There is no death, only a change of worlds — Chief Seattle
It is a universally held belief. Jones has only had a change of worlds, he has moved on.
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From the physical to the spiritual,
From the mortal to the immortal,
From the natural to the supernatural,
From the earthly to the ethereal
From the terrestrial to the celestial,
The first time that we met one-on-one was in the early 1990s. It was on one of my usual rounds as a media liaison for the Ghana Armed Forces. When i had to get to Broadcasting House and other media houses early enough to pick reporters and photographers to cover events in Burma Camp. He appeared to be in a hurry to go on a beat. He appeared very humble, confident and smart. Of course, Jones had been a popular figure on television, and as students of the Ghana Institute of Journalism, he had been one of the broadcast journalists who had inspired us. I still remember how he and the late Amartey, then a photojournalist with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) reported with alacrity on the civil war in Liberia and the activities of the Ghanaian contingent of the West African Peacekeeping Force there. And I was delighted on this occasion to, at least, exchange greetings with the brilliant reporter.
Life of humility
Given his brilliant reportage on Business News and other programmes on GTV, I was not surprised when news went round Parliament that he had been appointed the Director of Public Affairs of the House. That was in the year 2013. Just a few months of his stay on the job, an opportunity came for us to meet each other directly. It was quite early in the morning and we were just moving out of the Nissan Civilian bus that had conveyed us to Parliament House to begin our day’s work, and he spoke to us rather hesitantly and gently.
“Good morning ladies and gentlemen .Please I am here to inform you that due to the renovation works, there can be no work in the chamber block today. Please you may all go back home,” he said.
It was one of his first assignments as Director of Public Relations, Parliament of Ghana. For the rest of his stay in Parliament and the various times that our paths crossed, this humility and gentle approach was a visible trademark of his.
Jones, from my point of view, was one executive who was very proud of his role as a public relations officer (PRO). This is not one of those roles that are seen to be live wires in the corporate environment. People would often ask: ‘What koraa do they do?` One of my senior colleagues who is now deceased remarked when Jones was appointed to his post: ‘But parliament is already in touch with the public; what are all these positions being created for?’ Another one of them asked:‘ but what is someone who was a broadcast journalist doing in a director’s office?’ Yet Jones, from the numerous occasions that I observed him at work, was one executive who justified his appointment. He was an astute bureaucrat and dynamic organiser, always there at the right time and always getting the right persons to undertake various relevant tasks at the right place and time. He was famous for jealously guarding his job. Very usual of participants in public events, some persons went out of their way at one function or another to take up the microphone to address the audience without his consent. To such persons he would ask jovially: ‘Do you want to do my job? `
Legacy
One of the four strategic goals of the Parliament of Ghana is to make parliament more relevant to the needs of the people. Towards this goal, four main strategic actions have been outlined for implementation. They include the establishment of parliamentary centres; implementation of a public affairs and education programme; enhanced parliament and civic engagement and improved parliamentary forum. Under the second strategic action, which is the implementation of a public education programme, a number of specific activities are also required of the Public Affairs Department. They include: The publication and distribution of a series of pamphlets on different aspects of parliamentary business; the maintenance of effective parliamentary-visitor programmes and the formation of parliamentary youth clubs. Even before the strategic plan was launched, we in Parliament began to see evidence of some of these activities, with Jones, of course, at the centre of the stage.
A programme of schools’ visits to Parliament began to take shape. As a result of this programme, students and pupils from various parts of the country have had the opportunity of travelling to the capital city, Accra, to see live, the representatives of the people debating national development issues. The Youth Parliament Programme was also launched, under which students in high schools and tertiary institutions have formed youth parliaments. The aims of these two endeavours are: To inculcate in the future leaders of this country, the spirit of the parliamentary democracy that this country has embraced and introduce them to the practices and procedures thereof. The publication of The Legislature in Ghana was also initiated. This quarterly journal of the house publishes comprehensive news stories on developments in parliament and articles and features on issues governance and parliamentary democracy. This was to be followed by the more regular newsletter, which reported directed on occurrences in the house.
I have no doubt that Jones would also be remembered for piloting the establishment of the parliamentary centre in Sekondi-Takoradi. This centre was the first in the series of regional offices earmarked for the legislature which are expected to enhance public participation in the democratic process. Unfortunately, the centre has not been replicated in the other regions of the country.