“Pratt Argues According To Who Is Feeding Him”

Alhaji Iddrisu Bature, host of the hitherto authentic Alhaji and Alhaji show on radio yesterday accused Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr., managing editor of the Insight newspaper of being a traitor. He said Kwesi Pratt has a holier than thou attitude and accused him of having weak morals. “He has no moral to accuse me of taking monies from the NPP to do a show for them,” he charged. Alhaji Bature related that he learnt from somewhere that Kwesi Pratt had told his friends in the NDC that he, Bature, had taken monies from the NPP to skew or tilt his radio programme particularly on Hot FM against the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He asked whether at the time he Kwesi Pratt was criticizing Rawlings, he took monies from the Ahwoi brothers to do so. The host of the show dared the Insight publisher to deny that he lied about him. Alhaji Bature alleged that Kwesi Pratt owns a paper that hardly prints four thousand copies. In spite of that Alhaji Bature alleged that Mr. Pratt owns a four wheel drive vehicle. He alleged further that his children at the university drive cars yet Kwesi styles himself as a socialist. “I lost E.T Mensah’s friendship because of Kwesi Pratt,” he lamented and called on the public to ignore Mr. Pratt because he argues according to who is feeding him. Alhaji Iddrisu Bature’s comments comes on the heels of a recent comment Mr. Pratt made about former President Rawlings following the outcome of a meeting the former President held with cadres of the December 31st Revolution in Kumasi last weekend. He alleged that Kwesi Pratt conspired with the management of radio gold to take his programme from him. Although he conceded that he’s not a journalist, Alhaji Bature said, what he does is to bring panelists on his show, and then, he hosts it. According to Alhaji Bature, because of the sort of things that Kwesi Pratt said about him he lost virtually all his friends in the NDC. According to him, Hon Doe Adjaho used to see him at least 3 times in a week but because of Kwesi Pratt, he stopped seeing him. “Prof Mills was not talking to me” he said adding it was all due to the machinations of Kwesi Pratt. Alhaji claimed that he’s the one who rescued Kwesi Pratt from a life of recluse after most of his colleagues had abandoned him. According to Alhaji Bature, when Pratt left Joy FM, he was the one who provided him a platform and an opportunity to re-launch him to his authentic Alhaji and Alhaji show on radio Gold on Saturdays and accused Kwesi Pratt of ganging up with the management of Radio Gold to take the show from him. Try as he did, he said Radio Gold did not want to reason up with him so he ended up taking the show to Hot FM while the fake Alhaji and Alhaji show continued to air on radio Gold with Kwesi Pratt and co., giving it legitimacy. On Hot FM again, he said the same Kwesi Pratt, schemed to have taken off the authentic Alhaji and Alhaji show to now host what is called “one on one with Pratt” on Saturday evening. What is strange, according to Bature, was that the management of Hot FM, said they wanted a strong and more vibrant twi programme. Alhaji Bature produced a letter which he read on air yesterday showing how the management of Hot FM took the Alhaji and Alhaji show from him saying he was not fluent with the twi language. He said before he could come to his senses Kwesi Pratt had been asked to run the show, this time not even broken twi but in English. Anyone who has followed Ghanaian politics keenly would appreciate the sort of umbilical bond, that existed between Mr. Kwesi Pratt and Alhaji Bature in the immediate aftermath of the 2000 general elections. The relationship grew to the extent that Mr. Pratt became a constant figure at Mc Bonalds restaurant owned by Alhaji Bature at Nima/Maamobi.