I have had quite a ‘bashing’ over the past few days after the publication of the article on President Mills’ unimpressive ‘performance’ on the day of his inauguration. Those bashing me are mostly NDC faithful who claim I have been too “harsh” on their leader, who also happens to be my president. Some also argue that I’ve been “disrespectful” – forgetting that I still retain the title of Ghana’s Most Irreverent!
These were the same people who have been visiting this site to heap praises on me after I described most of those who were given state honours some months back as a “grand order of vultures of rats”. Now, they are saying it was wrong for me to describe President Mills’ gestures as “effeminate”. I used the word ‘damn’ in that article about the national honours and they didn’t find anything wrong with it. Now they are telling me that word should never appear in any form of writing.
They thought I was on their side because most of my opinion pieces over the past year were critical of the Kufuor administration. They thought that if their leader came to power, I’d change tack and start singing his praises.
But they were wrong. If the nation is a theatre, the ruling class will be the actors and we the ordinary Joes will be the audience and can only (or mostly) critique the actors and their performances. That was why most of my articles were critical of the NPP government and the man who led it. This created the wrong impression that I was an NDC agent.
After that article about Pres Mills’ stumbling, fumbling and rambling, I am making new friends and I am suffering an alarming attrition of NDC friends. People, who hated my guts just about three weeks ago, are asking to meet with me and those who felt I was the best journalist ever are now telling me to go hell.
But I am not surprised. Neither am I perturbed. I have never set out to win favours from any politician or political party. I am not in a popularity contest so it’s not my aim to impress anyone. It is also not my job to make the president or anyone in his team feel good about themselves. If what they do or say doesn’t seem right, I will speak my mind and anyone else can say whatever the feel about my opinion. If it’s right, of course, I’d say it too. This is what I’ve been doing over the years and I am not going to change simply because there is a change in government.
My opinion might be stupid, uninformed, trivial or even disrespectful. But if that’s all I’ve got, that’s what I’d offer. If you are not interested in my opinion, don’t bother to read or listen. I reserve the right to change my mind as and when necessary but it will always be on my terms. No one can compel me to do or say anything I don’t want to with insults (“your big mouth”), curses (“may God punish you”), taunts of disapproval (“I am not impressed at all) and threats (“we are coming after you”). These things don’t get to me. NPP fanatics did it and look where they are now.
In my line of work, you win some (fans) and you lose some everyday. To the ‘friends’ who have suddenly started hating my guts, I can only say that the ‘friendship’ was never meant to be. And to all those who hated my guts but are now beginning to ‘fall in love’, I will say: this newfound friendship may not last!
