Paul Adom-Otchere, the host of Good Evening Ghana on Metro TV, has sent out a strong caution to Investigative Journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni, over some comments the latter made concerning Twitter’s decision to set up its regional headquarters in Ghana.
The founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey in a post tweeted; “Twitter is now present on the continent. Thank you Ghana and @NAkufoAddo.”
But Manasseh Azure Awuni, in a Facebook post, replied, “kudos to JA Kufuor, Atta Mills, John Mahama and all who have promoted free speech and made us attractive to the likes of Twitter.”
This comment by the investigative journalist did not go down well with the Good Evening host. He used the first part of his bi-weekly show on Tuesday, April 13, to cast innuendos on the opinion of Manasseh Azure Awuni thus: “Mr Facebook poster, this shows that you are a very bitter person; don’t be bitter; relax; calm down. The essence of life is love, we love each other and we criticize each other.
He continued: “This your bitterness against Akufo-Addo is not going to take you anywhere and it’s not your decision. The Ghanaian people decided that the man has been re-elected for a second time; you fought, you did all that you can; called him all sorts of names because you said he did not achieve something.
Today, you are saying that John Mahama is pro-free speech. Are you not the same person who was on Stan Dogbe’s neck about some journalist who died unfortunately and seizing journalist equipment and all of that. What kind of hypocrisy is this?”
Paul Adom-Otchere further questioned how Manasseh Azure Awuni, as an investigative journalist, goes about his duties.
“Is that how you do your investigations; by putting hypocrisy ahead of your work? What is that? Please stop that!” he stressed.
He went on:
“You criticized John Mahama for everything about his freedom of press credentials, you were tearing Stan Dogbe apart, you were cutting off his neck; we have your articles about Stan Dogbe. You come today and because of hatred and pain against Akufo-Addo, you come and write that JA Kufuor; do you remember JA Kufuor’s tenure, have you done any work on JA Kufuor’s tenure…?”
Adom-Otchere could not comprehend why the journalist should name John Dramani Mahama as part of the former Presidents who championed free speech because to him, every article Manasseh wrote and published during the tenure of John Mahama was against Mahama and all his appointees.
Adom-Otchere continued further: “People must understand that we have a country to build, we fight in elections...whether you like it or not Akufo-Addo is going to be the President of Ghana for the next four years and he is going to do a two-term that any President under the 1992 Constitution can do, he going to repeat the two-term of JA Kufuor and he’s going to repeat the two-term of JJ Rawlings, God be his helper...
This your hatred and your penchant for bitterness against an individual, the Bible says that if you do it on an individual, you have done it unto God so this your bitterness against an individual is against God. Please repent, take your time, repent and chill out, relax, let’s build the country. Criticize by all means as far as you can and you can criticize all you want all day long, but you cannot be bitter and express this kind of pain.
You are somebody that the youth looks up to, you are destroying the youth who are looking up to you; this is total bitterness that Twitter has brought its headquarters here…your articles have been read and they disagree with you that’s why they brought [their] headquarters [to] Ghana in spite of your campaign against Akufo-Addo that he doesn’t like press freedom and you talk about JA Kufuor, were you not reminded that under Kufuor regime, the minister who went to Parliament to repeal the Criminal Libel Law was Akufo-Addo […] and so if you talk about JA Kufuor’s administration you have to recognize that as well.
This your hatred and penchant for bitterness against Akufo-Addo won’t take you anywhere, whether you like it or not, Akufo-Addo has taken the oath of office for the second time…in spite of the propagandist position you took doing documentaries here and there...you see where you are today? You see the opinion of the NMC on you, don’t hate. Hatred is not a good thing, don’t hate, love! You are hating too much, you are too bitter, calm down and stop this funny behaviour.”
Paul Adom-Otchere claimed:
“The real problem of what you have is delusions of self-grandeur, go and cure it; it’s a serious mental health situation. Twitter has ignored you, they’ve put their headquarters in Accra in the expression of Ghana’s penchant for press freedom under the Akufo-Addo administration. You are suffering from delusions of self-grandeur, you’ve deluded yourself; the Bible said pride comes before a big fall, please calm down, let’s love, let’s move on, criticize the President..."
Manasseh Azure Awuni and Paul Adom-Otchere