BACKGROUND

Minister of Sanitation, Mrs. Cecilia Dapaah lashed out on a multimedia intern for calling and requesting for an interview with her. The intern, Rahinatu Abdul Bach called the sanitation minister requesting for  an interview concerning reports on how people caught littering, are ordered to pick up the litter or sweep the streets. 
Unfortunately, the minister got infuriated by Rahina’s call and referred to her as “disrespectful” and someone who isn’t qualified to interview her. She further asked the radio station to show respect to her office and should not send interns to interview the minister.

In my opinion, the minister’s attitude was inappropriate and totally imprudent. Everyone has the right to either grant or decline an interview. The minister could have politely declined the intern’s request and further express her disapproval on interns interviewing her, in a more courteous manner. And probably suggest that a professional or experienced journalist interview her rather than uttering those offensive words.
The intern is definitely being supervised by a professional who felt she was good enough to call and request for an interview with the minister. I bet the minister would have readily granted the interview regardless of whether or not she is an intern, if the subject matter was in her interest or to her advantage. And would have probably acted nicer if it were an election year knowing very well that the intern might be an electorate.

A leader’s action should be able to inspire others to learn and do more but the minister’s action spoke otherwise.  Attitudes like this only make the youth feel insignificant and also shatter their dreams and zeal to learn more about the profession they love.
Every intern deserves to be given the opportunity and necessary encouragement regardless of his or her field of study. Internships are done in order to gain work experience and meet necessary requirements for qualification. In other words, it is a form of education given outside the lecture hall or classroom. Internships are meant to enable us practice what we are being taught in school. It is the ladder that leads to professionalism. And one cannot be a professional without undergoing training.
Lecturers shouldn’t be the only people responsible for training students to become professionals but also leaders should play an integral role in our training. This can be done by organizing seminars for interns who work at their various ministries, companies or organisations in order to have a one on one interaction with them to encourage and impart knowledge in them rather than making them feel insignificant. For instance, the former president of the United States of America, Barack Obama had series of seminars with White House interns.

 The youth are the future leaders and little things like these show our leaders sincerely care about our future.Leaders should instill in their people a hope for success and also empower them to accomplish their goals not shatter their dreams.
This incident should not be allowed to repeat itself again.No intern deserves to be treated in such a manner.
#myperspective#