Oh! No Victor Smith

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I have a lot of respect for Mr. Victor Smith. He is quite a very personable and an intelligent person. On the job as the quintessential sounding board of former President Jerry John Rawlings and his family he scores way above average. He is abrasive when he has to, genteel when the occasion demands it and ruthless to a fault on a good day.

He does not suffer fools lightly. Compared to Dr. Tony Aidoo, Victor Smith would come away as a patron saint. His job is to defend and preserve the image, person and the legacy of the former President. Like a professional Public Relations impresario, he takes his job seriously and handles his most treasured account with certain degree of professionalism. He would not land on his opponents like a ton of bricks nor use an acerbic tongue as a weapon of mass destruction (WMD-apologies to President George W. Bush) as Tony Aidoo is wont to do, The jury?s verdict on that is out and it is not quite as damning as some Ghanaians expect.

I RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE

My highest regard for Mr. Victor Smith notwithstanding I take issue with his recent comments on the alleged armed robbery incident involving the Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). Opinions like it is said are like noses-everyone has one. However when the opinion that one offers on a situation does not reflect the truth but is packaged as the bible-truth it has the potential of causing collateral damage and throwing things out-of-whack or out of control.

In any given situation, it is always reasonably expedient to apprise ones self about a situation before making a comment about it. It is called playing the safe game. In journalism cross-verification and multiple sourcing is a very crucial component of the profession. In fact the importance of information and the role it plays in our world imposes the need for practitioners of the profession to be meticulous, scrupulous, and careful. In this case, the venerable Victor Smith without fully apprising himself about the incident ?went to town? and took the whole Kufuor Administration with him.

It was shooting from the limb at its best if you would ask me to characterize it.

Clearly Mr. Smith goofed badly by reading political motives into the incident. You don?t have to take my word for it. Accra?s crime boss, ASP Kofi Boakye whose take on the issue has more currency and carries more weight slammed Mr. Smith?s statement.

Boakye went further to provide more information about the faces behind the robbery and dismissed any politically motivated notion behind it. If the attackers also struck another house close to the office of the NDC Presidential Candidate it would be difficult for anyone to make an intelligent, thoughtful and erudite statement inferring sinister motives be they political or whatever.

The idea that somebody in national security armed people to carry out such an attack on a very prominent and distinguished political opponent of the sitting President in an election year is as preposterous as saying President Rawlings is planning to stage a coup in December with the support of George Bush and his Nato allies.

Get out of here-Victor Smith. Uncle Smith, most people including this writer believe you are doing a great job defending President Rawlings. Please stick to that.

Don?t stray into areas where it is glaringly obvious you lack the expertise. Spin and massage all you want about President Rawlings. Ghanaians can dig that. A more relevant cause the NDC should be pursuing pre-December elections is the dismantling of the alleged special force established to police the general elections.

That would be a cause worth fighting and living for. We are tired of the polemics.

On a more serious note I would suggest that the state provide security for all Presidential candidates in the future. We don?t have to wait for disaster to strike like it happened in America when Democratic candidate Senator Kennedy was assassinated in public before we do the right thing.