I’ll focus on professionalism — Gayheart Mensah

A presidential aspirant in the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) national elections, Mr Gayheart Mensah, has said that he will focus on professionalism among members of the association, rather than spearhead a ‘unionised’ group.

In his opinion, helping members to meet the intellectual demands of the profession was a more pressing need which would engage his attention when given the mandate in the coming elections.

To achieve this, Mr Mensah, an experienced journalist, said the mantra for his campaign would be ‘Power Up’ an acronym coined to sum up his manifesto for the campaign.

Addressing GJA members in the newsroom when he visited the Graphic Communications Group Limited in Accra last Thursday, Mr Mensah, who has held several positions in both journalism and in the corporate world, said it was time to help the GJA reclaim its position among the professional bodies in the country and truly represent the interests of all its members which he expressed the hope to achieve under his mantra ‘Power Up.”.

Power Up

Under the slogan “Power Up”, Mr Mensah said his administration would introduce initiatives that would move the association to its next level.

The P, he said, stands for professionalism, while the letter O represents organisation with w representing Welfare.

The letter E represents Empowerment while the R stands for restoration and Respect, with the UP standing for urging and pushing to raise the GJA to the level it needs to get.

How to do it

To achieve this, particularly with the need to imbibing more professionalism in the association, Mr Mensah said he was going to tap on the valuable experience of the old members of the GJA to hold regular training courses for all members who required the upgrade.

“That is more acceptable and likely to get the support of the media owners who will willingly sign on their staff to benefit, rather than engaging them in talks of unionising their members of staff, most of whom belong to one union or the other,” he explained

He also indicated that the GJA secretariat would be restructured to suit the national interest, as well as engaging the national security to come out with guidelines that would deal with the friction between security agencies and the members of the association when given the mandate. 

Factions

Mr Mensah further expressed concern over factionalism that had emerged within the GJA, describing it as unfortunate and a situation which was not healthy for the growth of the group.

“We need to uproot that system in the GJA that makes it difficult for you to contest and win election if you don’t belong. That cabal must be uprooted,”. He stressed with concern.