“[Journalism] is a hazardous profession … so definitely, you’ll generate every time a new crop of enemies who would want to stop you.” The renowned journalist could not have been any closer to the truth than when he made that statement in an interview with Pulse GH and ever since the release of the much talked about ‘Number 12’ documentary, public indignation with the football administration has soared.
And that is not the only thing that has increased ever since, with the release of this documentary, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, along with the Tiger Eye PI have just harvested their anticipated crop of enemies. And we are about to take stock for the season’s harvest.
First on the list and probably the biggest item on the Ghanaian grocery list this week is the just recently resigned Ghana Football Association president, Mr. Kwasi Nyantakyi. And he has since been roasted for all he was worth – first by the Bureau of National Investigation who wouldn’t let the man take in two breaths on the motherland before they swooped in and carried him away the moment he landed on Ghanaian tarmac. And just when one expected that the situation could not have gone worse for him, they went on and allowed his statement, made in the privacy of their walls, to be leaked to the general public.
Then there is the press and the general population who have meticulously carried out their duty of setting the king of Ghanaian football unto the spotlight and shoving him hard into the mill. After all, who is better qualified to be crucified by the masses than the man who claimed to have the President of the Republic nestling comfortably in his pocket?
And one couldn’t blame Ghanaians for needing a villain’s whose reputation they can smother out once in a while and a hero who can make that possible from time to time – Nyantakyi and Anas have satisfactorily filled in those positions and satiated the general public’s craving. That’s something worth applauding – unless you’re Nyantakyi.
The next on the hit list is the CEO. Of Net 2 and Oman FM and the Member of Parliament for the Assin North Constituency, Mr. Kennedy Agyapong. In the weeks before the release of the video, the Member of Parliament all too suddenly became a vociferous advocate against what he believed was the corrupt and illegal means by which the ace journalist operated and subsequently accrued wealth.
Combining that with the fact his name came up in the video as someone who had to be bribed to secure a contract, Ghanaians might as well give up on expecting the bad blood between the MP and the Tiger Eye team going away anytime soon. I would not be too happy either if the man whose arrest I was bellowing out for never responded to my incriminating charges but then turned around and implicated me in a corruption scandal where people took three hundred cedi bribes for offences that could very well end their careers. That was just too demeaning. And then there is the GH₵24 million defamation suit that Anas has just threatened to charge the MP with.
One man who was spared the brunt of public anger but still cannot be forgotten is Eddie Doku, the Greater Accra Regional Chair of the GFA.
He sprung up to a rather unpleasant fame when he denied ever being corrupt right after he was spotted in the Anas video pocketing decent bundle of cash. Compared to other ‘victims’ of the expose he would have sunk into obscurity had he not made the radical move. Well as the once popular song goes, que sera sera – what will be, will be.
By: Kojo Yorke
