The President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Albert Dwumfour, and his management team have paid a courtesy call on former President John Dramani Mahama.
The visit to his office on Friday, October 21, 2022, formed part of GJA’s drive to re-introduce the new leadership and re-engage with members and stakeholders.
Mr. Dumfour was accompanied by his Vice President, Linda Asante Agyei; Treasurer, Audrey Dekalu; General Secretary, Kofi Yeboah; Organising Secretary, Dominic Hlodzi; and Public Affairs Officer, Rebecca Ekpe.
Mr. Dwumfour shared the Association’s vision to rebrand and transform with the former President.
“His Excellency, we all know how passionate you are when it comes to the media in Ghana, and, as a practitioner yourself, we deem it prudent to pay you this important courtesy call to introduce the new leadership of the Association and to re-engage you as our member. Your support and promotion of press freedom is non-negotiable. As a Communication Expert, we are here to share with you some of our key visions and commitments so as to get your guidance and support in achieving them. We can’t do it all alone, and that is why we are calling on you.”
He continued: “We are also looking at rebranding and transforming the Association. In the past, we were seen to be more reactive than proactive. We have exhibited this for years, and this time around, there is a need for us to give the Association a new face. In so doing, we just upon assumption of office, put together an awards review committee to look at how to review the over 25-year old award to make it more appealing and attractive to members and other stakeholders.”
He also recognised the former President’s contributions towards expanding the frontiers of the media and called for more support.
For his part, former President John Mahama congratulated the new GJA Executives. He expressed his confidence in the team’s ability to deliver on the new initiatives.
“Let me thank you for the honour of calling on us and to congratulate Albert and your team on your election as the new Executives. I also want to commend you for the new initiatives you have announced. Many of us watchers of the media were getting a bit concerned with the delay in democratisation within the organisation and you being the watchdog of our democracy, if you yourselves could not get it right, then there were concerns. There was a lot of concern expressed about it. But I’m happy that your elections finally took place and Executives have been put in place.”
