Sam Nartey George has chastised Paul Adom-Otchere, host of Good Evening Ghana (GEG), for using his bi-weekly political show as a propaganda tool to run down the achievements of an astute statesman, Sam Kwesi Esson Jonay, Knight of the British Empire (K.B.E.)
According to him, Sam Jonah’s public address to the Rotary Club in Accra and his thoughts about the self-imposed ‘culture of silence’ echoes the thoughts of a large number of Ghanaians.
“Sam Jonah spoke our mind and the point is, the reaction to Sam Jonah is the reason why the ordinary Ghanaian cannot speak,” Sam George told Nana Aba Anamoah on Starr Chat monitored by GhanaWeb.
He explained that most of the people downplaying and insulting Sam Jonah’s opinion were people who were hungry eight years ago and he has even paid their children’s school fees.
“Today, they could call Sam Jonah and ask him what has he done in life for him to criticize the government; because today, their stomachs are full with the leisures of state money.
“…you have Paul Adom-Otchere go and sit on prime-time TV and run Sam Jonahdown. Someone who lied about his friend in law school but has the effrontery to run somebody like that down; that kind of mercenary work out there in this country makes it scary for the ordinary person who doesn’t have the gravitas, grounded that Sam Jonah has to say the things he said,” the Ningo-Prampram MP said.
He further indicated that people know what the truth is but are afraid to speak because once they open their mouth, some big man somewhere will order his or her dismissal just like what was done to Captain Smart of Angel FM.
“We speak with the journalists and I know the things that you say, I hear the things you complain about and I ask them ‘why don’t you say it when you sit behind the console’ and they tell me, ‘I have a family to feed’…” Sam George observed.
After his public address to Rotary Club in Accra, Sam Kwesi Esson Jonah K.B.E. has come under immense criticism from persons close to the government who feel that portions of his address attacked the Executive.
Paul Adom-Otchere, on Thursday, April 29, 2021, stated that, if Sam Jonah K.B.E. wants to talk about the future of Ghana, then he must, first of all, open up about his past.
“Sam Jonah cannot come and talk about the future without answering questions about his past…it behoves him to make statements about his past. If he won’t say anything at all, at least we know his role with Adisadel College and AshGold Football Club, we do not know his role in that major transaction that has punctuated the corporate and political history of our society, the Ashanti transaction,” Paul Adom-Otchere said on his show monitored by GhanaWeb.
He indicated that there are two Ashanti transactions, one was failed by the Government of Ghana, which left a lot of rancour between JJ Rawlings and Sam Jonah and their relationship broke off completely.
“We don’t know the details. Sam Jonah must come and tell us. And then the transaction was rehashed and relaunched in 2001 and 2002, this time it was supported by the JA Kufuor government and it was successful. In both transactions, there was a critical decision about the heritage of the Ghanaian young person; because this gold resource which is a Ghanaian resource was being treated in a certain way, was it being treated in the right way to guarantee the future of the young people that today Sam Jonah is concerned about?
“Was it being treated in a certain way that eventually guaranteed our future? Was there an option with Randgold Resources and other people who wanted to participate that could have been better for the future of Ghana?” he asked.
Adom-Otchere stressed that Sam Jonah K.B.E. must answer these questions.
“He [Sam Jonah] is a big man, he has been around for a very long time, and he comes and says the youth of Ghana, I now feel the responsibility to speak and you don’t tell us what you’ve been doing in the past when you have had such a tenacious relationship with the political decision-making of Ghana since 1983; you won’t tell us what has happened about that…?”
Paul Adom-Otchere argues that Sam Jonah’s answer to the question will help the Ghanaian youth understand whether or not he has found a new philosophy or a new idea.
“So that we can understand whether the idea you present today is the idea that has been with you for a very long time. If that idea that you present today is not an idea that has been with [you] for a long time, it is still a welcome idea but we want to know so that we put it on record because the record is important,” he stressed.
