Well, I, too, have read the news story captioned “BBC Denies Collaboration With Anas On ‘Number 12’” MyNewsGh.com / Ghanaweb.com 7/17/18), and do not really see where Mr. Abdul-Malik Kweku Baako, the Editor-Publisher of the New Crusading Guide, could be envisaged to have been lying, when he told a radio-program host that the video documentary exposé produced by the renowned investigative reporter Mr. Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his Tiger-Eye Company that led to the resignation of Mr. Kwesi Nyantakyi, the President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), after 13 years at the helm of affairs, had been put together in collaboration with some staff reporters of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). At the worst, Mr. Baako, a widely regarded mentor of Mr. Anas, could be accused of exaggeration.

We make this observation because we are told that while no BBC staff reporters were involved in the making of Mr. Anas’ “Number 12” documentary, the globally acclaimed media establishment, nevertheless, produced its own documentary, which it broadcast, based on the Tiger-Eye production because, as it reportedly told Mr. Sulemana Braimah, the Executive-Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), in an Electronic Mail (or E-mail), the BBC found the Anas documentary to be of “public interest” and concern, one supposes. The latter statement, in of itself, is a resounding endorsement of “Number 12.” That is next to a collaborative exposé.

You see, it all comes down to the global credibility and reputation of the BBC, arguably the most trusted and respected electronic media establishment in the world. I personally remarked, when I first heard that “Number 12” had been produced in collaboration with the BBC, and Aljazeera as well, that unless the BBC had sought and received clearance from one of our national security agencies, the globally celebrated broadcaster may very well have flagrantly breached the inviolable integrity of the Sovereignty of the former British colony. I also strongly suspect that the BBC’s London-based authorities had this aspect of the issue at the forefront of their minds, when they responded to the queries dispatched to them by the Executive-Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa. The BBC also probably recognizes the fact that in terms of sterling journalistic standards, the Tiger-Eye documentary falls well below the requisite standards of professional journalism and verged more closely on “Entertainment Journalism” than classic or traditional investigative journalism.

Which may very well explain why Mr. Anas decided to present a public screening of “Number 12” before submitting copies of the latter to the Criminal Investigations Division (CID) of the Ghana Police Service (GPS), and subsequently to the Legal Department of FIFA – the Federation of International Football Associations – for further scrutiny and possible sanctioning or prosecution of the subjects/targets of the investigations. You see, the foremost objective of Mr. Anas and his Tiger-Eye PI team was to have the suspects of corruption captured on audiovisual digital technology for the entertainment of a captive paying consumer audience. Else, they would have reversed the process of the presentation of the “findings” of their investigations to ensure that the authorities of the CID and FIFA received the first copies of the documentary well in advance of its public screening.

Then also, the fact that the screening of “Number 12” had the profit motive as an integral component of the project significantly detracts from its professionalism and its value as forensic evidence primarily prepared to be used in the criminal prosecution of the subjects of obloquy. It would also be quite interesting to hear what the managers of the Aljazeera network have to say about the question of whether the network had collaborated with the famous but highly controversial Ghanaian investigative reporter cum trained lawyer. There are also some technicalities involved as to whether the contents of “Number 12” have not been deliberately skewed to demonize Mr. Nyantakyi and his former GFA associates when, in fact, the entire documentary may have been mischievously edited to sanitize the possible criminal complicity of Mr. Anas and his Tiger-Eye PI team in the promotion and marketing of official corruption.

Unfortunately, this aspect of the documentary lies outside the purview of our present discussion. Nevertheless, I still maintain my position that the patronage that seems to have been so facilely afforded Mr. Anas and Tiger-Eye by our elected officials, including our Presidents, appears to have seriously and significantly undermined the institutional credibility, integrity and the functional efficacy of our national security agencies.

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