I read with disdain the Thursday September 6, 2018 edition of Manasseh’s Folder published by myjoyonline.com with the heading “False reports on Zoomlion” where Joy FM’s Broadcast Journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni, as usual, dragged the corporate name of the revered and hardworking Zoomlion into the mud impugning that media reports about the Friday, August 31, 2018 truck launch at the Independence Square was untrue.
Was it really necessary for that your hurriedly and disjointed piece which you showed absolute disregard and respect for the intelligence and ability to do a nice and balanced story by your colleagues? Anyway, what you did is more unprofessional than what they did. Manasseh wants the whole world to know that what the media reported was falsehood and that Zoomlion does not deserve the positive kind of media reportage it was greeted with on Monday, September 3, 2018, on news headlines and by morning show hosts and discussants. Because Manasseh was in a hurry to as usual let the world agree with him he got even the dates wrong. The launch was done on the 31st and the reportage came out on Monday 3, September 2018 not June. If you do this kind of research won’t you be misleading readers and yourself? As a senior journalist of your calibre, you couldn’t even take your time to read through your habitually recycled write-ups. With this kind of work, I wonder if your juniors will bring their work for you to edit. Anyway, God has a way of punishing wickedness he made you betray yourself in that article so that people will think you are not serious but is that not true that “you descended before the woman arrived”?
I have very much interest in development issues especially waste management and so I was at the Independence Square to take a bite of the ministers’ speeches and that of the company that was bringing the trucks having read the invitation from social media. I am surprised Zoomlion has not reacted to this your childishness. It is the reason why last two weeks social media poured on your hypocrisy. The Akans will usually say “if an elderly person watches children eat python when we are counting python eaters he/she is not exonerated. You sat there unconcern when everybody wanted to read your opinion on the bank collapse issue and you came calling it trial ‘something-something’. I believe that was the reason why people would have tagged you a hypocrite or someone with a selective and vindictive mindset. Indeed one Mashoud Bawa posited in his recent article that you were a hypocrite and that your selectivity has made you nothing up to a vigilante. I do agree perfectly with him because when you see wrong that is closed to you, you just close your eyes and when even something good happens in the name of somebody that is in your list of enemies you negate it, this Zoomlion issue is a typical example. By the way, have you asked how much a waste truck costs? If you do you would appreciate it even if one buys one truck.
There is a saying in Dagbanli that “if you are fond of playing with a puppy, expect that your mouth will be licked by the puppy with its uncleaned mouth”. I believe that is why the company has ignored you in order not to bring you out of your shame. The shame and disgrace you inflicted upon yourself with regards to your pastor’s involvement in the 610 million Capital Bank saga.
Yes, I was there and the Executive Chairman in his speech did not state anywhere that the trucks they lined up at Independence Square were 500 nor did he say the trucks were given to the assemblies.
He said Zoomlion was augmenting its fleet with 500 more brand new trucks to be stationed at the MMDAs where they operate and was launching the 500 truck project with 150 trucks currently cleared from the port and registered giving prominence to the newly created MMDAs who do not have such trucks for their activities.
During the week I have listened to several radio stations and Zoomlion staff were there speaking after the launch to the issues and indeed they said what happened at the Independence Square was a launch of 150 trucks out of a 500 fleet to boost up their operational capacity at the MMDA’s.
My checks indicate however that, Zoomlion has at least one compaction truck and a number of motorized tricycles in almost all MMDAs for their door-to-door (household dustbin private) business and so your conclusion that Zoomlion was going to use the skip trucks partly for their private businesses in the MMDAs is not true. By the way, why do you enjoy putting out issues you are not sure of or an authority in your write-ups? I just enquired and I got the right information, why do you do the one-sided thing brother? How will they put the garbage in the dustbin up there in the communal container on the truck? Ebwei Manasseh.
I am told the remaining 350 are on schedules with the manufacturers for delivery and the company knowing there is work to be done at the MMDAs will not pack the vehicles to rot like the gallopers have been left to rot at the Local Government Institute and became news.
In any case, do you think you are that relevant in the business of somebody? Anybody who follows the media in Ghana knows your hatred for Zoomlion and the shunning of your incessant attacks on the company is a clear verdict that you are irrelevant as far as their company is concerned. Your attitude is nauseating that is why some of us will usually come your way when you do against that particular company. If your agenda is to see Zoomlion on its knees forget it for it will never happen in your lifetime. Where did you go with your supper investigative journalism and allowed banks of high reputation to squander taxpayers’ money to the gargantuan quantum? Or you were busy watching whether the government has paid Jospong?
It is interesting that you now know that it is the contract that allows the company to take 400 and the workers 100, don’t you believe that the company would have wished that the operatives are well paid? Why do you take Zoomlion on for? That is a misdirection, do you know the YEA? Do you not know who can increase the workers’ allowances?
Do you have an idea about the fact that in every region in Ghana at Zoomlion’s regional office is a General Manager, Public Jobs Manager, Private Jobs Manager, Finance Manager, Accountant, Regional Environmental Sanitation Supervisor, Head of Janitorial Services, Head of Domestic Services, Business Development Officer, Operations Officer, Human Resources Managers, YEA Coordinator, Storekeeper, more than ten drivers, at least 8 drivers, 8 janitors and 4 administrative assistants to mention but a few? You wouldn’t know that at the district level apart from the District managers, there is a Tricycle Supervisors, an operations monitors, administrative assistants, at least 3 drivers and 3 janitors I asked and I was told. They all pay taxes to the government of Ghana. I do not know how many people are at the headquarters of Zoomlion but I know that the kind of work they do demands many hands and sometimes I am tempted to believe that they have under-declared their numerical strength. Do your own mathematics and tell us they are peddling falsehood.
In our efforts to educate the public, we should be accurate, unbiased and justifiable. If our education and specifically study journalism and practice is to use it to destroy fellow human beings then we should rethink. In our efforts to destroy people let’s find out who it will affect and whether the public will stand with us.
Behave yourself else you are losing it.
Source: E. J. Kwabena Badu Agyemang/ email: ejbadu@yahoo.com
