Opinions of Tuesday, 1 December 2015

Columnist: Adofo, Rockson

To the Few Ghanaian Overseas-Based Media Friends of NPP

I have a few questions to throw at the Ghanaian Overseas-based media friends of NPP. Do you know that there are two sorts of friends; a true friend and a false friend? Do you know the characteristics of each of these friends?

Who is a friend after all? A friend by definition is a person who you know well and who you like a lot, but who is usually not a member of your family or someone who is not an enemy and who you can trust. This is the meaning of a friend which best suits a true friend while a false friend is just a pretender who outwardly shows they are friends but inwardly, they have their own diabolic or selfish agenda to pursue.

Which one of these two types of friends do you belong to as individual media houses? Then again, what are your motivations and objectives for being friends with NPP? Are you not aspiring to get NPP and Nana Akufo Addo to wrestle power from NDC come 2016 general elections? If this is your MAIN OBJECTIVE for the common good of NPP, Nana Akufo Addo and the suffering Ghanaian masses, why then the obvious, although silent, bickering, backstabbing, and character assassination going on among you?

By your intentional or inadvertent undermining of one another in a fruitless pursuit of seeking favours in the face of some prominent personalities within NPP through unhelpful competition does DEFEAT your common objective of seeing NPP voted into power come election 2016.

It will be better for all of you to pursue your objective as trusted members of the same family but not as enemies or bitter rivals as could at times be detected from your on air insinuations.

In unity lies strength and in unity you can defeat your common enemy to achieve your common objective. In division, you will all fall and the enemy will always prevail; emerge superior and victorious. Is that what you seek to attain? No, but that is exactly what you are pursuing although unconsciously.

I will advise that all the owners of the Ghanaian overseas-based media houses supporting NPP will from time to time organise off air phone conferencing to discuss how best they can forge ahead with their plans of helping NPP win election 2016 to alleviate the sufferings of Ghanaians back home.

You are also entreated to find a persuasive way of advising your radio phone-in callers to eschew insults they may desire to heap on some perceived saboteurs in NPP. That will not help us. At this critical juncture where we have less than a year to go to elections, we need methods and actions that can win us more sympathisers and votes but not what will drive them away from us.

We should not even encourage or allow any of the callers to be so emotional to even respond to insults that our NDC detractors may rain on NPP personalities, especially on Nana Akufo Addo, just to distract us from our basic objective.

The advice I am giving to you today about insults is drawn from personal experience. About seven years ago, I met a Professor from the University of Ghana (Legon), a younger brother to a friend of mine at my friend's son's outdooring ceremony in London. My friend introduced me to his brother (name withheld) and on hearing my name he inquired if I am the Feature Articles columnist on some Ghana news websites? I answered, "Yes, I am". He told me he reads my articles but he will advise that I cut out the insults to make them more academic. He went further to advise that with the insults, there will be a time that people may no longer read my published articles.

About a year ago, someone from one of the arms of government did give me a tip-off that my articles are read and well-liked by some top people in two arms of government. However, they all complain about the insults. They asked this person to advise me to cut out the insults or else it will put some people off reading my articles even though, I come out with facts and express genuine concerns.

A few weeks ago, God through one of His many ways of conveying messages or revealing Himself to people did not only advise me to cut out insults from my publications but also, to advise NPP members against insults if and only if, we are serious to take over power from NDC. I did subsequently publish an article on this revelation.

In a nutshell, there must be no animosities between the few Ghanaian overseas-based media houses supportive of the cause of NPP and her flagbearer. They must also on the quiet side seek to dissuade their radio phone-in callers from raining insults on their perceived opponents or when countering insults from the opponent's camp.


You should pursue the course of action that will make NPP more attractive to floating voters so your primary objective for the party and her flagbearer can be achieved.

What do you learn from the following bible verses? Mark 9:38-39 – "38John said to Him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us." 39But Jesus said, "Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me.... and Luke 9:50 - "Do not stop him," Jesus said, "for whoever is not against you is for you."

You do not have to hold grudge against one another as long as you are all fighting tirelessly to ensure NPP and Nana Akufo Addo come to power to liberate Ghanaians from their current economic hardships, and marked official tribalism and corruption under the watch of President Mahama and his NDC government and party.

Rockson Adofo
(The Lone Ranger crying from the valleys and mountain