My journey through Graphic - Edmund Smith-Asante writes

Wow! Time flies indeed.

It seems like just yesterday when I walked through the doors here at Graphic Communications Group (GCGL) in 2013, to continue plying my inky trade.

All of us are sojourners, and it is my journey on this planet Earth that brought me here, where incidentally, I will be officially or if you like, formally putting down my pen.

But as they say, once a journalist, always a journalist. 

So, one cannot say the pen will dry up or be put away in the dustbin.

It has been an amazing 12 years working on and for the Graphic — some exciting times, some not-too-good moments, some ups and downs, some memorable experiences…and so on, which cannot just be swept under the carpet as if these precious years of my life did not matter.

I must say the number 12 has been very significant in my life (that discussion will be for another time); one of the reasons I am sharing my life at GCGL with you.

I remember vividly how and when I got here, and being someone who believes that things do not just happen by chance, but are ordered and orchestrated by the Architect of the Universe, God Himself, I know it was He who brought me here.

This knowledge is hinged on the fact that I had not nursed the desire to work with the prestigious Daily Graphic.

In fact, before I joined the GCGL team, I felt I had had enough newspaper work to last me a lifetime, having endured the pressure of editing two private papers – The Independent, owned by a former Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) President, Kabral Blay Amihere, and The Ghanaian Observer, published by Eagle Media, which is owned by the immediate past CEO of the Petroleum Commission of Ghana, Egbert Faibille Jnr. 

After leaving The Ghanaian Observer, where I was the Founding Editor, I thought I had called it quits with print media.

Indeed, I assisted Emmanuel Dogbevi on his online portal, ghanabusinessnews.com, for three years, thinking that I had successfully divorced print journalism.

But here I am, trying to piece up my memoirs from the nation’s best-selling newspaper.

The phone call

My journey to Graphic began with a phone call one fateful Sunday morning when I was at church, doing what I love to do — playing the keyboard during worship.

But who would call me when I am in my Father’s House worshipping Him? I soliloquised when the call came through at the ‘Godly Hour’. Fortunately, I had remembered to put my phone on silent as I usually did and still do when in church.

I knew the one trying to reach me because I had saved his number and wondered why he would call me on a Sunday morning of all periods because everyone who knew me knew I was a church boy who did not play with his Sundays.

The matter must be urgent, I reasoned, which made me rush out to return the current General Secretary of the GJA Edmund Kofi Yeboah’s call when I was done with the worship session.

Kofi then was a journalist working on the Daily Graphic, one of the newspapers published by GCGL.

His mission was quite urgent, I found out. He had called to announce an opportunity at GCGL that I could take advantage of.

I was so touched that a fellow journalist I could refer to as a ‘hello’ friend would take up his phone to let me know of a job vacancy that I could fill.

Travel

However, that very day,  Sunday, June 2, 2013, I was leaving for Delft in The Netherlands for a conference on Water Integrity, which would take me away for a whole week and would not permit me to meet the deadline I was given to submit an application letter, which was Tuesday, June 4, 2013.

So, I politely thanked him for even thinking about me for the job opening.

But deep within me, I really wanted to let it slide because I had already decided to say bye-bye to print journalism, coupled with the fact that the opening was for reporters and I had long past that stage and become an editor on two vibrant newspapers.

To be continued...