conscious of my environment. My thoughts
can get loud sometimes. One of the most cred-
ible sources of information in this country is
newspapers and particularly Daily Graphic. Sit-
ting by me is someone I will call ‘Good Old Joe’.
Reading glasses tilted downwards with eyes
fixed on a particular page at this point. Before
then he has been flipping through the pages, I
couldn’t and still cannot tell what it is he was
looking for but at least he has found something
that is of interest to him at this moment. In his
‘minding my own business’ posture, he will
often grunt or chuckle at something unpleas-
ant his tired eyes might have spotted. When
not Impressed he would flip to the next page
then the next then a couple pages back. That is
what happens when you have so much infor-
of existence in 2019. While stealing a glance of
headlines and topics from Good Old Joe’s news-
paper as he flips through them, I have my ears
to the discussion on the radio. What they were
discussing is of real interest to me. It has to do
with information and our right to be informed.
Uncle Abdul Malik Kweku Baako was on the
program too. I like this man. For me is truly a
son of the soil; that’s not to say he is a saint but
to a large extent he remains consistent with his
opinions and tries his best with his choice of
words. He shows maturity on every platform
he founds himself. People exchange bouts over
misunderstandings but he will talk his way out
of situations in order to avoid confrontations. To
mention him in this article is daring, however
he’s my hero so I will feel free to talk about him.
The right to information is not a new on the continent. It was first adopted by Sweden in 1766 and
Finland in 1951. Over the past two decades many African countries have also adopted the laws, in-
dicating acknowledgement that transparency is an essential condition of democracy. Currently 24%
of the African countries have adopted the law. These countries include: South Africa, Angola, Zimba-
bwe, Uganda, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Liberia and Guinea. Access to Information and Privacy Act
in Zimbabwe has rather been used to protect information instead of making it available to the general
public all in the name of privacy. As a result, it is not included in counts of RTI laws sometimes (Good
law and practice, 2012). Source
mation at your disposal; you sometimes don’t
know which is really important to consume.
Alas we got our radio working and we are less
than half way through our journey. Traveling
from Taifa to Kwame Nkrumah Circle on a Mon-
day morning is equivalent to traveling to Kwa-
hu in respect to time. Pit stops aside, the never
ending pickets of traffic from Ofankor Barrier to
St Johns Grammar School can be overwhelm-
ing. Just when you think it is all over, you drive
straight into another congestion from ABC
Junction to Achimota. Free like a slave, drivers
speed off when there’s a clear. Depressing as
it is, we find some solace in the political panel
discussions on radio. Not that we are interested
but we simply need some form of distraction to
keep us through the journey. Well, I could go
online and read some articles or feeds on social
media but my weak phone battery and unstable
phone network will not give me the pleasure
31| Colossium . March 2019
B
eing an editor and re-
nowned
journalist,
Mr Kweku Baako has
often had to school
sometimes his host
on journalism – liter-
ally. A political dis-
cussion to some of his
colleague panelist is
nothing but a class-
room session. Known to go on political dis-
cussion programs – radio or TV with a brief-
case filled documents – old and new most of
which are relevant to the topic of the day, he
takes every opportunity to enlighten listeners
in taking sound decisions on national issues.
Rarely is he bias. “Facts are important in the
dissemination of information”, (paraphrased).