OVER the weekend, thugs believed to be supporters of the People?s National Convention (PNC), stormed the premises of Accra-based Citi FM, to demand what they described as justice on ace journalist and legal practitioner, Egbert Faibille Jr. Their worry was that Mr. Faibille, who is of the Managing Editor of The Ghanaian Observer newspaper, and was a panelist on the station?s current affairs programme, Big Issues, had described their flag bearer [Mr. Hassan Ayariga] in a manner which they considered very bad.
MEDIA reports indicated that the movement of the thugs to the station followed a rebuttal on the programme by the PNC?s flag bearer who had earlier phoned into the programme to ask Mr. Faibille to withdraw the comments or face the consequences of his statements. And just minutes after dropping the phone, the thugs thronged the premises of Citi FM, and but for the intervention of the Adabraka Police, worse things could have happened.
WE wish to laud the police for swiftly moving in to save the situation and preventing what could have been a bloodbath. Likewise, their colleagues in the Central Region must also be applauded for saving another reported clash between supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Effutu constituency.
THE question is: Will Ghana be the third time lucky and have the security agencies move in to save situations at radio stations and prevent clashes between angry members and sympathisers of the NDC and the NPP? We have all hoped that what transpired at the studios of Asempa FM in Accra which led to the sacking of political talk show host presenter, Bobie Ansah, would be a thing of the past.
HOWEVER, the situation seems to be intensifying with few days to the general elections: What transpired over the weekend should be a wake-up call to Ghana. It is communicating to the state security that security agencies must be allocated to media houses on the day of the election to protect workers and their machines or risk losing lives at these stations before elections are over.
LIKEWISE, political commentators and talk show hosts are also being advised to keep their languages as civil as possible and prevent making pronouncements that would call for attacks such as what transpired over the weekend. Radio presenters and their panelists must use their platforms to unite other than tearing the country apart; we are not better or wiser than our listeners and must therefore be circumspect in whatever we present to the general public.
THIS is not by any means saying that political party supporters reserve the right to storm radio stations and vandalise items or demand the withdrawal of a panelist as it happened at Citi FM. They should learn to tolerate dissenting views and welcome criticisms where necessary and find better ways of presenting their views and making them accepted to the public other than resorting to violence.
LET us not start a Rwanda as we might not be able to end it and instead JEALOUSLY guard and protect the peace that we are enjoying.
