Opinions of Tuesday, 28 August 2018

Columnist: Mashoud Bawa

How Manasseh lost control of his stronghold, social media scowls him for selective journalism

Manasseh Azure Awuni Manasseh Azure Awuni

I woke up as usual this morning to check what was coming from the media and while listening to Bernard Koku Avle’s breakfast show from the Citifm Newsroom, I checked online media and I noticed Crusader Manasseh Azure Awuni has finally woken up from his long snooze with his article “The Trial of Mensa Otabil”, Then I asked myself trial? Why are people never ready to admit erring as humans? Then I said no don’t judge yet.

I read on then I noticed it was Manasseh who thought it was a trial. The reality that I followed for weeks is nothing short of mismanagement and or incompetence on the side of the management of the collapsed banks, so why will Manasseh single out one board member (chairperson) and say his is a trial? In his article, Mr. Awuni exhibited how he has read a couple of books and how he applies that to his daily activities (writing). He as usual garnished it with insulting description of his critics as ill-informed blokes.

He customarily did not ignore the center of his journalism practice ‘Jospong/Zoomlion’. He was honest enough to tell readers Pastor Otabil is his father and so he will not speak or write against him with unverified information. He proceeds to indicate how trying the man of God in the media is bad. Apparently he forgets that he is the Genesis and master minder of media trial in fact Manasseh is a social media trial authority in Ghana.

Why? we haven’t forgotten what he used to make Roland Agambiire unpopular, how he used media trial strategies to paint Former President John Dramani Mahama to opposition, how he constantly used radio and new media in black washing resilient Dr. Joseph Agyepong of the Jospong/Zoomlion fame over the years and how he has started painting a wicked picture of H.E. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo who I sympathize with. Manasseh is the guy who believes he is the only righteous person. He is the only one who thinks aptly and when yours be it the president or whoever except Pastor Otabil is contrary to his you are wrong/

In fact, he points that he investigated and showed how Jospong was paid more than should have been paid and how he takes GH¢500.00 from government and pays a paltry GH¢100.00 to the street workers. My checks from a contract that is signed with unambiguous straight lines can but only be followed. I wonder if Manasseh will sign a contract with International Central Gospel Church (IGCC) to train their pastors on “Public Speaking” for a certain amount and then he gets there and notices there was no provision of lunch for the pastors, would he honestly procure lunch for the pastors from his quotation that is meant to be the training cost?

Using your pugnacious mechanisms to lure both traditional and social media actors to see some people as angels and others as wicked and corrupt is more wicked and criminal than killing.

Let me not paddle into something that I didn’t plan to do. I want to let you know that your silence on the Capital Bank collapsing saga which Pastor Otabil your father is linked in has really brought you down flat on your chest. In this your article you are telling us that if your biological father Mr. Awuni (I hope I am right?) commits a crime you will not be able to say it is wrong. How then can you judge your own actions or inactions as wrong? We are the people who follow you and read your write ups and we are the people who make your famous and we are the same people who say this time you got it completely wrong, your silence over this issue dented your image badly take it and stop justifying by rather showing your revolting ignorance.

Now I will copy a few comments that greeted your article on twitter and facebook and other platforms here to make you understand that good is Godly and bad is evil so it is not what you think is good or bad that we do but what we all say it is and this time majority of us are saying your silence was bad, admit, apologize and we move. After all you are a human being and cannot pretend to know it all and do it all right at all times.

yeboa? @darby2luv 5h5 hours ago More Replying to @Manasseh_Azure

I have read it and dare I say it was a waste of time. Not because I expected u to criticise him but to give some tangibles. The funny thing is, the man himself didn't give tangibles but said God is good as if the nation is saying God is horrible. It's funny how we all are in Gh.

yeboa? @darby2luv 5h5 hours ago More

I hope u now get the stance of those who won't see wrong with Jospong and will stand by him. I remember u calling out NADAA cos he encouraged Jospong to keep doing a great job. It seems in Ghana, we everyone stands by their own irrespective of who is suffering. indeed God is good

Efo L?l?nyo ????????? @MrBrightino 6h6 hours ago More

Replying to @Manasseh_Azure Massa, this was never a trial. The way you were quick to address other issues/ scandals, Ghanaians were expecting you to do same for this one.

