Former President Jerry John Rawlings yesterday disappointed anxious journalists who stormed his Ridge office in Accra with the intent to cover an event, as he failed to show up.
Spokesman for the former President, Kofi Adams, explained to the media practitioners that his boss decided not to address them on a “second thought,” to the disappointment of many.
The journalists therefore left the Ridge office for their respective media houses with long faces, wondering what stories they were going to file since the ‘old man’ decided not to give one of his usual ‘boom’ speeches, which had often made the headlines.
The journalists from selected media houses were invited by Jerry’s office to cover a courtesy call on the former President by one of Nigeria’s opposition leaders who is a former Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Tom Ikimi.
Most of the media practitioners, who were anxious for attention-grabbing headlines, arrived about an hour earlier for strategic positions before the start of the programme which was scheduled to begin at 10:45 am.
Even before the arrival of the journalists, one of Mr. Rawlings’ aides, Kobina Andoh, had told journalists the meeting would be held behind closed-doors and that the two politicians would address the media after the meeting.
He therefore gave the journalists the opportunity to take photographs and video footages of the two before the beginning of the meeting itself.
After almost an hour behind closed doors, Mr. Rawlings emerged from his office in the company of Chief Ikimi, making journalists to start grabbing their accoutrements from their bags in order not to miss any part of the ‘action’.
However, the former President returned to his office without a word.
Mr. Kofi Adams and Kobina Andoh had to accompany the Nigerian politician to address the media.
But most of them became worried when they realized that Mr. Rawlings was not going to address them as they had been told.
The former Nigeria Foreign Minister talked of efforts by the various opposition parties in Nigeria to merge under one umbrella – All Progressive Congress (APC) – to wrest power from the Goodluck Jonathan-led ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the next elections.
Chief Ikimi later answered questions from the media.
Source: GhanaWeb
