Lawyers! Journalists! You’re Letting “The People” Down…

I do not know about you, but, lately I have been feeling like we do not have lawyers and journalists in this country of ours.

Oh no, let me rephrase that.

I have been feeling like we do not have lawyers that love the law just for the righteousness and societal justice of it.

Nor do we have journalists that feel like shinning the light on issues are more pertinent than shining the light on themselves.

If we do have lawyers and journalists like that in Ghana, then where are they?

Have all of them sold their souls to the highest bidder too?

If they have, then I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Ghana as we know it, is no more.

TO THE JOURNALIST…

My media law and ethics lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Journalism, Lawyer Osei Kwadwo Adow, and he is the kind of lawyer I’m talking about.

The man told me and my colleagues, on one or two occasions during his lectures that, real journalism, not the kind many Ghanaian journalists were practicing, but the journalism that mattered, was the kind the likes of Anas Aremyaw Anas practiced.

My young mind did not agree so I shrugged and chalked it off as the rantings of a man that just liked to be funny.

Little did I know.

Now, looking back, with every that is going on, I realize, of all the wisdom he imparted, that was the most true.

When I think about it now, I realize, Ghana does not even need all journalists to be Anas.

Ghana needs journalists to care enough about the society of which’s very fabric, they make.

Journalists that only have to be half competent and be able to ask the questions that matter.

Journalists are not afraid to speak truth to power.

Journalists that can ask a Minister of Information, “whether the fact that the practice of paying spouses of heads of state being in existence, even with a constitutional provision nor a parliamentary enactment, just it’s illegal existence, make it legal?”

Journalists that can ask members of parliaments that, “of all the money they make from the offices they hold as public servants, of all the allowances, do they really think it’s prudent, especially when Ghana is battling coronavirus, taxes are out the roof, life as the people know it, is hard, do they really think, it is prudent to borrow money on the people’s dime, to buy cars just so they can feel important and please their egos?”

I do not blame all journalists.

Some find themselves in circumstances brought on by the system’s flaws and design.

They don’t get paid nearly enough. On top of that, they have families to take care of.

I’m not in anyway saying, all that makes selling their souls okay, but I’m saying, as a human, I can understand the reason why they do it.

That is why I don’t blame all of them.

I blame the ones that are fortunate enough to not be in a position where they are forced to bite the hands that feed them but are still doing nothing.

I blame the ones that have the know how, the right training, the right clout, and the biggest of platforms but are still doing nothing.

Panel discussions filled with politicians from the two big political parties are a blight on the journalism profession.

Instead of putting up that little show, bring in the legal expert to analyze the Minister of Information’s words on paying salaries to wives of presidents and their vices.

Let them guide you to find the lie in there and ruse disguised in authority and eloquence.

Shine the light instead on the loopholes and flaws in their arguments and expose their arrogant lies.

There is a different kind of glory and pride in that.

In knowing that you made society a better place by doing the job you love.

Take the fulfillment and joy that comes from knowing that because you did a half decent job, the people will get that hospital or school they so desperately need.

Show them what it really means to say, “the pen is mightier than the sword”.

Better still, leave that one to them and give birth to, “the ink, voice, and camera, is mightier than the office”.

Why are you not making this true?

Why are you not being a journalist?

NOW TO THE LAWYER…

When was the last time the phrase “rule of Law”, meant something more than just an inscription on in front of the supreme court to you?

Is there even such a thing in Ghana anymore?

Not the words obviously, but the spirit behind the words.

To the lawyers and attorneys, when you put on that robe and step into a court room, why do you do it?

For the money or the principle?

I won’t fault you if it is for the former, but why can’t it be the latter too, why can’t it be for both?

Why do you watch on as politicians without the slightest of clues, quote the law to the masses, when both of them don’t understand a thing?

Is it not your bread and butter, this thing the politician is misusing.

Why won’t you be the Abraham Lincoln of your people?

The letter of the law matters not more than the spirit of the law, is that not what you believe?

Did you not learn that inaction is equal to complicity? So why are you not doing anything.

What is stopping you from filing a legal case challenging their bogus claims as counsel for the actual people.

Why are you not challenging them in your own turf?

Why do you idly watch as they make a mockery of the things you hold sacred.

The acts, articles, clauses, enactments, do they mean this little to you?/

Why are you not being a lawyer?

TO BOTH…

If Ghana will a stand a chance, it will depend a great deal I’m afraid, on these two professions.

I’m not saying out of all the professions, these two are the best, no.

That is not what I’m saying.

What I’m saying is, in the world we find ourselves now, and the new kind of oppressors we face, we will need these two most.

To the journalist, make most of your freedom of expression to ensure other freedoms are expressed.

To the lawyer, the journalist owes you her freedom of expression among others, but more than that, you owe Ghana, it’s people, and it’s history, it’s time in court.

Be a lawyer for Ghana and make sure Ghana gets not only it’s time in court, but a fair and just hearing.