September 2018

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 29 September, 2018.   The question in the title of this story gets an A from us. You can never tire of asking what the problem is with our Ghanaian leadership. Many of them are highly schooled. We respect that. But alas, need we repeat that there are differences between schooling, training and education? The question which forms the basis of this story, is about Nigerian traders, in particular, being driven out of the retail trade business in Ghana. Ken Ukaoha, one of the speakers at a demonstration at the Ghana High Commission in Abuja and the ECOWAS Secretariat inRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 26 September, 2018. The unanswered question in John 18:38 from the New Testament Bible formed the basis of several days of debate among my friends and I as young undergrad students. ‘If Jesus had given an answer it would have settled the debate forever,’ a friend of mine offered. We ended the debate, acknowledging our cluelessness. This truth debate flashed back when the Institute of Public Relations (IPR)- Ghana press conference held last week and the German Catholic church conference of this week hit the news. In this season of truths as we call it on our blog, there areRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 24 September, 2018.   September 21 is now celebrated in Ghana and throughout Africa as Africa Day of Peace in honour of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president. And yes, Nkrumah was an active practising journalist! Critics of Kwame Nkrumah have perhaps not realized that Prof Ali Mazrui has settled the debate about Nkrumah to their consolation. Speaking in Accra in 2002 on the topic Nkrumah’s Legacy And Africa’s Triple Heritage Between Globalization And Counter Terrorism, the respected African Scholar said, ‘Nkrumah was a great African but a small Ghanaian’. Mazrui was fully aware of the Preventive Detention Act (PDA) and theRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 19 September, 2018.   At PRESEC there was a school rule that pivoted on truth, logic, virtue and tolerance – or simply put, justice. It stated, ‘Every breach of common sense is a breach of school rules and regulations’. As an old boy of PRESEC (Ɔdadeɛ), that is how I understood President Akufo-Addo when he stated last Saturday, ‘Those responsible for the sequence of activities that led to the so called banking crisis…. will face the full brunt of the law if they are found to have broken the law…..It is not right that the overwhelming majority of ordinary Ghanaians shouldRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 15 September, 2018. The late Ghanaian UN Secretary-General, H.E. Kofi Atta Annan, aged 80, was laid to rest Thursday at the military cemetery in Accra. May his soul rest in eternal peace. At the outset, it needs be stated that debating any protocol breaches that occurred  during the historic 3 day funeral does not make anyone unpatriotic. So let us begin with the ‘postmortem’ comments by Nana Kofi Brewuo III, head of Kofi Annan’s family. The head of family has a right to speak and he must be allowed to speak. But when he does so publically, we also haveRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 11 September, 2018. ANOTHER new moon has come to replace the August new moon, when the ‘Sacrifice of the Ram’ took place across the Muslim world. But alas, the Western media will most likely today focus on when suspected Islamic terrorists hijacked planes in the US and destroyed innocent lives and property. It will hardly be mentioned that for the true Muslim, obedience to the will of Allah abhors all forms of evil against mankind, animals and the environment. ‘Allah has blessed his servants with various types of provisions in life- included among them is guidance’, Shaykh Hussain Al-Ash-Shaykh statedRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 10 September, 2018.   What Nike has done these past few days, as has been its practice on several previous occasions, is to choose principle over public opinion. Public relations professionals always strive for the maximum attainable positive public image or public opinion. This is where Nike’s latest promotional material gets our attention. In the promotional piece released last Monday – that has since gone viral, Nike features a close up shot of Colin Kaepernick, an American football quarterback. Kaepernick is looking straight into the camera- chin up, with the words, ‘Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything’. ThenRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 7 September, 2018. Scandals have been present throughout human history. Church scandals and surviving church scandals is as old as the church itself. But the church has always had all the resources for self-reform. ‘Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections’ – St Francis De Sales A good example is St Francis De Sales, leader of the Counter Reformation (1567-1622) and ‘patron saint of Catholic writers and the Catholic press’. Francis De Sales combined the secular culture of the Reformation era with the church’s need to propagate church doctrine. The Catholic Church is currently facing a sex abuseRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra-5 September, 2018.   The Ghana Police Service (GPS) suffers from perpetual public relations turmoil and fiasco. When assessed from the perspective of international best practice of PR, the GPS has very little that it can be proud of. Officers Jaleel, Tehoda and Awuni epitomise what is wrong with our GPS. ‘I want to [garnish] the accounts of the police administration to force them [to reinstate me and pay my benefits],’ interdicted officer Abdul Jaleel stated to the media recently. Abdul Jaleel plans to sue the Ghana police and the inspector general of police (IGP) for contempt of court for failingRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 3 September, 2018.   We have written so much on the Ghana Banking Scandal (Part 1-5). One of our regular readers (let us call her Sheila) has insisted that she wants a ‘purely ethical exposition’. So let’s roll…. Ethics is about making the right choices for ourselves and the society in which we live. These choices are revealed in our speech and acts of omission and commission. ‘No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth,’ says Plato. ‘And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free,’ says the teacher from Galilee (John 8:32).Read More →