The name Manasseh Azure has become famous in recent times as a result of his activities in helping to bring to the fore, some scandals in some institutions under the current NDC administration. However, his recent fame has gotten into the head of this young journalist and he apparently believes that he is sacrosanct and knows all.
This feeling of being the best thing that happened to Ghana was on display on Saturday 26th April and is what has prompted me to publish this article.
Manasseh Azure and Joy FM, have in recent weeks been serializing a leaked draft audit report on SADA. In the reports, Manasseh managed to paint a very gloomy picture of SADA and all the projects the Authority has carried out. One of the projects he used to portray SADA as a failure was the SADA Afforestation program, making it appear that the program was a complete failure and nothing good has come out of it.
In discussing the issue on popular Joy FM talkshow, Newsfile on Saturday, one of Ghana’s finest journalists ever, Kweku Baako produced a report from my own University, the University of Development Studies, to show that contrary to the reports by Manasseh, the UDS study conducted in December 2013 which visited all 145 project sites for the tree planting exercise has awarded an 85% success mark to the project though it also admitted some challenges.
The reaction of Mr. Azure is what exposes his exaggerated ego. Mr. Azure immediately after Kweku Baako mentioned the report, took to facebook to run down Mr. Baako and a whole institution like UDS claiming the report had been concocted by UDS for Kweku Baako to use in his defense of the project.
What one may want to find out from Manasseh is, is he or his reports above criticisms? What we must understand is that all Manasseh has done with the GYEEDA scandal and now the SADA scandal is to serialize draft audit reports or investigative reports and conduct some interviews on them. Again, Manasseh has visited only two (2) out of the 145 afforestation sites.
If Manasseh can rely wholeheartedly on such reports and even pretend that his disclosures on Joy FM are as a result of some painstaking investigation he has conducted himself, why does he go on an insulting spree when others like Kweku Baako also make reference to other reports which say the contrary? Manasseh who has visited only two sites can declare the project as a failure, but doesn’t understand why another institution which has visited all 145 sites can have a contrary opinion. Maybe Manasseh is God whose word should not be challenged.
The least Manasseh can do in the profession he has chosen is to give little respect and credit his seniors like Kweku Baako who have sacrificed so much all their lives for media freedoms and to expose several of such issues with some intelligence. For Manasseh to conclude without any shred of evidence that the report was concocted for Kweku Baako to use in defending one person or another is completely disrespectful and unfortunate to say the least. Maybe Manasseh is suggesting that the reports which are leaked to him and which he serializes are also concocted for him to destroy the images of some personalities or institutions.
The worst of all is Manasseh’s attempt to ridicule and impugn the reputation of our only University in Northern Ghana which has trained several leading men and women who are contributing to National Development today. How dare Manasseh to suggest that the UDS cares so little of its reputation that it will concoct a report just to suit someone? Does he see UDS to be so corrupt and without any iota of integrity? For someone who claims to love the North so much to bring into disrepute a pillar of the North like UDS without any justifiable evidence exposes the extent of his so called love for the north and brings up the question of whether what he is doing is meant to serve some purposes other than the obvious.
As I said in the beginning, Manasseh’s fame has obviously gotten into his head and he’s doing everything to protect that fame and image he has built in these few months. But Manasseh should know that if he is so concerned about his image, then he shouldn’t be in a haste to run down the image of other personalities and institutions whose only crime is stating what they have also observed or carrying out their legitimate duties.
Issah Abdul–Latif
University of Development Studies, Nyankpala