Politicians and celebs flaunting their wealth factor in Kasoa ‘juju’ murder – MFWA Boss

The Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, has said Ghana should come into agreement to fight against the imposition of wealth showcasing on social media by politicians, celebrities among others.

Commenting on the recent ritual killing of an 11-year-old at Kasoa by two teenagers, Mr Braimah said the continuous practice of such is a reason teenagers are hurriedly chasing and killing fellow humans for rituals in aim of becoming rich overnight.

“I think that we have to look at it as a collective national failure. A failure in our morals, as a country; a failure in our collective attitudes as a country.Yes, the media certainly have a role to play in terms of educating people about morals and values and so on; that we should do, regardless of whether these things are happening or not – that’s the fundamental thing that the media have a responsibility to do. I think the other thing that the media have to do which we haven’t been doing over the years, in this whole issue about unexplained wealth: people suddenly, either they claim they are pastors, they claim they are businesspeople or whatever, and within a space of one year or two, are flaunting multiple cars, multiple mansions and so on and so forth and no one cares to interrogate: How did they make this money?. How much taxes have they been paying to the state and so on and so forth?’”

“Now, the other side is our politicians. We know the big mansions, the structures coming up at the Cantonments, East Legon, Airport residential area and so on and so forth. A lot of these belong to politicians, some of whom are young people; if we should look at ‘young’ to be, maybe, somebody under the age of 40, and again, we don’t ask: ‘How did they come by the money?he said.

He added that, “During elections, parliamentary primaries, presidential primaries, the election itself, look at the amount of money that people pump in in order to become candidates of political parties and in order to become Members of Parliament”.

“Where do they get these monies from and how are they intending to recover these monies that they are spending? I think, as a country, we have had leadership failure in this area, and I think, over the years, whether it is NDC leaders [or] NPP leaders, they have all been culpable of this particular practice that has then led us into the moral decadence that is leading to these kinds of horrific incidents that we are witnessing.

In his view, “it appears everyone wants to make money quick and regardless of how the money will be made: if it is about stealing, if it is about killing, if it is about corruption; people are eager just to make money and it appears that the only way you can be somebody in this country, is to have money and, so, people are eager.

“People go into politics these days, really, not for any values, not for the commitment to develop our country, it is about making money and having power”.

“And, so, I think as media, we have a major and massive responsibility to tackle this issue. And, of course people will tell you that it’s not as though we, those of us in the media, are also saints. We also are part of the problem”.