Bakuoro Isaac

So we should allow state institutions to handle the matter right ?Why won't you allow the same state institutions to deal with Zoomlion and JOSPONG instead of waging a relationship relentless war against the man man who is equally a philanthropist.

Chubi Chaka Kumbungu

This part of your folder weakens me... So it appeared the calls on me to comment were calls to do one thing: attack Dr. Mensa Otabil. Like Julius Caesar, they came to bury Otabil, not to praise him. They needed me to prove that I was bold. But I told them it was good to be bold and fearless, but sometimes it was better to be a coward. I would not publicly attack a father who would have reached out to solidarize with me if I were in the centre of the storm.

Otumfour Kojo Agyemang

Dude this doesn't make any sense. I don't need to tell you that Pastors are held in higher regards because of the job they do. Married men sleep with women all the time but when a Pastor does same it becomes a biiiig deal. It comes with the job and I believe Pastor Otabil very much knows this! Like the others, he made a mistake! But the others aren't standing infront of a congregation every Sunday morning preaching righteousness and morality! Leave it like that! This your defensive mechanism makes the whole situation even more ridiculous and outrightly disgusting at the very best!

Benarsen? @benarsen1886 5h5 hours ago More

I didn't open the link but why did it take Manasseh too long to comment or write about this issue?

Efo L?l?nyo ????????? @MrBrightino 4h4 hours ago More

Chale, if you read am you go bore rough. He no target the main issue serf oo. All he kept talking about was why the call on him from the public to criticize Otabil was wrong.

Benarsen? @benarsen1886 4h4 hours ago More

That's why we say Ghanaians are inherently bad people. We're bad and not honest. And I don't blame him, his church members would die for him and I think he's one of them. I even expected him to write "God is good" 3× and close the folder

bernard ian erbyn? @ianerbyn 6h6 hours ago More

Replying to @Manasseh_Azure Just like your mentor’s response, this was totally unnecessary. Both of you should have just kept mute.

Marcus Akorli? @Akorlim 1h1 hour ago More

Replying to @Manasseh_Azure Your hypocrisy is getting exposed. Who does a regular trial of others in the media than yourself. In the Old Testament, would have been consumed by Holy Ghost fire by now.

Matthew Asibiga

Amicus wrote: "EXCERPTS OF MANNASEH’S LATEST HYPOCRITICAL FOLDER THAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION.

Inside the folder: “Great people who have shaped the world were not without blemish. They did not have clean sheets of success. They recorded failures. They had their ups and downs. They had their weaknesses. And their sins. Shakespeare said, “The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.” “As we trudge wearily across the slippery stage of life, trying to distinguish ourselves from the crowd, we are watched keenly by a sea of spectators who are ready to celebrate our fall.

May we not abandon our call even when we fall? We must give life our all. And fight on until history remembers us in its glorious curtain”. Me: And the “wise man“ went on to cite examples of how Pastor Mensah Otabil’s ICGC donates Church’s collection to charity and other worthy courses.

Excellent????? from the Bongo-Keta Krachi Watchman’s son (dual citizens are so brilliant). Then he went on to cite the number of employees ICGC and CUC employ annually or overall. Another excellent wise point. Gracias!!! But he didn’t have the wisdom to find out how much those employees are being paid out of their own collections and how much those employees are asked to give back to ‘God’ every Sunday at least.

So I called this citation by Manasseh as dumbest of all dumb and lamest of all lame works. May be we should begin to look at the number of employees Zoomlion had and has employed or the number of employees Agams Holdings had employed those days and how much they paid them or otherwise.

