I listened to Togbe Afede’s JoyNews interview on the ex gratias brouhaha and his comment on Paul Adom Otchere, and I also watched excerpts of PAO’s rebuttal on his explanations especially about his wedding and law school payments.
Personally I think Paul is a great guy, I like him, except when he takes a swipe at Manasseh obviously because Manasseh is my friend so I definitely will choose Manasseh over Paul on any day; also because I lean more towards Manasseh’s kind of journalism than Paul – but both of them are great folks in different ways although they sometimes have sharp contrasts in ideology and principle.
My worry, sadly, this time, is how Paul sought to make irrelevant the kind gestures of the Paramount Chief that he extended to him in the past, I feel that Paul didn’t handle that well. Look, I am a giver and I help people all the time, I have seen the most ungrateful feedbacks from people I literally lifted from the gutters and it can hurt sometimes.
I am not saying Togbe made Paul, I am saying even if Paul was a billionaire, and Togbe gave him 1 cedi in the past, it is in my opinion, not a sign of a man of conscience if today Paul makes it look like the 1 cedi was of no use and that he was even better off without it – I don’t think that exudes wisdom from a Man who I think has done well for himself in the media space for decades. He probably should have just ignored that aspect and focus on the substance of their debate – the ex gratia return and whether or not it was hypocritical of Togbe. What Paul said gives him the posture of someone who is ungrateful and desperate to get himself out of a trap he never thought will catch him.
Listening to Togbe Afede, I think I saw patriotism and a man who tried to take steps to be honest with himself on his affairs with the state, it may not mean he is perfect or squeaky clean if put on a good microscope, but at least the effort in my view is quite commendable and worthy to be praised.
My advice to the youth is, let us not bite the fingers that helped us, Paul sounded as if he didn’t need anything from Togbe and he (Togbe) was rather the one trying to push himself to do something for him, and even if that was the case, Paul ought to be grateful. To give Paul some credit, I heard him say in the video that he was grateful for that. But in the abundance of his submission, the conclusion that a sound reasonable man will draw from the totality of his response, was that ”Hey thanks, you once helped me and so what? I didn’t even need it after all”, and I think this kind of feedback is the reason many good and wealthy people don’t help anyone.
Lastly, I have heard people say why did Togbe also insult Paul as a stomach Journalist? My answer to that is, from the video, it’s clear Togbe spoke out of hurt and disappointment, especially when he believed that Paul ought to know better and had lied intentionally to denigrate him, but he (Togbe) believes that Paul had sold his conscience to his pay masters for a morsel of food.
My candid view also is that, the great statesman was abit emotional, I can understand him; but I don’t also think it was fair to call Paul a stomach journalist, what if Paul was just being himself and airing his independent view as Paul?
As for the Cathedral matter…that’s a topic for another day.
Yierrr I have stirred the bee’s nest. They are coming with stick and stones to hit me.
