Advertising language has never been honest but it is now getting absolutely ridiculous. An advertiser was on radio the other day offering thera­pies for "high blood temperature." What in the good name of medical consulting room diagnosis is "high blood temperature Jomo?

I would stake a quick wager that whatever Ananse pharmaceutical potion this advertiser is offering, will not be able to treat Mickey Mouse for catarrh.

An advertiser claiming possession of a cure for an ailment which does not exist! That is what you might expect in a country where most laws, including media and advertising laws, do not work.

Some media freedom advocates and investigative journalists were beside themselves with excitement this week over news that a Right to Information Bill was in the process of being passed. I advised the controversial news and information hounds and their friends in academia not to start the party yet.

For one thing, there is this document called the constitution which supersedes all other laws and their provisions. The almighty constitution provides for the classification of state secrets intended to protect the sovereignty and security of the state.

If a case were made that granting a journal­ist access to specific information could com­promise state security, that would be it, bud! Dead end for you, Mr Reporter.

This is Africa: Any law's guarantee of your right to anything does not mean you will get it, Jomo. Sometimes, that right will only be accorded you at the end of a hectic legal duel and in front of a scowling court judge with unflinching principles carried steadfastly on a severe judicial countenance.

People like the guys at the Blue Gate close to the national sports stadium, the Ghana Armed Forces and BNI Headquarters will not be handing over their files in a hurry to snoop­ing reporters to take a gander at, when the lat­ter go calling any day in the name of a Right to Information Bill.

The judiciary has awesome powers which a Right to Information Bill cannot monkey around with: A judge exercising appropriate discretion call clear a court room of reporters at a stage in a trial and who says what tran­spires thereafter will come to the knowledge of reporters through any reporter's invocation of the proposed bill?

So? Solaateedoo, Jomo, journalists and especially investigative reporters may soon discover that this bill which some seem to think will open flood gates to free-flowing information of the kind some powerful forces will always try to hide from society, cannot be a substitute for hard work.

Good journalism will continue to require a lot of toiling and sweating and huffing and puffing by reporters willing to continue con­centrating more on turning stones over to see what vermin from the worlds of corruption and malfeasance have taken refuge beneath them.

On second thought, Jomo, why should I be trapped in pessimism when I could join the Right to Information party for better or for worse? I have spent nearly three decades engaged in fierce mental exercises over the explanation for some mysteries and unre­solved crimes that have occurred in this country.

If now I can go to CID headquarters, the BNI or the Bank of Ghana and say I want the files on this and that old case and have them readily handed to me, why, we would need the famous Fat Back Band to let up several orchestral rounds of the Alleluia Chorus in cel­ebration of unhindered access to information.

What about this for free infonnation: The rumpus over alleged illegal sale of government lands and bungalows and the alleged illegal appropriation of scores of state vehicles by appointees of the previous administratien, reached a peak during the week.

To get a clearer idea about what has gone on, Mills's Minister of Works and Housing Mr. Albert Abongo undertakes an inspection tour of govern­ment bungalows in the capi­tal in the company of reporters and. sums up his rather strange findings:

Front floor corner to rafters, many government bungalows have been stripped gaping-bare of fur­nishings, refrigerators, elec­trical generators; air condi­tioners, cookers, kitchen ware and watam calit.

The minister then announces the good news: If the missing items are traced to any individuals, those individuals would be "prevailed upon to return the items."

The possibilities regarding who maybe in possession of the items have been left too widen open: They range from nocturnal ban­dits and burglars to the former occupants of the bungalows themselves.

That being the case, we must argue that when a thief breaks into property and is caught he is sent to jail, otherwise, he is killed by com­munity vigilantes or a police patrol team as he tries to flee. So why would anyone found to be keeping the missing state property only be pre­vailed upon to return them?

The Works and Housing Minister played around with a few more possibilities: The missing state property may have been provided by the sector ministries which the former min­isters oversaw, See? The authorities do not even know who furnishes and equips govern­ment residential properties!

I was beginning to get a bit angry when it suddenly occurred to me that, that would be an abnormal response to great entertainment from a motley cast of scheming, blundering and clowning characters in a play with a super complex plot depicting the nature of political administration in Africa: Confuse the masses thoroughly and then help yourself to the easy pickings from public resources!

As if all that were not enough of an unre­solved burden on taxpayers, the minister goes on to announce that the government will need to spend more than GH¢50, 000 on renovating each of the bungalows for occupancy by the new ministers of state.

This man needs to refine his conversation with the media before he gets himself into an unnecessary spot of bother one of these days.

That is what I told myself: How could he have arrived at this estimated average cost of reno­vation of each bungalow from a visual inspec­tion of the faci1ities?

A reporter could write this story in such a way that the subject of the missing state furni­ture and equipment is completely downplayed if it is mentioned at all.

Plans by a new government which has promised austerity in budget expenditure, to spend the equivalent of five hundred million of the old cedis in renovating a single bungalow for the enhanced comfort of its new appointees, then becomes the story!

Anyhow, I wonder whether tax payers are going to continue taking all this lying down. Who will fight for them? Civil society groups? Which ones, do you know?

Credit: George Sydney Abugri (Daily Graphic: Email: georgeabu@hotmail.com Website: www.sydneyabugri.com