Even though those were clear business entities whose number one goal was to make profits. Anaa? Interesting enough, his first point says great people who shaped the world were not without blame or faults. And in this instance, he took a tangential construction where he named stalwarts and if you like global icons who ever lived. Among them are Nelson Mandela, Luther King Jnr, Mahatma Ghandi and the greatest African leader, the great Osagyefo. But his thinking faculty soon forgot that, Zoomlion’s Siaw Adjapong, otherwise known as Jospong is also or ‘was’ a great human being who is as fallible as the above. But yet, when another human being, our national chief went to visit the “greater works” of Jospong, a judgmental article almost nearing the judgement that only God has monopoly of, not even His son Jesus, was titled: “AKUFFO ADDO’S IMMORAL DANCE WITH JOSPONG”.

Yet, the recent “greater works” of Otabil, where he openly said “the church does not owe anybody an explanation or accountability on how it expends it’s money” was the most moral dance everybody could dance to according to you my Bongo brother. “All greater works be greater works buddy”, after all, service to mankind is service to God! Mr Bongo boy, are all human beings not in equal guilt in these circumstances? Then the “intelligent” boy from Bongo’s second point seems to me as though it is only his and Otabil’s fall that the masses are ready to celebrate. But this phenomenon has been in existence since the Dead Sea ???? was only a crater or since the first pope was only an altar boy. Alas! It will continue to prevail until the “mythical” second coming of Christ called Jesus. And oh! Buddy, did I see you write Otabil is your father and you revere him that much to afford to criticise him? But just as you read Julius Caesar so wide that you are able to quote Shakespeare as saying “the evil that men do lives after them.

The good is often interred with their bones” Don’t forget to read Arthur Koestler’s “Darkness at noon”. Because if you do, you will realise a certain Saint Just who said “No one can rule guiltlessly” And if you do, you will realise that you have to treat all humans equally and impartially. Pls refer also to the American Credo. It says without any equivocation that; We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. And once they are so created, they are so endowed by their creator certain inalienable rights.

That among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So treat all equal whether they are Jospong or Roland Agambire or Dr Kwabena Duffour or Alfred Woyome or Abuga Pele or Phillip Assibit. Because If you don’t, then unlike the American creed above, for you happiness is but an occasional episode shrouded in a drama of hypocrisy and shame. I do not have much to write cos unlike a Bongo “intelligent giant boy” I am a weak looking hunger-stricken-malnourished Sirigu boy. And ohh! I once herded cattle ???? and the only thing i am good at is wrestling. In fact I have no privilege of formal education once I am not a journalist. I know this my write-up will not fly because it is not an intelligent piece. But hey! Mr. Manasseh, I see you read a lot and you like literature but remember you are yet to read “Darkness at noon” .

Let’s spare quoting Shakespeare cos nearly all literates know Shakespeare and his quotes. May be they are cliché But do you know that in “Darkness at noon”, Arthur Koestler noted that, Nicholo Michiavelli stated, “He Who establishes a dictatorship and does not kill Brutus, or he who founds a republic and does not kill the sons of Brutus, will only reign a short time”? Bongo boy! You must do justice to Brutus and his sons else, you are only reigning for a short while so sayedth other intelligent seems like you. May be we are soon forgetting you have some accolades such as “journalist of the year” If you don’t agree, let me refer you to the philosophical exploits and works of a certain man. He’s the great René Descartes and he said “Cogito Ergo sum”. It is Latin translated to English to mean “I think, therefore I am” Pls think else you are fast losing it. The nonsense of a Sirigu boy can never be kept in a folder... so let me leave it here.

Just to mention this few:

So you have seen that social media actors have disserted you at last, not because you didn’t write a good journalistic piece full of grammar, proverbs and readers’ quotation but that you have disappointed them by playing the hypocritical game. How can you lose your sense of vigilantism only when your father is in the news for the bad reason? You have played double standards and you have confirmed your selective, hypocritical and diabolic stance. I am now not the only one saying it, many of your followers are saying it.

Stop the malevolence and be good so that you can enter the Kingdom of God. Being obedient and respectful to the Pastor alone is not respect and obedience to God and that is why he said only Jesus Christ can save us from our deeds. Let us worship only HIM that is above us and not our fellow humans. For God created man in His own image, who dare you to pick and choose and condemn? No matter how strong one is, falling is eminent.

Tread carefully my brother less you fall badly.