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Published by Nii Amon Kotey
I write in reaction to some of the reports on the deliberations at the Nungua palace of Nuumo Gborbu Wulomo-Shitse on Thursday, May 13, 2021.
I do so to correct some inaccuracies and outright falsehoods contained in some of the reports. As a journalist, I can say that some of the misreporting were deliberately done to have a certain negative effect on the people of Teshie and Nungua and the Gadangmes as a whole.
The first fallacy is that the activity was not organized by the Nungua Traditional Council . The headed form on which the fines were written bore the inscription “NUNGUA TRADITIONAL AREA and below that in brackets is written OFFICE OF THE GBORBU WULOMO-SHITSE.
The jurors were 6(six) members of the Ghana psychic and religious society, including the national chairman NII ABO who also represented the people of Tema. The other five were from Kpone, Nungua, Teshie, La and Osu.
What the Shitse simply did was to provide the canopy in his capacity as the Shitse or overlord.
The gathering of such prominent and traditionally powerful individuals under a common leadership must signal to all , especially Ablekuma , that the sleeping giant is awake and that never will they allow a few selfish ones to dominate and trample upon the Gadangme people.
I wish to explain to all those questioning the legality of what happened on that day that the issue at state is about superstition,witches, wizards, deities etc. Those are spiritual matters and for the uninitiated, no legal system in or outside Ghana deals with things or issues in the spiritual realm. In simple terms, you cannot prove it in any law court.
However, in every Ghanaian society , there are traditional ways of dealing with them. There people who are accepted and believed to be intercessionaries between the physical and the spiritual. The Ga people call them “agbaafoiatsemei “ . The Akans, the Ewes, indeed, all Ghanaian societies have them. They are different from “fetish “priests and priestesses ,in the sense that they are not possessed by deities or gods. Most of them are herbalists.
The reports l have read on some social media portals is that the people alleged so -so -and -so.
One clever thing the jury did was to play the voice of evangelist Prince Adu Asare, and asked his opinion on the recording. He accepted and admitted before everyone present, including the police who were there to guarantee his safety, that it was his authentic voice. So from that point it was no more an allegation.
I am not by any stretch of imagination casting doubt on that milk-sucking kid(35 years old) ability to go into the spiritual realm. After all , the savior of the world ,Jesus Christ, began the wonders at a very tender age and his first wonder was to turn water into wine. But it was the approach. Sometimes, seers and spiritualists , after detecting a bad omen or calamity ,apply wisdom or the one-on-one approach or technique. In every Ghanaian society, there are leaders, ranging from political to traditional. But to come and humiliate a people in such manner is not only unwise but stupid and foolish. He hit raw nerves, coming on the heels of Diana Asamoah, the gospel singer’ threats that her god would abolish the 800 years old tradition of Homowo celebration .
For those asking what the gods or deities are going to do with the items contained in the fine, l dare ask them this; when was the last time anyone saw the “men of God “ putting tithes contributions by men into the outstretched hands of the Almighty? The tithes are used to do the work of God through rites ,rituals and in most cases the erection of edifice.
Due to the gravity of what the one-man church owner said, the initial consideration was to force him go from Ga Mashie,all the way through the towns to Ada one after the other within one week. Later, it was realized that if care was not taken ,he could be lynched in the process. It was also made clear that the owner of the radio station and the program producer were to pay a total of GHc200,000( two hundred thousand Ghana cedis) but that was also cancelled because the lady owner, though not a Ga, was born and bred in Nungua. Another option was that after satisfying all the conditions , he was to be banished from Gadangme altogether.
Before ending this piece l wish to call on both the traditional and social media houses to take news reporting very seriously. It is a whole big area of journalism where a simple comma(,) could trigger a war situation. Reporting is not story telling where salt and pepper could be added to make it interesting. You add those and you will end up writing a commentary. News reporting is about telling the next person who was not present on the scene, EXACTLY what happened so that he/she will make an opinion on the activity. You are given a headed form marked Nungua Traditional Area and you reported Nungua Traditional Council! Meanwhile the chairman of the traditional council is the Nungua Mantse and unfortunately the Mantse was not present.
Finally, most of the Gadangme towns have placed a ban on drumming and noise making. If you don’t want trouble, then I urge you to stay in your lane because like Fela , the late Afro beat king said “if trouble sleep wey nyanga go wake am, wetin i de find?
(by eric bortey, a journalist, formerly with the GBC and NCCE)
Source: www.truthtvnews.com
Editor: Nii Amon