With the death of Mr. Dan Ansah, the inky fraternity of Ghana has lost one its stalwarts and an unflappable advocate of press freedom.
Dan was a self-made man, a professional journalist who struggled over the years against great odds to establish himself as a private newspaper publisher. It is not easy to be publisher of a private newspaper anywhere in the world, especially in our Africa due to logistic, financial and more so political reasons. For Dan to be reckoned as one of the daring youngmen to establish and sustain the publishing of private newspaper in the country to date, is no mean achievement and task.
Dan Ansah was hardworking, irrepressible, courageous, adventurous and unremitting. He was a man of hearty sense of humour as well as practiced taciturnity, an essential tool in press public relations. It is no wonder that the PRINPAG nominated him to the Board of the National Media Commission.
My friend Dan was a man of signal journalist force, a man of challenging distinction who, no doubt, has left his inky heelprints on the blocks of private printing and publishing houses. He showed a good deal of dash and spirit in in-depth and investigative journalism, which sometimes portrayed him as a controversial figure; but in all his activities he was steadfast and true to the tenets of his profession.
I had known Dan Ansah since 1968. He was my friend, but as the years rolled by our friendship blossomed into brotherhood. So Dan was my brother. He had his faults like all of us, but he also had his high points. Dan Ansah was a crusader, one of the crusading journalists of Ghana. But who is a crusader? The great African nationalist politician, journalist, author, publisher and former President of Nigeria the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe said, ?The crusader is a spokesman of the inarticulate, a friend of the forgotten men the women of society, a champion of the oppressed and a maker of history.? That was the man Dan Ansah who careered himself into the sometimes thankless and sacrificial profession of journalism and rose to become the publisher of his own newspaper, the ubiquitous ?GHANAIAN VOI! CE?.
From time immemorial, great journalists have used their brains, their writing skills and uncanny foresights in the struggle to liberate mankind from trammels of poverty, disease, slavery, oppression, institutionalized hypocrisy and destruction. It is worthy of note that the autocrat Napoleon feared and dreaded the profession of journalism that he many times confessed that the would rather face a thousand bayonets than one newspaper.
This keen and picturesque observation of Napoleon is a standing tribute as well as an immortal attestation of the palpable influence, courage, prestige, power and the crusading role played and still being played by all journalists dead or living, and all newspapers extinct or extant including the Late DAN ANSAH and his newspaper ?The Ghanaian Voice? in the tough battle for the Freedom, Justice, Peace and Progress of humankind.
Now, Mr. Dan Ansah, founder, publisher and managing editor of ?The Ghanaian Voice?.
Rest In Peace!!!!
