Posted: Daily Guide |Wednesday, 09 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR) have taken on the Managing Editor of The Insight newspaper Kwesi Pratt Jnr, over his comments about their icon.
Mr. Pratt had sworn to do whatever it takes to ensure that the former First Lady and President of the 31st December Women’s Movement (DWM) does not become the President of Ghana.
This was what provoked the group to cause its Communications Director, Dela Coffie to issue a strongly-worded statement in which they questioned the credibility of Mr. Pratt noting, “In his usual predilection of betraying the truth and denigrating pillars of society, this ingrate mounted a sermon of preaching vile doctrines which seem logical only in his head and said that he would do anything in his power to prevent Nana Konadu from becoming a President of Ghana.
“FONKAR takes offence to the ill-informed and ill-conceived commentary by this tainted politician who wants to come across as a journalist. Should Mr. Pratt’s populist brand of political rhetoric go unchallenged? We find Pratt’ belligerence and his utterances on the former first lady, to be very reckless and we are convinced that such unprovoked attacks on Nana Konadu could only be part of that grand scheme being orchestrated by the Mills’ administration to discredit the former first lady,” the statement noted.
They could not fathom why and how Mr. Pratt, whom they described as a ‘journalistic albino’ has suddenly become a member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to decide what is good for the party stressing, “the likes of Kwesi Pratt talk as if they own the country and without them everyone in the country doesn't matter. Who is Pratt to choose a President for the 24 million Ghanaians? Since when did he become the spokesperson of Ghanaians?”
But Mr. Pratt ridiculed FONKAR’s statement when DAILY GUIDE contacted him yesterday, saying, “If this is the level of their campaign message then they are not going anywhere.”
FONKAR said it was aware of the fact that Mr. Pratt and another loud-mouth journalist as well as a self-styled pollster met a senior security operative of the NDC not too long ago and were given the contract to churn out polls that will indicate that a Nana Konadu presidential ambition will be a disaster for the NDC in 2012 indicating that, “every discerning Ghanaian knows that Mr. Pratt is a compromised journalist and what he churns out most of the time emanates from his stomach rather than his head.
“Despite his claims that he is an independent editor, we are yet to see this scandalous editor take on moral issues that speak to the growing misery of the nation’s majority who can barely pull themselves by the straps. The likes of Pratt and their style of journalism is an apology to media practice in this country.”
This, FONKAR said, was evident in the fact that “they have rejected the core principles that govern objective news coverage and have metastasized into a corporate body that is more interested in marketing the political ideals of paymasters while it downplays the cruel experiences of resource-deprived Ghanaians. Because of gluttony, and avarice, Pratt is trying very hard to run down the image of a woman who has shown tremendous consistency as a strong advocate of the ordinary people.”
For this and other reasons, the group said Mr. Pratt does not exhibit political and linguistic correctness in his constant critique of Nana Konadu, wondering whether if it is just mercenary journalism, media irresponsibility or corporate greed.
In this light, the angry NDC youth described Mr. Pratt as “nothing but a paid agitator, a mercenary journalist and a poster boy,” daring him “to come out and tell the whole world how he acquired a state-of-the-art printing press six months into the Atta Mills administration.
“Whose interest is he serving besides his own in his campaign of reckless vilification against Mrs. Rawlings? Haven’t Pratt and his collaborators waged their fruitless war of attrition against the former first lady long enough to realize that they are fighting a losing battle?”, they asked rhetorically, noting with emphasis: “Pratt must also be reminded that the former first lady was never made by the media, and cannot be unmade by the media.
“It is only Ghanaians who can decide whether Nana Konadu can become a President or not, it is not opportunists and crooks who parade as so-called senior journalists and political animals.”
FONKAR, which has declared a continuous and unflinching support for the former First Lady, noted, “The fallacy that Nana Konadu cannot win an election in this country is just another communist inferior tactic”, adding, “We are certain Mr. Pratt would be consumed by his mission of destroying Nana Konadu sooner rather than later.”
They therefore warned that “those who are bent on destroying Mrs. Rawlings and her family from within or outside of the NDC must desist from it or be well prepared for the fight of their lives.
“If President Mills’ men, in their wisdom, believe that they can hire Pratt to discredit Nana Konadu to suit their cause, then they must be living in a banana republic,” the statement said, noting with emphasis, “The President must be careful about his friends in the media because sooner rather than later they would help him sing his own dirges.”
Responding, Mr. Pratt wondered why the group would take him on for expressing his personal opinion since according to him, “I am a citizen of Ghana, and I say I don’t like Konadu as my President. Every citizen is entitled to do that.
“My main reason is that…if you are not with them, they will come at you, they will tell lies about you. They will bully you and so on, I cannot accept somebody like that as my President”, Pratt told DAILY GUIDE.