Koforidua residents fed up with politics on airwaves

Many residents in the Koforidua Municipalities and its surrounding communities have expressed their displeasure about the daily political discussions on the airwaves.

According to them, it distracted people from focusing on their business activities and created unnecessary animosity among people of different political parties and ethnic groups.

These were revealed in a survey conducted by the Ghana News Agency, for more than one month in Koforidua, and some surrounding communities.

The survey took the form of focused group discussions with representatives of the sample communities.

The survey was initiated following the observation that many people in the Municipality and the surrounding communities tuned their radio sets to a new FM station, ‘’BRYT FM’’ at Koforidua, whose test transmission focused on playing music and an advertisement for a company.

Giving reasons why they or the people they knew preferred the new station, the participants indicated that most of the residents were fed up with political discussions, newspaper reviews, and morning shows on radio and televisions stations, which offered the platform to politically biased panelists to politicize almost all the issues in the country.

Speaking to the GNA, Mr Elvis Oppong, a driver and resident of Asokore, observed that the daily political discussions on the airwaves created unnecessary tension in the country and retarded development.

He said one could not continue to listen to political programmes on the airwaves when duty was calling and there was the need to make money to meet some basic responsibilities of the family.

Mr Edwin Kwablah, a resident of Osabene, near Koforidua, said he always tuned in to the new station because he did not want to hear people scream at one another or insult one another on the other networks to create psychological pressure on him.

Listening to music on the new station, he said, made one relaxed after a hard day’s work and even when at work to relieve stress.

He, therefore, advised the authorities of ‘’BRYT FM’’ to focus more on music and complement it in the future with educational programmes that would not stress out listeners.

Madam Agnes Awurama, a trader at the Central Market, said not a day passed without one hearing the representatives of the two major political parties quarrelling over issues of national interest.

She said, the situation was becoming worrying and suggested that national issues be devoid of partisan politics.

Mr Abraham Kwao, a driver who plies the Koforidua -Asesewa road, said, ‘music is the soul of life’ so he did not see why he should listen to political talk shows to disturb himself, while there was a station that played music all day to refresh and entertain the public.

He said he was tired of the everyday politics, adding, ‘Even the politicians themselves do not listen to the political shows, why then should I bother himself.”

Kwasi Bentum, a student, said instead of the politicians concentrating on the welfare of the youth and putting in place measures to revive the economy, they were always wasting resources to blame one another.

He observed that, this attitude would rather worsen the plight of the country and would even spell a doom for the country if it was not changed.

He said the coming of BRYT FM was just timely to provide relief for those of them who were fed up with politics.