KWAKU-ONE-ON-ONE: Coming To America

Starting from Saturday July 27, 2002 and every Saturday from 11am to 12.30pm, the Embassy of Ghana in Washington DC, as part of activities to attract Ghanaians and potential tourists to Ghana, will re-telecast a new Ghana Television program, “This Week in Ghana”, a thirty minutes news bulletin to be followed by an hour of interview with celebrated Ghanaians and Africans and other historical documentaries.

Kwaku Sakyi Addo one of Ghana’s best journalists and currently BBC correspondent in Accra hosts the interview spot, Kwaku One-On-One.

According to the Minister Counselor for Information, Mr. Ivor Agyeman-Duah, ‘we live in an era of virtually no news drought, and while Ghana has wonderful web-sites around the world, sometimes visual images will make a difference.’

Mr. Agyeman-Duah said this new program and other up-coming events will form the basis of a cultural dimension at the embassy.

The first four episodes of Kwaku-One-On-One will feature the Attorney General and Minister of Justice Hon. Nana Akuffo Addo who will discuss the legal scene in Ghana.

This will be followed by Dr. Obed Asamoah, Chairman of the National Democratic Congress and one of the most experienced politicians in the country. The Okyehene Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin follows Dr. Asamoah discussing the environment and its preservation .The Hon. Minister of Finance Yaw Osafo Marfo explains how to manage the treasury and the survival of the government.

It will not all be politics, the Minister Counselor says. The Former Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim and International Artists and Writers including Akosua Busia, Atukwei Okai and Ama Ata Adioo will have their turns.

You could also watch in the course of the series, the sorrows of Kiki Gyan a former millionaire who played for Osibisa and entertained Queen Elizabeth but is now a street man broken, physically and morally because of drugs.

The interview segment, conducted in an artistic African setting with the host-Kwaku, dressed in either Malian style motif, Senegalese or Ghanaian sits across the interviewee with the innocence of a catholic father listening to the sins of a confessor.

The questions are very probing and the answers begging for further intriguing questions if inadequate. As he is in total control, there could be interspersing of music depending on whom he is interviewing (it could be Mac Tontoh who led the international band group Osibisa, the South African celebrity Hugh Masekala or poetry reading from Akosua Busia, Atukwei Okai or Ama Ata Aidoo). There will also be time for post-broadcast discussions.

A seasoned interviewer, Kwaku Sakyi Addo has interviewed global leaders, artists and authors including two UN Secretary, Generals, a former Israeli Prime Minister, some African Presidents and reported for the CNN, Reuters, Bridge News and other international media organizations.

The program will be free to the public but for those who will want to know beforehand the interviewees can e-mail iaduah66@yahoo.com or call 202 686 4520-6 ext 243

To help with planning, those especially in the Washington Metropolitan areas who would like to watch the program on regular or even irregular basis could e-mail as well.