General News of Wednesday, 21 December 2022

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Ras Mubarak breaks silence on sacking incident on Onua TV, demands Captain Smart’s dismissal

Ras Mubarak and Captain Smart Ras Mubarak and Captain Smart

Ras Mubarak, the former Member of Parliament for Kumbungu has appealed to the management of Media General to sack Godsbrain Captain Smart, the host of Onua FM/TV morning show.

Ras Mubarak says Captain Smart dabbles in unethical journalism and that his conduct is a dent on the image of the media house.

He made the statement while detailing the events that resulted in him being asked to leave Captain Smart’s late-night show on Friday, December 16, 2022.

Per Ras Mubarak’s narrative, things started building up on Thursday, December 15 as he was invited to the station to market his candidate Johnson Asiedu Nketiah only for him to get there and see Asiedu Nketiah’s opponent Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo in the studio, preparing to be interviewed.

Ras Mubarak says owing to the reverence he has for Ofosu-Ampofo he agreed for him to be interviewed on the Thursday edition so that he comes on Friday to represent his candidate.

On Friday, mid-way through the show, the host Captain Smart impressed on him to leave the set for him (Captain Smart) to interview another candidate for the NDC chairman position who arrived later than he(Ras Mubarak) did.

Ras Mubarak says he was unhappy with the development and made it known to Captain Smart that his conduct was unprofessional.

He however chose to stay as he believes the desire to sell his candidate was higher than whatever challenge he was encountering in the studios of Onua FM.

Ras Mubarak says, his interview eventually resumed only for him to be faced with another challenge which was regular and unchecked heckling from a lady in the studio.

“About 20 minutes into the program on Friday, the presenter then tells me I should recuse myself so he can interview another candidate who was also standing for chairman. I protested that it was not right. You can’t tell me to come for an interview and the mid-stream you tell me to go off for another person to come. I obliged them and allowed the interview to happen.

“ I tried pointing out to the presenter that what he did was wrong. I’ve done this for 12 years and I had seen no such thing. In the studio, while I was putting out candidate Asiedu Nketiah’s message, the lady was heckling me. It went on for about 20 minutes.

“I’m the guest in the studio and you have somebody who is not the presenter passing snide remarks for 20 minutes. I thought at some point this character would be smart enough to whisper to the lady that what she was doing was not right but from everything that has happened, clearly he himself was lost in the wilderness.

“He has a microphone in front of him so he feels he can misbehave and abuse the platform he has. I feel sad for Media General that they will allow their platform to be abused by a character like that who does not know the difference between what is right and wrong. This character instead of pointing out to the lady, rather was the one who flared up. He was so unprofessional.

“The Managing Director of Media General has apologized to me but let me advise that characters like that don’t add to your number. If you think noise and foolishness is what will make people view, they are rather putting off discerning listeners and advertisers,” he said via Facebook live.

Ras Mubarak’s hard work seemed to have paid off as Johnson Asiedu Nketiah won the national chairman position in the NDC race.