Two avid readers of Graphic share experiences

The oldest subscriber of the Daily Graphic, Mr Addai Nsiah, has described the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) as the frontrunner in setting Ghana’s development agenda.

“The company has been at the forefront of development in Ghana. You can read anything anywhere, but if it is not in the Daily Graphic, then it is not true,” he said.

In an interview from his residence at Asafo, Kumasi, Mr Nsiah, who started reading the Daily Graphic in 1956, said the GCGL had done excellently well with its accurate and truthful information on issues in the country and the rest of the world, it has to be the Daily Graphic.

Records

“I am 80 years old, 10 more than the GCGL. The company has provided me and Ghanaians with a lot of historical records and divergent views on issues and I think it has been and will continue to be a blessing to the nation,” he said.

Mr Nsiah said his greatest satisfaction was the fact that all the leaders of the company had kept to its tradition, thereby making its products remain relevant to readers and the nation.

He recalled writing to the management of the company in 2006, giving a detailed account of what the flagship newspaper, the Daily Graphic, had been reporting, as well as the names of editors and reporters who had inspired change.

“After that detailed account in 2006, the company started giving me free copies of the Daily Graphic. I am grateful to Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, Mr Albert Sam and all those who appreciated my work,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo

Mr Nsiah said he had been keeping records of publications of the Daily Graphic since President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo assumed the reins of power on January 7, 2017.

He said he intended to bind all the publications and present them to the President on completion of his first term,
adding that if God granted the President more years, he would
continue with another set.

Personal experience

Mr Nsiah said the GCGL had made him who he was through accurate information and the good English he read in the Daily Graphic.

He said he started reading the newspaper as a Standard Four pupil when his uncle used to send him to buy a copy of the
Daily Graphic every day, saying: “It has been very eloquent and kept me up-to-date on events in the country.”

“If the Daily Graphic were a university, I would be a professor by now,” he said.

He urged the current crop of staff of the GCGL not to lower the bar but keep working harder.

Mr Addai Nsiah — Oldest subscriber of the Daily Graphic 

Fond memories of Graphic

Charles Benoni Okine reports that another reader and associate of the Daily Graphic, Ms Joyce Ayorkor Tagoe, wife of the late Daniel Nii Ankrah Okine, one-time Editorial Manager of the Daily Graphic, also shared some fond memories describing it as the paper with brave minds.

“I have been reading the paper since I married my late husband, and since then it has been my source of information,” she said.

“I listen to the radio and I watch television for news. But if the Daily Graphic has not confirmed it, it is no news to me.

I read it, no matter how old the edition,” she added, as she recounted her experience with the brand, which goes back more than 51 years.

“I recall many incidents, some harrowing, others frightening and some happy moments,” Ms Tagoe said.

She recalled the days of the 1981 Revolution when her late husband, Daniel, aka D.A., came home with harrowing stories about how a case in court went.

“He narrated how soldiers who had been arrested were tried in Kangaroo courts, and when they were taken away, news that came indicated that they had been shot dead,” the 81-year-old Tagoe said.

She also recalled the day D.A. came home and never ate supper. When she enquired why, she was told a story about how people were tortured in the cells of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).

“He told me about one incident in which an electric cup was used to scoop the manhood of a suspect from whom the soldiers badly wanted some information.

“These were tortuous moments because most of those who were sacked from the GCGL heard the news first on radio,” she recalled, almost in tears because of what she described as “very unfortunate and dangerous times”.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the company, she wished the company well and prayed for God’s guidance for the management and staff.

“May the company survive another 70 years for more stories to be told of it,” she said.

Ms Tagoe advised editors to be bold and fearless but at the same time be cautious in their work to avoid some of the things that caused the dismissal of some prominent editors of the Daily Graphic back in those days.