Silence the saying goes means consent, and this apparent silence on the part of president John Evans Atta Mills and the leader of the opposition New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo Addo in calling their supporters or ministers of state to order seems to be a very big concern to the wider Ghanaian populace. Less than a forth nights ago, the country witnessed a very disturbing incident when a staunch activist of the opposition New Patriotic Party (N.P.P) John Kumah in an apparent provocation on the part of a supporter of the ruling National Democratic Congress (N.D.C) alleged that the president was gay on a private radio station Asempa FM, which attracted wide spread criticisms from the media, civil society and the clergy.

Just last Saturday the 6th of August, 2011, the city of Accra witnessed yet another verbal spat in the studios of Joy FM another Accra based private radio station on their current affairs programme News File, involving the Deputy Tourism Minister, James Agyenim Boateng and Nana Akomea, a member of Parliament and Communications Director of the Nana Akuffo Addo campaign team for the 2012 general elections. The verbal spat was as a result of a misunderstanding that ensued between the two concerning the disclosure of a tape recording purported to be that of the voice of Baba Jamal, a Deputy Minister of Information about a secret meeting he had with some journalists.

The former argued that the voice on the tape was that of Mr Jamal and that a voice expert needed to be called in to confirm or deny his assertion, Mr Agyenim in his response made a comment which did not go down very well with Nana Akomea imputing that he Nana Akomea was unintelligent. Incensed by the comments of Agyenim Boateng, Nana Akomea also fired back using uncomplimentary words in the process which was to the utter surprise of the listening public, forcing the host of the programme to call them to order. The Ghana Journalist Association and the National Media Commission swiftly came out to condemn this unfortunate incident. The two men has since indicated their unwillingness not to apologise to the other still clinging onto their entrenched positions.

The head of the Methodist Church in Kumasi, the Rt. Rev. Prof. Sarfo Kantanka, has also added his voice to the emergence of insults in our political terrain. He made an appeal to the President John Evans Atta Mills to sanction ministers who engage in verbal insults in public.

Now the Ghanaian populace is waiting for the president and the leader of the opposition New Patriotic Party to come out publicly and denounce utterances from their ministers and supporters to send out the strongest possible signals to their respective groups to end this impunity which is fast eating into our politics. Ghanaians are now fed up with the rhetorics being displayed by the president and Nana Addo.

ERIC OTENG JESSE

SANTA MARIA, ACCRA

CT3652 CANTONMENTS- ACCRA.