Citi TV General Manager and journalist, Bernard Avle, is facing public scrutiny following his interview with Nana Kwame Bediako, also known as Cheddar, founder of The New Force, on the Point of View show aired on Monday, January 15, 2024.
The interview became intense as Bernard Avle and Nana Kwame Bediako engaged in an intellectual debate. The classification of Ghana as a middle-income country emerged as a controversial topic, with the two participants expressing divergent views on the matter.
Bernard Avle held the position that Ghana is indeed a middle-income country, but Mr Bediako argued otherwise, stating that Ghana is a low-income country.
Mr Bediako argued that since the government run to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for economic assistance through a credit facility worth $3 billion, it is a low-income country.
“They went to beg to save the economy, but you are sitting in front of me, and I know you know a lot about economics, and you are telling me this country is a middle-income country.
“How then do we go so broke that we lost all the cash in our central bank and we had to go to IMF to save us? Ghana is a low-income country,” he stressed.
A much more composed Bernard Avle insisted that “Ghana is a middle-income country.”
Also, Bernard claimed that Mr Bediako said he planned to make Ghana a low-income country, an assertion he refuted.
For some netizens, Mr Avle came off as brusque and “dripped with condescension.” They accused him of being impartial. They alleged that guests from the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) who appear on the show were not interviewed intensely as Cheddar was.
“That Bernard Avle interview with FJC is dripping with condescension. I get that the guy is highly ignorant and comically incompetent, but the interviewer’s posture borders on badgering and belittling,” a user, @enyonvm wrote.
Another user, @cole__xy said, “Now they’re attacking Bernard Avle. Crazy world.”
But some others noted that Mr Avle has always been an individual who puts his guests on a hot seat, questioning their intellect on issues they plan to resolve or address.