Opinions of Monday, 31 July 2023

Columnist: Jesuits of GaDangme

Raymond Archer be honest for once

Raymond Archer and business magnate, McDan Raymond Archer and business magnate, McDan

Unarguably, it is not a crime for a journalist to practice their profession and do business in tandem. Neither is it detestable to divert from being a full-time broadcaster to a fully-fledged business person.

But, it is very distasteful and extremely diabolical when a journalist who is professionally trained to uphold truth, integrity, honesty and transparency is conspicuously captured in broad daylight with unscrupulous deeds unbefitting of a well-known professional in the media fraternity.

Any expert, in the media space, who allow themselves to be entangled with insincerity and unfairness in doing business, is bringing shame and ignobility to the respectable media profession.

But there is one journalist who has been caught in the web of business malpractices, and the most unfortunate thing is he has joined the hearsays and the naysayers in the victimization of a prolific GaDangme business magnate in the person of Dr Daniel Nii Nshia McKorley.

By a reliable resource, Raymond Archer, who is that pseudo-minded journalist turned into a businessman, has been baselessly pointing accusing fingers at McDan for allegedly collapsing the former's business.

The fact is, there is no iota of veracity in that frustrated allegation. Such mendacity of an allegation is reflective of a situational irony that portrays his role as an antagonist. His unfounded labeling at McDan is an indication of his astute hatred for the latter, and there are several reasons for displaying such cynicism towards someone he used to call his friend. Raymond Archer should have known better than "He who lives in a glass house does not throw stones".

Per the records, Raymond rented the Trade Fair premises in the last NDC government at $1.00 per square meter per month. He then signed a Memorandum of Understanding that any moment there should be a need for a reconstruction or infrastructural development of the place, he would have to give way. According to the story, when Dr. Daniel Nii Nshia McKorley was appointed the board chair, Raymond was the first to be shown the master plan for the restructuring of the Trade Fair Centre.

Upon seeing the master plan, he quickly went to convince the Counsel for the Trade Fair Centre not to seek for any Court assistance to get the place clear for work to commence. This con man went behind the lawyer and sought for a court injunction on the commencement of work at the Trade Fair Centre. However, his perfidy was loudly exposed when the court ruled he had no legal right to do so because his intention was in breach of the MOU.

Another defrauding attitude of Raymond was, he mounted a generator at the premises, connected other tenants to it for rent and charged them exorbitantly. Meanwhile, he was using electricity without doing proper payment. In the process of assessing the state of the Trade Fair Centre, the board discovered a debt of over GHC100,000.00 of electricity bills. Clearly, all those activities he was involved in as indicated above confirm that Raymond is an uncharitable cheat, a dangerous deceiver and a so-called business man without any human feelings.

In fact, Raymond's allegation of Mcdan's building his own business at the KIA while destroying other people's businesses at the Trade Fair Centre is void of substance, basis and truth. His accusation is comparable to a drowning man who is blaming someone for drowning, meanwhile he decided to jump into the water by himself. By his own deeds, Raymond has proven to be untrustworthy and untruthful person to deal with. He should blame the collapse of his business on his own callousness and carelessness, and stopped pointing his epileptic fingers at an innocent man.