Perhaps, the many events in the womb of social media were jostling for space when an old interview between GFP Presidential candidate, Madam Akua Donkor and TV hostess Deloris Frimpong Manso (Delay), popped onto our TVs and smartphones. Typical of the hostess, some hard questions were traded on her Delay Show. On this occasion, however, patrons of the popular show thought the celebrated talk show hostess exceeded her limits. Her bouquet of questions included uncomfortable items which questioned the sanity of the politician. Delay asked: “Are you not a mad person? People might wonder why I brought a mad woman on my show.”

The ghosts of those hard questions came hard on the TV hostess when Madam Akua Donkor died last week. Most predictably, gospel practitioners, pseudo counsellors and public ethics crusaders have exhumed the discussion and distributed volumes of curses on the TV hostess, wishing her every misfortune known to man from a bad marriage to no husband to death. In this instalment of ‘Tissues of the Issues’, we examine five reasons why these curses might not locate Deloris Frimpong Manso in her lifetime, and why Akua Donkor’s ghost may be kind to her.

1. The Style is the Man: Ever watched a Jeremy Paxman interview? Or Stephen Sucker’s HARDtalk? The questions journalists ask their guests are products of their style. They cannot depart from that style; it is woven into the DNA of their craft. Joy News’ Benjamin Akakpo could be our Paxman if he lifts it a notch higher. The Delay Show is loved for personal and intrusive questions, and we have often enjoyed the revealing answers guests provide about their personal lives. Guests on the show have been quizzed about their sex lives, the number of orgasms they enjoy, their wardrobe mess and why they have not been able to save to buy a car or build a house. Delay once told Hajia Bintu, a young socialite, that her libidinous expressions evoke images of sex. These are the questions the Delay Show has been serving us for years. We didn't question her style. Let’s put a sock in it.
2. “Are you not a mad person?” is a figure of speech: We are all rhetoricians because we use words for various purposes. Persuading your five-year-old to hand over the TV remote is an act of rhetoric. That is what language does to us. Sometimes ironies and touches of sarcasm elicit better and more sincere answers. BBC journalist Peter Okwoche was merely being a rhetorician when he asked a sitting President of Ghana whether he had ever taken a bribe. President Mahama and his handlers thought the question was inappropriate and disrespectful. Delay knew the mental state of Akua Donkor before the interview. If she went ahead to ask her whether she was mad, the TV hostess merely deployed rhetoric and sarcasm to aid the framing of the question. Similarly, Peter Okwoche did not expect President Mahama to answer the bribe question in the affirmative. It is all rhetoric.
3. Delay was in character: I write better when I stand on my feet. My wife’s voice screams from the other end: “Will you sit down and rest your back?” I get into character the minute I find a subject to write on. My favourite cartoonist paints naked. These thoughts I churn out weekly are products of the character I play, not a reflection of my introverted personality. When selling her Delay Bread and Delay Sardines, Deloris Frimpong Manso is sweeter, less intrusive and gentle. Here, too, Delay uses rhetoric and may borrow freely from her TV style, but she does so for different reasons. It is possible, and often it is, that Delay the bread seller may find reprehensible the questions that Delay the TV personality asks her innocent guests.
4. Like Delay, you also found Akua Donkor funny: Like every good interviewer, Delay asks the questions that we want her to ask, and how we want her to ask them. We wondered where Akua Donkor got her guts from and may have mocked her courage to make a claim for the presidency. Why didn't we raise questions when journalists asked her to sing the national anthem, especially when they never asked other candidates to recite the national pledge? We laughed when she appeared to flip-flop on her position on Presidents John Mahama and Nana Akufo-Addo. As we prepare for what promises to be a huge society funeral (not national), we would muster the compunction to parry away our truest impressions of the politician who could not read nor write. We will deliver fantastic tributes. Delay may repent and follow in our hypocritical tracks to attend the funeral and read a fitting tribute. It may not be because she is scared of any curses. It is just right.
5. The license to ask away in digital Ghana: These days, citizen journalism allows just about anybody to enter the blogosphere or datasphere, and ask just about anything on everything. We don't know whether the Asantes have finished dealing with Afia Pokua after that extraordinary faux pas. Speak against the Asantehene? What did she eat that day? What used to be called the writer’s creative license is today every man’s tongue whip. Radio and TV morning shows use their license to serve as a cocktail of insults, threats and allegations. Years ago, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo reminded us in his signature intro to Newsfile: “You are what you listen to.” We are the insults we listen to. We are the threats and allegations we produce and reproduce daily. Delay may be right to have asked: Are we not all mad to think Akua Donkor was mad?

Kwesi Tawiah-Benjamin

Tissues of The Issues (bigfrontiers@gmail.com)