Illiterate Malik Kweku Baako must stop analyzing national issues

The first time I heard Malik Kweku Baako insulting the Chief Justice and the Rt. Hon. Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana on the controversy surrounding the swearing-in of the Speaker as the acting President in the absence of President John Mahama and Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, I just said to myself, “Look at this illiterate, Kweku Baako. What legal ideas has he got to insult the two prominent legal brains when it comes to issues on legalities in Ghana?”

Illiterate Malik Kweku Baako had the audacity to insult the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho and Mrs. Georgina Wood that they had engaged in "constitutional lawlessness" when the Speaker was reported to have refused to swear the presidential oath to act as the President. Here is someone who has no academic certificate and has no profession, yet he calls himself a journalist. Here is someone who is not an economist, not a lawyer, not a political scientist, not a physician, not a meteorologist, not an educationist, not a social worker, not a garbage collector, not a criminologist, etc. I mean the man has no profession, yet you hear him on radio and TV talking like a professional on every subject in Ghana. Here is someone who could not complete Half Assini Secondary School. Can Kweku Baako produce his Middle School Leaving Certificate (MSLC), General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary Level or Advanced Level, any tertiary level education, technical education or vocational/trades certificate? No! He has none. If Malik Baako claims he is a journalist, let him produce his journalism certificate. From which institution did he obtain his journalism certificate? In which year did he complete his journalism education? Who were his classmates at the journalism school? I don’t blame him. If a noble professional body like the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) can accept someone who has no training in journalism into its fold, and even award him as the Journalist of the Year in 1999, what do you expect from such a person like Baako. Tweaa! What a profession! Frankly speaking, journalism is the cheapest profession to practise in Ghana, even without any training or education. Can you practise as a medical doctor, lawyer, police officer, military officer, prison officer, fire service officer, banker, public relations officer, university lecturer, nurse, laboratory technologist, carpenter, auto mechanic, brick layer, or seamstress/tailor without having any formal training or education? No! Never! It is only journalism in Ghana that anyone like Kweku Baako can practice without any proper formal training or education. Why is it that Kweku Baako could not pursue a course at GIMPA when he was offered backdoor admission? Because he has not got the basic foundation in studying, let alone go through the rigours of academic pursuit. When I hear people referring to Kweku Baako as a veteran or seasoned journalist, I just fell like vomiting. What kind of journalist? You can do home-schooling and educate yourself in any subject, if you do not have any certificate to back your academic standard, you are illiterate. Malik Kweku Baako, you are illiterate. Period! Now Baako is saying he may have to apologise to the Speaker of Parliament and the Chief Justice for his harsh criticism of them in the wake of the presidential oath controversy. Kweku, just swallow your pride and apologise. When professionals like the President of Ghana Bar Association, and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia speak on areas of their profession, we listen to them, not an illiterate like you, Kweku Baako. I have no problem if lawyers debate and share their different views on legal issues. Not pocket lawyer like Baako. Malik Kweku Baako, please publish your curriculum vitae in your newspaper and let every Ghanaian see your academic qualification or your professional expertise. Haba! Ghana! We are not serious as a country. We allow any illiterate and non-professional like Baako to go on air (Radio and TV) and pollute the minds of uninformed Ghanaians. This cannot happen in any advanced country like USA, and UK. Just listen to CNN and BBC. It is only professionals and experts who are allowed to appear and speak on issues on their broadcasting networks. In Ghana, radio and TV stations allow anybody like illiterate Kwaku Baako to appear and talk by heart on any national issue. No wonder our radio and TV stations are full of thrash. What kind of useless broadcasting is that? It is time radio and TV stations invite experts and professionals to their studios to talk on national issues. Ghanaians are fed up with the kind of useless broadcasting journalism we are witnessing now. Ghanaians want to listen to well informed professionals and experts, and learn from them, not illiterate and uninformed charlatans like Malik Kweku Baako.

By Kobena Arthur