Akua Bonsu

When people go on a personal vendetta without regard to the consequences of their actions, we must all step back and rethink their prominence and whether they deserve the relevance accorded them. These after all are people who undeservedly rose to national prominence on pure lies and deception. They require all others to do one thing and then do the exact opposite with regards to how they live their lives.

Kwesi Pratt and Raymond Archer have built an inglorious profession spewing garbage into our national discourse without making an iota of tangible contribution to our nation building. Rather, they sit back and destroy what others have toiled to build. These are socialists in public but pure capitalists in their private lives. And when they see that others are doing better than they are, they jump into a pull-him-down (PHD) mode.

For people who preach about everything for the government or for all of us, why do they live in mansions – especially for contributing nothing? Why do they own a fleet of SUVs in a country where people line up and cram into tro-tros? I have not seen these socialist, national interest-minded talking heads once pull over at a tro-tro station and offer rides to members of the struggling masses whose interest they profess to champion.

Their lies attract so much attention that they distract from what they are doing in secret. Kwesi Pratt is the managing editor for the Insight newspaper that is lucky to sell 100 copies a day. Raymond Archer is not faring any better with his Enquirer, which is like a needle in a haystack of newspapers. With these two characters not known to have any other source of income, how do they finance their lavish lifestyles?

Pratt allegedly receives as much as $35,000 a month from the government to see no wrong with anything the latter does. In fact he promotes policies by this NDC government that he is on record to have opposed in the past. Archer, on his end, would do anything that the radical wing of the NDC party tells him to do in return for financial support from the millionaire socialist.

Even when cooler heads in the NDC government (and there is an increasing number of them) go out on the limb to do what is right for the nation, Pratt and Archer, or shall I say Beeves and Butthead, would quickly bundle a pack of lies and put it out. Their mode of communication is the radio since their respective newspapers would not reach the masses.

It is time these two nation-wreckers are put in their proper places. They have nothing to offer Ghana. If the Insight newspaper was doing well, how would Kwesi Pratt, as managing editor, spend so much time on the radio? If the Enquirer was doing well and meant well for the nation, why would Archer resort to placing fabrications on his front page at a time when everyone else is talking about flood victims, the purchase of five airplanes, and the invasion of homosexuality in our society?

Ghana deserves better. If we are serious about transitioning to middle income status, the prominent voices in the media should not belong to those who destroy rather than build. Those who lie to the public must not only be called to order – they must face the consequences of the damage they are causing. In the absence of Freedom of Information law, people rely on statements in the media, particularly the radio, to form their opinions and participate in our national discourse accordingly. When the pieces of information they believe they are receiving are nothing but lies and fabrications, those peddling such are doing more harm to the nation than we all realize. Pratt and Archer must come clean as to how they really earn their living. Thereafter, it would all make sense why they lie the way they do.