Commentary
By Gibril Koroma, Vancouver, Canada.
Somebody recently asked me whether it’s okay for a journalist to become a politician and I told them there is absolutely nothing wrong with that; a journalist, a palm wine tapper, a nurse, a doctor, a lawyer, an Okada man or woman and so on can and should become politicians whenever they like as long as they can read and write and understand English which is our official language (a shame because Krio would have been a better official language with English taking second place).
For example,in Sierra Leone we have two prominent journalists and former presidents of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Ibrahim Ben Kargbo (APC) and Frank Kposowa (SLPP) who have been members of parliament for some time. And they are still newspaper proprietors and still find time write as journalists. In Ghana, my former boss when I was working as a journalist in that country, Kabral Blay-Amihere, is both the owner of the Independent newspaper and a politician who was High Commissioner to Sierra Leone and later Ambassador to Cote d’Ivoire at one time. He was and still is very close to former Ghanaian president John Kufuor. Kabral is also heavily involved in the local politics of his community in the western region of Ghana. His village is not too far from the village of Ghana’s first president Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah where he took me and other journalists in 1999 to pay homage at the grave of that great African leader, one of the fathers of Pan-Africanism.
I don’t know where this idea that journalists in Sierra Leone should not be politicians comes from. Maybe it has to do with the colonial mentality that is still a disease among most of my compatriots who will believe whatever the former colonialist and his or her clone tells them. For them, whatever the former colonialist and his kids or their children’s kids say is the gospel truth simply because it is the same former colonialist and his descendants that write for them the journalism textbooks they read and study. The former colonialist and his proteges tell them: Don’t go into politics, stay with Journalism and the Salone man says, yes, boss, yes, boss. I hear you, boss. Let me kiss your hand Sir, oh you are so wonderful. Meanwhile the same foreigner plunders the country day and night and there is hardly anybody to stop him. Most of the educated people are doing something else rather than being in parliament, the cabinet and other important political positions to stop or capture the foreign thieves that are destroying their country.
At the same time the cabinets, parliaments and local governments in the West are packed with journalists and former journalists. Remember, it was a journalist (Winston Churchill) that led Britain against the evil Adolf Hitler to save that country from total destruction.
Journalism professors will tell their students to always be independent and objective; of course that’s what they are supposed to teach but they know in their hearts that people hardly adhere to them in the day to day hustle and bustle of newsrooms. In the real world of journalism there is actually no real objectivity or independence. It depends on who owns the newspaper, radio or television station. Any intelligent person in America knows which party the New York Times supports or which party Fox News supports. Same in the UK, Canada and other places. Any journalist that tells you he or she is totally independent is just being a hypocrite or fooling you. I know most of the newspaper publishers in Sierra Leone and I can tell you the political party each one of them supports. What should be emphasised, however, is that a journalist has to have the moral conscience and sense of nationalism to make sure they practice their profession in the interest of the people always, to give a voice to the poor and weak and helpless without being obnoxious to people in authority who may or may not be members of their own political party.
Sierra Leone does not have a lot of educated people; that’s why some of the few that are educated (not all of them) have to get into politics to realize the change they desire for their country. Shouting and screaming and insulting day and night will not bring about change. Get involved.
President Obama would have been a nice comfortable Harvard Law professor writing articles and books and delivering public lectures on what he considers his ideal America until he retires but he would have achieved little or nothing apart from his academic work had he not jumped into politics. Look at what he has achieved. Mind-boggling. Same with Martin Luther King, who would have been just another pastor somewhere. Mahatma Gandhi. Nelson Mandela. The list is endless.
Being a journalist and a politician are not contradictions if you maintain your decency and integrity. I always say professionals, especially those who have mastered their professions should consider politics as a next step because they can always return to their professions if they lose their positions or resign. We have three former Ministers in Sierra Leone who have returned to their newspapers as if nothing has happened to them. They are IBK, Paul Kamara (publisher of For Di People newspaper) and Sheka Tarawallie (publisher of the Torchlight newspaper). In fact IB Kargbo is both a publisher and an MP. And they are not the only ones in the history of our country.
So yes, you can be a journalist and a politician at the same time. It’s all about personal integrity. And it’s the best way to directly serve your people and your country. No doubt about it.
Photo: Sir Winston Churchill.
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