Nana Bobie Ansah back on Radio

The proliferation of Radio Stations in Ghana comes with the proliferation of Radio hosts with various talents. Nana Bobie Ansah is undoubtedly one of the most talented and industrious radio broadcasters in Ghana.

His strength is ability to hold his listeners to stay on his shows by employing suspense, intrigue and controversy. His interviews are hard hitting and easily ambush his interviewees. He is also known to have a weird style of getting information but sticks to the protection of his sources. But most importantly Bobie Ansah will say things no matter whose ox is gored. Many have accused Bobie Ansah of rogue broadcasting and not adhering to broadcasting standards.

Bobie Ansah is back to Radio work after a little break. This time around with Breeze 90.9FM starting from Monday 2nd June, 2014 from 2:00pm-6:00pm.

Starting his broadcasting as a Radio Pastor, Bobie Ansah’s talent became manifest in the way he handles his programmes. He became a hot commodity shuffling between Radio stations like Mighty FM, Meridian FM, Luv FM and Hello FM. He is known to have a unique voice and is on top of the Twi language. From Hello FM in Kumasi he landed at the Accra based Asempa FM of the multi-media group. The last Radio Station he worked for was Agoo FM. Bobie Ansah took Radio stations from scratch to glory and Radio station he leaves becomes a pale shadow of itself.

Bobie Ansah is expected to use his talent to bring something new to Ghanaian listeners. Reports indicate he would resort to the paneling of popular but non-aligned people who are not necessarily tied to any political party and who would pander to the whims of any political party or individual. Some of the names include Sekou Nkrumah, Amenga-Etego SaCut, Mahama Haruna etc. He will also conduct no bar interviews with certain individuals who will say things as they are.
Bobie Ansah believes Ghanaians are tired of listening to people who are expected to kowtow to their political beliefs and whose comments are known even before they start to speak.

Bobie Ansah carved a niche for himself at Asempa with his “Ekosii Sen” afternoon political talk show which became the hottest programme in Accra. Indeed it was unthinkable to do an afternoon political programme since Ghanaians got used to morning political programmes but the hardwork and commitment of Bobie Ansah, his style of presentation, his controversial nature made the programme a well patronised one. Todaymany Radio stations in Ghana have replicated what Bobie Ansah brought to Ghanaians.
Bobie Ansah’s departure from Asempa FM in the run-up to the 2012 general elections
was marred incontroversy. It was believed he was suspended and later sacked by Kwesi Twum the owner of multi-media in accordance to NPP’s whims and caprices.

The action was in direct response to the NPP’s mob action on February 2012, at the premises of Joy Fm, an Accra-based radio station, which resulted in a troup of Police personnel and some private security persons, storming the offices of Multimedia Broadcasting, the mother company of the radio station to clear the NPP supporters who were led to the radio station by the party’s Youth Organizer, Anthony Karbo.

It was said the NPP supporters who trooped to the station meant to lynch Bobie Ansah for not pursuing the NPP agenda. The beef of the NPP supporters was that, Bobie Ansah had given leverage to the NDC communicators to malign the character of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who was the NPPs flag bearer for the 2012 elections.
In the midst of the controversy, the NDC served a notice that if Bobie Ansah the host of “Ekosii Sein”, was taken off the programme, the NDC would boycott the show on Asempa.

The NDC National OrganiserYaw Boateng Gyan was convinced the management of Multimedia Broadcasting had kowtowed to the whims and caprices of the NPP. This resulted in the “Ekosii sein” going off for some time. He said the ruling party was watching developments at the radio station with keen interest, claiming it appeared that managers of the station had succumbed to pressure from the opposition NPP to change the host of the show.
Before this incident there were a series of problems at the studios of Asempa resulting in accusations that Bobie Ansah raised the political temperature in the country.

The writer of this feature himself had fisticuffs with Michael Ampong at the studios of Asempa FM in 2009 when tempers flared on certain pronouncements that bothered a delegate’s conference of NPP that saw major portions of the party’s constitution being amended.

Michael Ampong had strong reservations about an article written by and published on Ghanaweb, Ghanaian Lens Newspaper and other newspapers.

The article, which became the subject of controversy, alluded to the fact that former President Kufuor and Alan Kyeremanten sponsored some supporters of the NPP to vote against the amendments of the NPP’s constitution.

Michael Ampong, on the other hand, replied that my assertions were irresponsible and said things that are derogatory and that reminded me of my Northern background resulting in my protest and a confrontation. Producers and other staff of Asempa FM had to rush to the studio to stop what had then degenerated into fistcuffs.
Also Alhaji Iddrisu Bature, the Managing Editor of Al-Hajj newspaper, was attacked by Mr. Titus Glover, an NPP activist, when the two appeared as panelists on the programme. The confusion nearly degenerated in fisticuffs resulting in the show being halted for a while.

Other panelists, namely Peter Boamah Otokunor, a member of the NDC’s communication team and Mr. John Kumah, a member of the NPP’s communication team also engaged in a heated debate, particularly, about the character of Nana Akufo-Addo.

Mr. Otokunor had spelt out the character of Nana Addo as a serial womaniser and a disorganised politician as per the Wikileaks report, which, did not go down well with the NPP panelist, who also went all out to spew falsehood about the character of Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills.

This resulted in an altercation between Mr. Kumah and the presenter of the show, leading to the storming of the station NPP youth led by Anthony Kabo, the then National Youth Organiser.
There were moves recently by some people to bring Bobie Ansah back to Asempa to handle “Ekosii Sein” whose listenership is dwindling but he turned down the offer saying he was done with multi-media.
It would be recalled that Bobie Ansah in his first televised interview on Metro TV’s Thank God It’s Friday (TGIF) by Kweku Sintim-Misa, affectionately called KSM was asked:
“So will you go back to Multimedia if they call you “Multimedia?
His response was: “No way, no way! I don’t like people who look down upon me. I don’t like people who look down on their fellow man. Even if they will give me heaven, not even my children’s children will work with Multimedia. Kwesi Twum has not been fair to me. Kennedy Agyapong accused Matilda Asante openly that the NPP has given money to MatildaAsante, Special Assignment, what have they done about that? Alhaji Haruna Alidu accused two gentlemen at the Joy Newsroom that they came to their office requesting for a car so that they can work for the NDC openly, what they done about it? On several occasion, they’ve accused Kojo Oppong Nkrumah – I hope Matilda and Kojo will not take this as personal – of being biased, working against the NDC; what have they done about it? That is why I have been saying that I need an explanation [on] why I was sacked.
If the intention is that Bobie is working for the NDC so we will sack him, then Kwesi Twum has not been fair because the same allegations that have been leveled against me have been leveled against others in the same corporate office. Nobody has come out to say that I Bobie Ansah walked up to him for money…If you have any evidence, you have any proof; you bring it on the table. I want Kwesi Twum and Ekyi Quarm if indeed they have conscience, they should come and tell the truth about what I did.”
Controversy followed Bobie Ansah to Accra based Agoo FM where he hosted "Sinipi"', a flagship afternoon political programme. This time around Bobie was accused by certain influential persons at the seat of government - Flagstaff House of not doing government's bidding.
Those involved were are on the neck of Julius Debrah, the owner of Agoo FM, to oust Bobie Ansah, if he will not do the government's bidding. It was said Bobie became so stubborn that he was not ready to be used as a sacrificial lamb for the government hatchet job and this brought about the pressure on Debrah to get rid of him from the station. Realising thisand unable to cope with the situation, Bobie Ansah quietly resigned from Agoo FM.
From all indications, Bobie Ansah hits your airwaves from Monday June 2, 2014.

By Mahama Haruna