Ghana’s former president, John Dramani Mahama has expressed his strongest disapproval of the attempts by a section of the public to tag journalists as terrorists for doing their work.
Delivering a lecture on financing political campaigns at the UPSA auditorium on March 22, the former president emphasized the need for all and sundry to uphold the country’s democracy by desisting from describing journalists who have been breaking their backs for the country as terrorists.
“Our party, NDC, wants to build the Ghana we want together by writing not footnotes, not pages but chapters in the anticorruption history of our dear country Ghana.
“We must also uphold human rights, including freedom of expression and not describe journalists as terrorists,” the flagbearer hopeful of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said.
His comment comes on the back of what many have described as controversial, a judgement at the High Court by Justice Eric Baah, in a defamation suit filed by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas against Kennedy Agyapong, Member of Parliament for Assin Central, which described Anas’ works as investigative terrorism.
The undercover investigative journalist has over decades been involved in uncovering corrupt practices and human rights abuses in Ghana and beyond, and have been celebrated globally for his works.
Anas describes himself as “the most notorious journalist in Ghana and modern day crime fighter who exposes corruption and helps police arrest some of the worst criminals in Africa.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Mahama has promised to restore confidence in the country’s democracy and governance systems if re-elected in the 2024 elections.
“Mr. Chairman, my agenda to build ‘The Ghana We Want Together’ from 2025, will involve far-reaching constitutional, political and governance reforms to restore confidence in our democracy and governance systems,” he said.
In achieving this, the former president said, he will, among other things, intensify stakeholder efforts and engagement on the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP).
“God willing, in 2025, when I have the opportunity to be the President of Ghana who has been a President before, I will come with priceless experience to fix our broken nation,” he insisted.
“We plan to take up and conclude the constitution review process that started under President John Evans Atta Mills. The reforms will include a review of the controversial Article 71.
“I still believe that in this crisis period, Ghana can be managed with not more than 60 ministers. And to cut down on the number of officeholders and remove the disparities in privileges and emoluments.
“Let me state once again that I will scrap the payment of ex-gratia to members of the Executive and persuade other arms of government to accept same. Let those who oppose the scrapping of ex-gratia state so explicitly instead of moving in meandering contours in a failed attempt to trivialize this important promise.”