We predicted it, but nobody took us seriously. We said it was quite impossible for Lukuley to deliver Constituency 91, let alone the whole of Pujehun to the APC, as he had promised. We had good reasons for saying what we said. If we were not sure of what we were saying we would not have put it in print for the whole world to read.
Now Lukuley has lost Pujehun. It is not the APC that has lost, but Lukuley, and we have very strong reasons for saying so.
Lukuley promised the APC that he would use his influence and money and pedigree (does he have it) to deliver Pujehun. For this he carried several Ghana Must Go Bags loaded with money to Pujehun. The people took the money, and “faked” Lukuley.
We are retelling this story because it is a pity that those in power do not treat the media with seriousness. But we in the media understand this country and its people. And we don’t look at issues the way politicians do. Politicians look at issues from only one point of view-their own point of view. They cannot distance themselves from the issues and take a neutral stance. They cannot be neutral. But we in the media can afford to be neutral. And that is why when we say something it should be treated with the seriousness it deserves.
We predicted it, because we knew the people and understood the political dynamics at play. So we laughed when Lukuley said he could deliver Pujehun.
We are not soothsayers: we are truthsayers. Soothsayers depend on the supernatural to foretell the future. Truthsayers look at people and situations from the knowledge they have of both and predict what is going to happen, with a fairly large degree of accuracy. For how else could we have known that Lukuley was going to fail, with all the money he has?
Journalists are not praise-singers, although there are some journalists who are very close to that. Praise-singers say what people want to hear, for a fee. It would be very easy for us to be praise-singers, if we want to. Just say those things that those in power want to hear, and they will think of you as their own man. But how does that help the Government, the Party in power and above all, the country?
If that is what those in power want us to do, if that is the role they want us to play, then they have missed the point. And if they think that by saying the truth we are their enemies, they have also missed the point.
We have a sacred duty to say the truth, although it may not bring us any material benefits. But if people expect us to say what they want to hear before they can treat us with seriousness, then we are not who they think we are. What does it profit any man to amass wealth by deceit, when the nation stands to suffer? Do we want another war by repeating the same old sycophantic lies to those in power?
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