5 months ago
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Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has admonished players in the political space to be circumspect in their utterances before, during and after the 2024 polls to safeguard the country’s democracy.
The Effutu MP said “all we have is our democracy. The sub-region is not stable and we can’t afford to go that way.
• Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin (fifth from right) and his team with the
NTC management members after the donation Photo: Ebo Gorman
“As I lead Parliament, I’ll be mindful and ensure that in all the things we do in the heat (of the electioneering period), we have Ghana at heart.”
Mr Afenyo-Markin made this call in Accra yesterday when he paid a courtesy call on the management of the New Times Corporation (NTC), publishers of the Ghanaian Times and the Spectator in Accra yesterday.
The working visit was part of the Effutu MP’s stakeholder engagements with actors in the information dissemination space, and how advocacy on the floor of the House could be used to empower them deliver on their mandate without hindrance.
According to Mr Afenyo-Markin, inasmuch as things might not be as Ghanaians would wish, the country was doing well and remained the toast of its peers in the sub-region and beyond; a reason shoulders must be put to the wheel to safeguard the democracy.
“Ghana is doing well but we can do better,” he stated adding that “the media has a big role to play” in that regard.
To him, the interface between the media and the legislature must go beyond the floor of Parliament and go down to the constituency.
“You (the media) need to help us the political class in terms of how we approach things. Don’t leave us to go loose. If you pinch us, we’ll sit up else we get carried away.
“Critique things that are going wrong, commend us where things are going right and this will help MPs and the entire political class to sit up,” he stressed and thanked the NTC for “all you have been doing for Parliament, for Parliamentarians and our democracy”.
He also used the opportunity to donate 20 laptops to the Corporation to enhance the efficiency of the staff in the discharge of their duties, and charged it to take advantage of the digital era to diversify its operations.
Managing Director of the NTC, Martin Adu-Owusu, on his part said the corporation would continue to play its watchdog and gatekeeping roles to ensure that Ghanaians were well informed on developments in the country.
Describing the visit and gesture as historic, Mr Adu-Owusu said the corporation was leveraging technology because “that is the order of the day and we can’t be left out as a media organisation to enhance our performance”.
The doors of the NTC, he said, would be opened to project the Ghana agenda in line with its mandate and commended the third-term lawmaker for his industry since joining the legislature in 2013 and lately as Majority Leader.
Editor of the Ghanaian Times, David Agbenu, enumerating the challenges of the newspaper industry said the dreaded coronavirus pandemic had exacerbated the plight of the print media and of the NTC.
That, Mr Agbenu said, has forced the Ghanaian Times to reduce its pages from 32 to 16 and in the process affecting its mandate of giving voice to the voiceless in the process.
“The reason why you see our pages scaled down to 16 is because of finances. The effect is that we will not be able to serve Ghanaians well because the more pages you have, the more people you can cover,” he stated and appealed to the majority leader for assistance; an appeal Mr Afenyo-Markin said would be carried to the highest levels of government.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
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