…He Lacks "Communication Intelligence"

Our attention has been drawn to an insinuation casted against His Excellency President Mahama by one Ernest Owusu Bempah, the so-called Director of Communications for NDP, just for urging Ghanaians to help him govern the country and stop their unprecedented and unwarranted attacks across the airwaves.

Human as he is, the President has every right to express misgivings about the ranting and raving of his opponents, which is becoming more rife and rampant. He has been at the receiving end of too much heat, with only destructive criticisms not constructive ones. Some Ghanaians lose sight of the fact that, the act of governance is a very difficult and daunting task. If a leader is always inundated with so many issues-left, right and center on his desk to tackle, and has shown commitment to walk his talk, by cracking the whip against culprits of corruption and financial malfeasance in his government, the least he expects from every Tom, Dick and Harry is patience, co-operation and support, by whistle blowing to him any case of corruption they might have heard or seen going on.

But to the extent that a childish, premature, novice and mediocre 'communicator' like Bempah would describe the President as, lacking "Communication Intelligence", is simply ironical and that alone exposes Bempah's ignorance about what "Communication Intelligence" is.

Where was Bempah in the nineties when the then Mr. Mahama was the minister of Communications-where even opposition party gurus would commend him on the floor of parliament and on other platforms for his exceptional expertise in communication? I guess he was in Primary School or JSS, when he could not even spell the word "Communication" or "Intelligence".

With this choice of words to characterize the President, Bempah is rather doing a great to disservice to his NDP party, which I know many of its gurus might be wondering, who on earth would describe President Mahama with those phrases. Because as former members of the NDC, they are well aware that, one of the criteria for which he was chosen by the NDC as vice-presidential candidate to late President Mills was his terrific communication skills.

If Bempah, for political expediency should tag President Mahama, whose professional pedigree is in communication, with an enviable credentials in the field-having taught communication studies and wrote articles and a book(which was recommended by some of the best Universities in America for their students), as lacking "Communication Intelligence", then he needs to go back to school to learn what "Communication Intelligence" supposed to mean. This obviously presupposes that, Bempah is a half-baked graduate, wanting to score cheap political points and makes himself popular, but not politically savvy and skilled enough, only venting his spleen without any substance. I doubt if Bempah could pen down a masterpiece, not even a book, an article, worth publishing in an international magazine or a newspaper. President Mahama is a columnist in an international magazine, published in the US, called, Roots. I throw a challenge to Bempah to bring it on, if he thinks he is intelligent and intellectual enough to describe His Excellency the President, as lacking "Communication Intelligence".

But It appears Bempah is not well-groomed enough to understand what "Communication Intelligence" is. And I will therefore recommend him a book entitled, "My First Coup D'état", written by the very person he doubts his communication potential and prowess and therefore trying to denigrate him on the airwaves. This book will expose to him much about His Excellency's "Communication Intelligence".

President Mahama's book, has been recommended by the members of the academia of (Ivy league) elitist Universities in the US, such as Yale, NYU, etc. And whoever was present in New York, last September at NYU( New York University) and Columbia University(and Universities in other states), would bear witness to how the President gave a crowd-pulling lectures, interspersed with standing ovations. With his excellent communication skills, the President arrested the attention of students and lecturers at the various lecture halls which were full to capacity.

If in the name of freedom of speech and political expediency, we begin to castigate and cast insinuations on our leaders unjustifiably, then what kind of society are we living in? Even in the so-called land of the free speech, the United States of America, those of us living here can testify that, you cannot always insult their President and get away with it, especially on air or in public. I witnessed an interesting incident in a train, on a trip from New York to New Jersey, about three years ago. There was this Hispanic guy in the train, who was insulting President Obama, and this well-built Caucasian guy in the train became aggravated and grabbed his neck and said, "Are you insulting my President?". He nearly beat him up, but for the intervention of some bye-standers.

I would urge the NDP National executives to do a thorough due diligence on this communicator of theirs, and possibly, replace him with a more mature and well-educated communicator, since he is never circumspect in his choice of words against the father of the nation, who deserves our outmost respect and recognition. We are a country with an enviable traditional system-replete with ethical norms and values, the principal among which, is respect to the occupant of the highest office, which is the President.

Husseini Y. Baba AlWaiz, Press Secretary NDC New York & Member of the Communications Team, NDC USA