TOY FM, NOT JOY FM : MY UNCLE IS ALIVE

Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah once said that “the fabrication of the BIG LIE is essential in the planning of any usurpation of power”. I wish by the medium of this message and this article to bring the attention of all Ghana and responsible journalists, to the worse journalistic malpractice which I encountered LIVE on Wednesday at the Korle-bu Hospital in Accra.

The low-stooping level which the FM station called “JOY FM” reached recently, which I witnessed myself, was so shocking to me that I CANNOT EVER take :”Joy” FM serious anymore when it comes to news reporting. It was so nasty an experience, and too silly and stupid to be ignored.

I used to think that with all the pride, pomposity and show-off that so many journalists muscle , tussle and chuckle about, that they generally reported the TRUTH, or what they SAW with their own eyes or WITNESSED; and that they could even proof or at least knock their chest for, or even call a witnesses to confirm whatever they so brazenly reported. I HAVE BEEN TOTALLY WRONG, and “Joy” FM proved it.

In this case of ‘Joy FM’ (rather TOY FM), and their so-called excellent “journalist of the year”, one Menasseh Azure Adongo Abongo, nothing could have been far away from journalism than the FAITHLESS, SHYLESS, SHAMELESS AND even SOUL-LESS behavior and VERY bad journalism they made the whole nation of Ghana to experience since the past three or four weeks with regard to the condition of my uncle, His Excellency Alhaji Aliu Mahamah(May Allah grant him speedy recovery, Amen).

I used to think that “Joy” FM and “Joy”-online were reliable and trustworthy sources of information to the general public until my horrible encounter with their cheap journalist Manasah Awuni Abongo Adongo, the so-called journalist of the year to the GIJ(not to me at all) who by his practical behavior there enforced and enhanced my doubts about the authenticity of news and reports coming from “joy” fm. This incident, more than any other, has debunked and shattered, if not all the trust I had in J”oy” Fm, then at least has reduced this FM Station from a ‘JOY’ one to a TOY FM in my view.

At around 3pm on Wednesday, I went to the Korle-bu Hospital to visit my uncle His Excellency the former Vice President of Ghana Alhaji Aliu Mahamah. I arrived there and made a request at the reception and was escorted respectfully by a nurse to the dept where His Excellency is recoupering at. The nurse told me “this is the building, so go in there and ask the nurses. His Excellency is on one of the top floors, so I met some Alhajis and some family relations in the front there and started to exchange greetings One of them, a young man told me : “Alhaji, that guy standing there is the one who gave the Joy FM(I mean TOY FM) wrong report on His Excellency’s health the other time, he could be here to do the same nonsense again”. He was standing quietly by a wall outside there, in a mood that was clearly depicting a person in a suspicious mood or one trying to do something that he was hiding in doing.. Abdul Rahman (our younger brother) was standing there and I told him : ‘if you know he is the one, and he could be here to do that again, why not drive him away from here, go tell him to move away from here.’.

As the young man moved to go to the that TOY FM lie-lie Bongo reporter, I called him back and told him to go use his phone to snap him Bongo liar before telling him to go. The young man snapped him twice, and in the second picture, I came and stood behind him Bongo lie-lie reporter and appeared with him in the picture as evidence against TOY FM and Toy News. We have the photo with us and going to meet the managing director of TOY News for official complaint and possible legal action. I went upstairs to my uncle’s ward with the guy who snapped the picture, and after greetings them, one of the family members asked me : “why is this thing called “JOY “ FM doing that?, we are just listening to the same irresponsible and gutter journalism they are doing. The news reporter is saying he came here and saw an ambulance leaving this place among other things”. The yound man who took the photo then told us that “as he was standing there downstairs, that’s what he was doing, he was on line reporting to the “JOY” FM. I told them then that I was sorry I did not know that when we were driving him away, else I would have rather sent him away with a deserving provocative Dagomba slap(the most disastrous slap for anyone to take).

Its very shameful and most irresponsible for TOY FM to consider “I saw an Ambulance coming out” as evidence for the stupid report they gave. If that is good evidence for a report of that nature, then “ambulance seeing” at korle-bu could be enough evidence to fill all the papers in town. If on the other hand, they were believing him because he had been called “best” journalist, then his two korle-bu stories have dis-proved that as a fallacy and a very serious doubt.

TOY FM I believe, should have been more matured than this , and restrained it’s stray dog or verified much before committing this stupid journalistic blander , especially as this was the second time the nonsense was happening by that untrustworthy guy., but they negligently(and responsibly) got carried away to commit for the second time such high-class blander of fabrication. This makes me wonder so much how such a fabricating liar could have been chosen over all others and called “best journalist”. And this begs the question whether all those he competed with(the best among the lot) were also stained with such gutter journalism behaviours especially IF HE COULD WIN OVER THEM.

Death as well as lLife, as far as we muslims are concerned , is both accepted by us with Allah The All-Mighty whenever He wills it. If my uncle died last year, last month , yesturday or any day in the future, we the family and all muslims say : Innaa lillaahi Wa innaa ilaihi Raaji-uuna”, which means that all life is the gift or rather loan from Allah All-Mighty, and whenever He decides to take it back from any of us muslims, we say ‘Thank you Allah The Giver of Life and The Taker of Life, for kindly haven loaned us of life and now asked for it again back to Yourself’.

As a matter of fact, His Excellency Alhaji Aliu Mahamah and also we the entire family of His, are so thankful to Allah All-Mighty for having been so Kind and so Gracious to him and us by giving him such excellent life, and making him UNPRECEDENTEDLY the highest Muslim National Office bearer in the history of modern Ghana, a pride for us and also for all Muslims. Neither he nor we his family(like any other family) naturally contemplated this great mercy . So we are so thankful to Allah All-Mighty, and praying Him that He should Kindly give our father a speedy recovery and bring him home to us in good health. Amen.

As for TOY FM , the evidence is clear, and discerning Ghanaians are so offended and sick and tired of such extremely unprofessional and joyless journalism. Its better you don’t report what you don’t know, than reporting such obnoxious lies(not even hear-say)like you have done. This has reduced your news media, in the sight of many people, to a TOY News station.

My advice to Manesah Azure Abongo Tongo the lie-lie journalist or Bongo Journalist, is this: If you don’t know that you should be the last among all journalists to create such fabricated stories about somebody from your side of the country, then you ought to know better. Secondly, for you, there is a common proverb that says that if you are a little baby, you don’t play with fire, else it burns you and destroys your fingers. Finally it would be preferable to us and wiser for you and other liars like you of TOY News and other News, to stop coming to the place to fabricate lies and false stories. You never know, you could be the one to be seen in the socalled “ambulance leaving the hospital” the next time you come there. A word to the wise(if you are one) is enough.

Alhaji Mubarak Zuututugri Gamanzi(Alias ‘Prof’)

Prof.ztut3@yahoo.com