<<Print>>

Given that the rationale behind the establishment of the Daily Guide – a newspaper owned by the acting Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Freddie Blay, and his wife, Gina – is to make profit, it cannot be wrong that the paper is carrying an advert of President John Dramani Mahama ahead of the December 7 presidential elections, Nana Obiri Boahen, Deputy General Secretary of the opposition party has said.

His comment follows claims by Mr Koku Anyidoho, his counterpart in the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), that the advertisement of Mr Mahama in the paper was an attestation that Mr Blay was not confident his party’s candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will win the elections.

Speaking in connection with the development in an interview on Accra FM on Tuesday September 27, Mr Anyidoho said: “I don’t know where the Daily Guide gets the advert from, but I know that no matter the commercial value that will accrue to me, if I have a newspaper, there is no way I will advertise Akufo-Addo in my newspaper, never.”

“Nothing will tempt me to advertise Akufo-Addo in my paper, so if Freddie Blay is busily advertising President Mahama, it tells you he doesn’t have confidence in his candidate (Nana Akufo-Addo). And, so, to go hungry and at the same time lose the elections, he will prefer to be satisfied through advertising President Mahama.”

He added: “The underpinning argument is that no matter where he gets it (advertisement) from, no matter who gives it to him, if I was in his position as the pretending acting chairman of the NDC and I have a newspaper, there is no way I will place an advert of Akufo-Addo in the paper, just to even give confidence to your party supporters.”

What Mr Blay is doing, according to Mr Anyidoho, “is just telling the NPP that, first of all, he is not an NPP person; he is a CPP man who joined the NPP and so his association with the NPP is not genuine. He has no confidence in his flag bearer, it is as simple as that. Freddie Blay knows Akufo-Addo is losing the elections; even the NPP themselves know he is losing the elections. I am telling you for a fact today Freddie Blay knows Akufo-Addo is losing the 2016 elections and if he says I am lying, he should come and challenge me. So he will not want to lose money by refusing to advertise President Mahama.

But reacting to these comments also in an interview on the same programme, Mr Boahen said these claims by Mr Anyidoho would not be accurate because different newspapers are set up for different reasons.

He said the paper would need to raise revenue in order to remain in business, one of which is to maximise its advertisement base.

“The rationale behind the establishment of Daily Guide cannot be the same as the rationale behind the establishment of the New Statesman newspaper,” the former Deputy Interior Minister stated. “And, so, speaking in my own capacity, I think it is not wrong for the paper to carry the advert (on President Mahama).”