Dr Niyi Alabi
In this frank interview, Dr. Niyi Alabi, renowned communications consultant and international relations expert, tells our reporter, Raphael Adeniran, his displeasure at the Mills government’s handling of the impasse with the Multimedia Group.
Q. Thank you very much for granting us this interview
A. It’s my pleasure.
Q. You have gathered a lot of media experience in Ghana and outside Ghana and have played key roles throughout the various stages of development in the Ghanaian media since its liberalisation over two decades ago. What is your general assessment of the Ghanaian media and what do you make of the rate of insults and vitriolic statements made in the media in recent times?
A. I think that it is a real slur on the image of a country as civilised as Ghana. It is also a kick in the underbelly of our general comportment because it has come to symbolise our politics. A visitor, who steps into this country today, is quick to point out at this and make remarks, wondering if we are permanently at war (media war) because it is always these kind of acrimonious exchanges; personality attacks, etc., that permeate the airwaves. People believe that this is actually unbecoming of a country that is making strides on the democratic front.
Q. What could be responsible for this trend of acrimonious discourse in the Ghanaian media?
A. It is a combination of factors; there are those who think that they would want to please their political masters and that they are more catholic than the pope. They are the real warriors; they are the ones that are knocking the opposition cold, etc. So, hey, don’t forget us. When we win the elections, you must not forget us, make sure we have our fingers in the apple as a reward for what we have done. Unfortunately this is happening; some deputy ministers sailed on the crest of this incendiary language.
Q. Can you cite some examples of people you are accusing of sailing on the waves of charged speeches to advance their political careers?
A. I recall, during the NPP regime, virtually on a daily basis, Radio Gold instituted itself into some kind of Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines – The dangerous radio [station] in Rwanda that was using incendiary language to fan the genocide. We haven’t even learnt from this, we keep on doing the same thing. In [the] run up to the 2008 elections, you heard the language that was being used. I was shocked that some intellectuals, respectable people like Tony Aidoo and people like Dr. Kunbour participating in a debate that sought to do nothing, but to attack personalities within the NPP. I thought this was not what a radio station was meant for. Ironically and sadly, it is Mr James Agyenim-Boateng, a regular on those programmes, who is now championing this boycott [the recent boycott of the Multimedia group by the Mills government]. Sometimes, I ask whether people have short memory or whether it is cognitive dissonance that is at work. Is he [Mr. Agyenim Boateng] the one to come and talk about Multimedia as being anti-NDC or anti-government?
Q. In the sequence of events leading to the infamous boycott, wasn’t the Mills government justified for clamping down on a media house that it feels is unnecessarily maligning it?
A. What is the justification? Constitutionally, this is a kick in the foot of the government itself. There is no justification. Once you have acted in contravention of the constitution of the land, there is nothing you can do which will be justified. So no matter what they did by way of reprisal and by way of reaction, they had no justification! I am wondering what their lawyers [Government lawyers]were doing; whether they went to sleep or they could not read the various provisions of the constitution which solidly guarantees press freedom. There is also this part which also tells us to resist oppressors’ rule: One of the measures oppressors use to have a field day in trampling upon us, is censorship, and we are enjoined to resist it. I am sure the government has embarrassed itself.
Q. Don’t you feel that the government has a right to protect itself from negative publicity or “unfair coverage” from media organisations like the Multimedia Group?
A. Do two wrongs make a right? Even if the government feels palpably justified that it has been maligned or badly treated, and has not been given fair dealing in Multimedia, the reaction was not the best. That [the blanket boycott] was not the action it was supposed to have taken. Professor Mills is an erudite lawyer, a very brilliant lawyer and I know him as a gentleman who would not want his name to be sullied in matters of this nature; that it was under Professor Atta Mills’ government that a decision of this nature was taken. I say it is unprecedented, and really an aberration.
Q. What do you think the government should have done in solving this impasse with the Multimedia Group?
A. There are actionable options; legal options. Even the constitution gives an opening, a window of opportunity for people to go and hav
