity! Fellow Ghanaians, WAKE UP!
The writer is a former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association
Nairobi, Kenya; Council Chairman, Family Health University,
Teshie, Accra
E-mail: dkfrimpong@yahoo.com
