A respected name in Sports Journalism in Ghana, Veronica Commey continues to excel in a field. In this interview with me , she talks breaking through and having her first shot at what was an otherwise tough and strict turf, tight working schedules, ethos of the profession, and relationship among other exciting revelations.
“The bad thing about it all is that I do not have a life,” she says … “I don’t go to the club … because when i’m not working, i’m at home.”
Q. How many years have you been practicing as a sports journalist?
A. It’s been a lot of years; it makes me feel like I’m old already. I have done this for six years. My service was over in 2005, and just weeks after that I got employed at the Ghana News Agency, where I did my service. So I have actually been going up and down for six years.
Q. Does it pay to be a journalist in Ghana?
A. It doesn’t. I keep saying that. I never thought it will pay this little. But what’s been the driving force, is my passion, and tells just how much i love this job.
Sometimes it makes you want to give it another thought and say “is that how I want it to be” because I’m going to grow up, and have a family; we have a lot of people to support. The passion is what really drives it. If I woke up one day and I’m no longer passionate, I’m sure I will walk.
Q. How easy or difficult is it combining work, school and spending quality time with your family?
A. The bad thing about it all is that I do not have a life. Because I don’t party, I don’t go to the club … when i’m not working, i’m at home. I do work 8 to 5 and it is such that you can’t even schedule correctly all the time. Sometimes there are mid week matches and all of that so what happens is that after work, I do school till say 9pm.
I’m getting home 10:30 thereabout; sleep. I work 7 days a week. Even on weekends when people are relaxing, that is where you have the league matches. And you have to be at the centres, back at the office getting the results, putting the match reports together, getting the scores and all those things. It’s demanding but i enjoy doing it.
Q. Was sports journalism something you had always wanted to do?
A. I think growing up I was one of the most confused girls around (laughs). At a point I wanted to be an Air Hostess. Then I wanted to be a lawyer. After SSS, I decided I wanted to be an architect at all cost. I didn’t get to go university immediately after school. I had a shot at Polytechnic education, to do marketing. My Math has always been that weak so I was really struggling.
But in between, I often would write to letters column of the Graphic Sports. I just wanted to write. So one day, they published two of my articles at the same time and I was excited , one of them was captured under feature and I didn’t even know what a feature was then. Someday I got a call from someone within, who said okay you have been writing to u,s if you could write that often we could pay you for an article.
And hey I didn’t want the money; I just wanted my article out there. Mr. Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo who happens to be a family friend, spoke with me and said ‘i think you should consider journalism.’ That was the turning point. That was when I decided okay, I’m going to give it a try.
Q. Do you remember what your first day at work was like and where was this?
A. It is Ghanaian Times. I went to do attachment there. I started with the Evening News. It used to be an evening political paper. I told them I wanted to write on sports.
Mr. Emmanuel Amponsah came to our desk and said i needed to do a preview on an Ashgold vs. Raja Casablanca match? It looked challenging. I remembered I had read a number of previews and I had an idea what it was. So I was like let me try; I did, and in the end i was excited especially because he didn’t have to edit much so I felt maybe, I made a good choice after all.
The experience was good enough; hey that was my story in the papers with my byline. I was so willing to do journalism at all cost. I had challenges especially at times you write and the story won’t come out. There was this editor who was not nice at all, and I didn’t like it but through it all, I told myself one thing; i was willing to last.
Q. Having been a sports journalist for six years and counting, what are your thoughts on the quality of sports journalism in Ghana?
A. It obviously can get better. These days … I know a few people might beat me on this one I’m going to say. I think there are too many charlatans in the system that have the opportunity of speaking their minds, and its making it feel like it’s alright. But my understanding of journalism is that it comes with responsibilities.
And it’s not really pretty now. Sometimes when you go out there and have to tell someone you are a journalist, it’s almost difficult because of the perception they have. There are no longer a few bad ones, there are a whole lot of bad ones just making it look bad. But sometimes these things happen, you look at them and you know it can get better. But how does it get better?
By deciding to know that we are not doing so well or we are doing this well and we still want to get a step further. So its getting to that moment, where journalists would have to do an introspection of what we do and see how best we can improve
Q. At the last Nations Cup in South Africa, you were accused of writing a story, implicating the GFA in a bribery scandal. It turned out you didn’t write the story. How did it feel?
A. I felt surprised about one thing: that when the GFA saw the story they didn’t bother …. They just decided that, there is a certain Veronica Commey we see here so she is the one who wrote it. I felt disappointed especially, because they decided to write a press release and put my name in there without crosschecking.
And I thought for an institution that was almost accusing someone for writing a story without crosschecking, they will do a better job at crosschecking. They didn’t. Beyond that, my understanding was that it’s the hazard of the job, these things happen.
Someone told me a long time ago that if you are a journalist and you don’t make the news sometimes for what you do, you may want to question yourself and ask am I doing the right thing? So I could take it in my strides. I felt bad.
There were days I felt really bad and emotional because I’m human, too. But hey like they say, life goes on. I want to feel around that time Life was meant to go on. So it went on, I moved on afterwards.
Q. Any apology yet from the FA?
A. Maybe they will tomorrow, I’m not so sure. And I’m not surprised. You goofed that much and you don’t mind. It’s okay. And am I expecting that? No i’m not because I have moved on.
Q. Was that the lowest point in your career?
A. It could be because I can’t readily think about any moment in my life, where I felt like ‘okay this is bad’. So it could be.
Q. You are yet to win your first award?
A. I’m not good enough. Come on (laughs).
Q. Let’s get personal. Are you dating at the moment?
A. Oh dear I didn’t expect this one … Am I? … There is so much love in my heart that I know … what if I don’t want to say a yes or no? … I’m thinking about it. I will give you an answer when I want to.
Q. Word of advice to the young people out there, who look up to you?
A. Work hard; work your ass off. It makes such a huge difference. I won’t pretend. Without it, I wouldn’t be here. God has been merciful, I feel like I have been really lucky and blessed. But I have worked hard every step along the way. And if you want to be on TV, I will tell you this is not what I bargained for. I didn’t know I would get there, you get there and the pressure is huge. You should be ready for the big task ahead.
Q. Are there journalists in and outside Ghana that inspire what you do?
A. Yes all those who sit on radio and sometimes say a whole lot of rubbish … they are talking because they have to talk not because they are being constructive, not because they are being analytical, and not because they have to be sincere.
All those rubbish make you want to be better, because you are like I don’t want to be like them; I want to be better than them.
Then all those who speak so well. Recently I listened to Kojo Oppong Nkrumah in the morning and I thought yeah I give it to him. You listen to people in the industry and they do that well. Kwabena Yeboah … he’s done this for so long, grown a certain followership. He’s kept his credibility intact.
If you are a journalist that’s all you need; credibility.
And beyond sports I had always listened to Kwaku Sakyi Addo. He’s such an awesome journalist. I would jump at the opportunity to work with him. I have even been looking for the opportunity to speak with him, pick his thoughts on a few things but never had it. In fact if I did, I would jump at it.
Q. Last words?
A. I keep trying but at the center of my world, is God.He makes the ultimate difference. You may want to have him close. Just love one another; it makes a lot of sense, Be true to you. It will pay in the end. It will.
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