Commentary, News

GJA@75: Bright Blewu writes on past presidents and the trailblazer

I tried hard to refrain from commenting on “The Trailblazers – Living Past GJA Presidents” honours list poster you sent to me for obvious reasons.
Even though I would make an objective assessment, some would consider me to be biased, knowing the special friendly relations between Mrs. Gifty Affenyi Dadzie and her family and me.

I have, however, decided to do so now, albeit just briefly, because a member of the planning committee of the GJA 75 Anniversary celebration Committee sent me a message yesterday [August 14, 2024] in far-away Germany, to solicit my assistance to know past GJA Presidents.

I found that rather odd, because I know for a fact that there are still many GJA activists as old, if not older, still around to assist. Some are even members of the anniversary planning Committee.

In any case, there are documents such as old GJA Awards brochures that could provide that information. So, for the first time, I thought I should turn down the tag to be the Methuselah and institutional memory of the Association.

It is instructive to note that I spent over two decades as either General Secretary of the GJA or Director of the Ghana International Press Centre, secretariat of the Association, or at both positions simultaneously. That made it possible for me to serve in the administration of all five “Trailblazers.”

Who is a trailblazer? It is someone who is the first to do something; an innovator or inventor.

In my own estimation, and by my own impartial assessment, it is Mrs. Affenyi Dadzie who comes up tops of that accolade.

Notable among them were the reclaiming of ownership and resuscitation of the GJA Awards with Unilever sponsorship, the support of Freedom Forum, Media Encounters with Ashanti Gold sponsorship, numerous seminars and training workshops with funding from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES).

Perhaps one of the most remarkable support the GJA received in the mid 1990’s was an European Union funding of the project of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), headquartered in Brussels, to help provide assistance to the establishment of a press centre and help build build both the organisational and the professional capacity of journalists of the GJA, at the time, one of its new members in Africa. The one-year project, which later became two years, was under the auspices of FES.

Here, special credit must go to the Kabral and Gifty administration for making a strong case for the GJA and Press Centre to be fused instead of being separate. Through that arrangement, yours truly also became deputy director of the Press centre project with Ambassador Kabral who at the time was President of the West African Journalists Association (WAJA) as Director.

Mrs. Afenyi Dadzie had by then been elected the first ever woman president of the GJA.

The management of the Ghana News Agency, where the late Sam Quaicoe was General Manager, deserves applause for agreeing to second me for one year to the GJA secretariat as elected unopposed General Secretary and in addition, appointed deputy director of the Press Centre project.

The special arrangement made the GJA stronger in terms of planning and coordination of programmes and events to promote press freedom and media development in general. The pro that was made no doubt motivated the GJA to work hard to have a permanent secretariat of its own.

When Mrs. Affenyi Dadzie took over as the first woman president and got elected for an unprecedented three terms, she put in all her heart and mind and might to achieve her goal of a formidable GJA that is relevant to promoting media professionalism, press freedom and overall national development .

During her tenure, there were numerous strategic planning, programmes, and special publications. They included “State of the Media”, “Guidelines on Election Coverage”, and “Media Coverage Under a State of Emergency.”

Mrs. Affenyi Dadzie had by then been elected the first ever woman president of the GJA. The management of the Ghana News Agency, where the late Sam Quaicoe was General Manager, deserves applause for agreeing to second me for one year to the GJA secretariat as elected unopposed General Secretary and in addition, appointed deputy director of the Press Centre project.

She personally ensured that I stayed on as a full-time General Secretary to help her achieve her goals. when the GNA secondment and the IFJ two-year project expired.

She personally paid me the cedi equivalent of the one hundred dollars monthly allowance I was receiving under the IFJ press centre project. That was in addition to my monthly salary at GNA that she also paid for because I had resigned from there. In addition, I was given a two-bedroom free accommodation for nearly two years at the Guest House in Mataheko Of the 1st African Group, the company that belongs to she and her husband, Mr. K.T. Dadzie.

The icing on the cake in the unparalleled contribution of Mrs. Affenyi Dadzie to the development of the GJA is the construction and successful inauguration in 2003 of the first phase of the permanent GJA secretariat, christened the Ghana International Press Centre.

In effect, yours truly is simply stating that Mrs. Affenyi Dadzie and Ambassador Kabral Blay-Amihere are the two who can be described as trailblazers if the term is not to be trivialised.