Gov’t, NPP communicators failing Akufo-Addo – Prof Karikari

Seasoned communications scholar, Professor Kwame Karikari has accused Communicators for government and the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) of failing President Nana Akufo-Addo over their inability to effectively publicise events and activities being carried out by the government.
According to him, government communicators have woefully failed in propagating the positives of it policies and agenda of the President since he assumed office.
Professor Karikari who is now the Dean of the School of Communications Studies at the Wisconsin International University College, Accra was speaking Wednesday on Adom FM’s Burning Issues programme hosted by Afia Pokua after Akufo-Addo’s  media encounter at the Flagstaff House.
“Where are the government and the party communicators for the President to reveal to the entire nation that the government has begun paying contractors indebtedness” the former Director of the School of Communications Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon, questioned?
“NPP communicators don’t know how to communicate or propagate its own policies properly to the public, the party’s communication system has been poor and poorer over the years, the opposition parties have rather overcome government communicators” he lamented during the interview with Afia Pokua.
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He believes that numerous issues and policies outlined by the president at his encounter with the media should have been made known and well articulated to the public by his communicators before his encounter the press.
Prof. Kwame Karikari charged the Information Minister, his deputies and the party communicators to improve on their policy communication skills.
Commenting on the performance of the journalists who attended the event, Prof. Karikari expressed his discontentment in the type of questions asked by some journalists and the manner in which they were asked, blaming the situation on the poor preparation.
He advised the media houses to have enough discussions with their colleagues to arrive at cogent questions that will be to the benefit of the entire nation.
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Contributing to the discussions, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Cape Coast, Dr Opoku Mensah has advised the President to be honest and admit if he lacks information on certain issues and promise to provide them later instead of delegating them to his sector ministers.
Meanwhile, Programs Manager at Oman FM a subsidiary of the KenCity Media, Dr Moses Okine also said Ghanaian journalists are not on top of issues looking at some of the questions his colleagues asked the president.
Dr Okine suggested to the government to be organising similar encounters during his tour of the regions.
He explains that will give many journalists in the regions the opportunity to also ask questions directly affecting the people in the region.