Avoid inflamatory comments - Ambassador Blay-Amihere cautions
Media personnel and politicians have been advised to desist from making inflammatory comments that can plunge the country into chaos as it approaches the 2016 elections.
“Indeed, inflammatory statements by several politicians across the political divide and echoes from bye-elections in Ghana and the intensity of political campaigns during party primaries and national elections are signposts that Ghana could travel the tragic path of other countries.”
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The warning was given by the Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Ambassador Kabral Blay-Amihere, at the last in the series of lectures that marked the 80th anniversary celebration of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).
Theme
Speaking on the theme, “Broadcasting, a vital tool for national harmony and cohesion”, he said, “We may continue to believe that we are a peaceful people, a united nation but there are enough indices to show that Ghana needs to do more to remain an oasis of peace and unity and indeed all that is glittering in Ghana is not gold, not even bronze”.
Reflecting on what happened recently in Talensi during the by-election, Mr Blay-Amihere said, “I am not a prophet of doom but I dare to say that our beloved Ghana today sits on many mini-time bombs which unless defused by all and sundry, particularly the political elite, can explode in our faces any day.’’
Mr Blay-Amihere said besides what was said by various politicians on the eve of the byeelection and against the backdrop of the unfortunate display of violence begat violence spectacle at the poll, Talensi could indeed be the tragic dress rehearsal of the 2016 elections.
Signposting how politicians and media personnel fueled the genocide in Rwanda as well as in other conflict-stricken countries, he said it was about time politicians in Ghana and the media worked at ensuring that there was real peace and unity in the country as against what was currently happening.
“Our politicians and their surrogates in the media must never exploit and manipulate our diversity as was done in Rwanda,” he said.
Quest for power
“Let us shift to the battle ground for political power in this country, elections to elect our President and parliamentarians. Here we have on our hands not a mini-bomb but a mega bomb waiting to explode every four years.
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“Ghana is a very politicised and polarised society with the winner takes-all syndrome of our politics further alienating and marginalising losers in the electoral process,” he said.
Mr Blay-Amihere, therefore, called on politicians and the media to do everything in their capacity to prevent electoral violence which could bring the country down.
Not wanting to be a prophet of doom but sounding more like it, the once High Commissioner to Sierra Leone and Ambassador to Cote d’Ivoire, said tensions would be higher in 2016, with some parties which had so far exhibited pacific postures, now threatening to form electoral vigilante groups with fearful names such as “Sea Lions” from the animal kingdom and the Atlantic Ocean to protect their turfs in order to enhance their electoral fortunes.
These threats, he said, should be taken seriously because not only had the country democratised politics, speech and free many things in this country, but that the signs according to security experts were that we seemed to have also democratised violence with the increasing number of arms in the system.
Ensuring peace
To ensure that the peace of the country continued to exist, Mr Blay-Amihere said it was time broadcasting and the media in general practised what had been defined as “Peace journalism” which he explained to mean journalism that “takes an advocacy interpretative approach, that concentrates on stories that highlight peace initiatives, tone down ethnic and religious differences; prevent further conflict; focus on the structure of society and promote conflict resolution, reconstruction and reconciliation”.
Other areas which he enumerated that could spell doom for the country aside the actions and inaction of politicians and the media in the near future were leadership crisis, the winner takes-all syndrome in the political system, tribalism and chieftaincy, corruption, institutional failures of the governance system and unemployment.
Mr Blay-Amihere noted that religion and fatalism, the growing gap between the rich and the poor, the unbridled and irresponsible exercise of people’s rights to free speech and free press and the encircling economic doom could also pose danger to the peace of the country.
Writer's email: rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com