The current happenings in the one-year reign of Nana Akuffo-Addo as President of Ghana and the conduct of some of his appointees leaves one to wonder whether the NPP thinks they have been in government for many years and would be in government perpetually.

The citizens who voted for change expected that there would be a new paradigm in the management of affairs in the country and that the old bully tactics and oppression of the poor majority would end. Most citizens bought into the NPP’s campaign message and voted for change because they felt oppressed and burdened under the bungling regime of Former President Mahama.

The call for change was evident because Mahama’s regime was totally bereft of ideas in resolving the economic hardships that prevailed at the time and when the citizens complained the regime’s communicators told us “Ede Bee Keke!”

His Excellency Nana Akuffo-Addo pleaded with Ghanaians to try him too and vote for him as president of our dear nation. The citizens gave him the mandate with high expectation that programs and policies would be implemented to alleviate the suffering of the masses.

This government has the goodwill of the people and it is expected that a government with such massive goodwill would not further burden the people who are already hard-pressed but far from that the Director General of GBC, Kwame Akuffo Anorf-Ntow (Ph.D) has requested the chief justice to begin processes to set-up a court to try TV license defaulters. The chief justice had also gone ahead to set up the courts which shall commence work on the 4th of January 2018.

It is amazing that the best New Year gift Nana Addo’s Government could give the citizen is to start arresting and trying them for defaulting to pay TV license. This government is on a suicide mission and if it wants to be around for long time then they must re-examine their political strategy. How do we reconcile this that a law which was buried for more than two decades all of a sudden resurrects with prosecutorial powers to punish its offenders without enough sensitization and broader stakeholder consultation as to the propriety of the law and its relevance in our current state has a country.

This law which was passed in 1966 and amended in 1991 was passed at the time when GBC was the only TV station in the country; one can therefore assent to the relevance of the law at the time of its passage to generate revenue to enhance capacity of GBC so that their operations could have a nationwide coverage. Fortunately Ghana has moved on with more TV stations doing the same or even better work than GBC and it is the reason the TV License died its natural death two decades ago.

GBC is currently operating as a commercial entity charging its client exorbitant fees for airtime, it has the comparative advantage over its competitors because of its nationwide coverage hence it makes no sense that additional fees be collected for its funding. If GBC thinks it faces extinction because of emergence of private TV Stations then it should explore innovative ways to generate revenue but not to rely on an old antiquated law to extort money from the already hard pressed citizens. This TV license law is extortive, retrogressive, encourages indolence and an enemy to innovative thinking.

One wonders why in modern times of technological advancement where companies are exploring ground-breaking ways of increasing revenue generation GBC would be engaging in backward thinking. This TV license law should be repealed as it takes us 50 years backward as a nation and the chief Justice should have rejected such backward idea of setting up courts to try TV license defaulters.

The argument that the fees is not for content but for owning a TV set sounds quite preposterous to say the least because importers pay taxes on the TV sets they bring into the country and the Tax incidence including VAT is passed on to buyers of TV set. It is therefore immoral to continue to charge citizens annual fees for owning a TV set.

In any case if the license is on the TV sets and not on content why is the license fee not being collected by GRA and the monies collected deposited in the consolidated fund but it is rather being collected by GBC.

GBC knows very well it has lost viewership because of poor content that is why they are have put up this uncritical argument and this same outlandish argument is also the reasons the citizens are unwilling to pay the TV License. The most critical question GBC must ask itself is, why Most Ghanaians have subscribed to Pay TV stations which they are willing to make monthly payments yet are unwilling to Pay TV license to them?.

If GBC thinks it could use the court to intimidate the citizens, then they should rethink because it would not wash. The NPP should rise and resist Kwame Akuffo Anorf-Ntow (Ph.D) and his TV license court because his actions are detrimental to the survival of the NPP in government and if not checked the elephant might once again be chased into the bush. Let the NPP learn from the negative effect the motor court had on their 2008 electoral misfortunes.

Yours truly,

A Citizen not A Spectator.