Voice of Conscience (By: Manasseh Azure Awuni)

Manasseh Azure Awuni is one of Ghana’s foremost investigative journalists and a staunch anti-corruption crusader. The revered Ghanaian preacher, Pastor Mensa Otabil, has described him as a “Treasure” to Ghana, a young man whose life is an “encouragement that there is hope for Ghana and for Africa.”

Manasseh was born in Bongo in the Upper East Region of Ghana in 1985 but grew up in Kete-Krachi, where his father worked as a night watchman. Growing up under difficult conditions, he rose above the odds of deprivation, poverty and hopelessness to become a role model to many Ghanaian youths and a voice for the oppressed and downtrodden.

Manasseh is a recipient of many awards in recognition of his outstanding performance in journalism. In 2010, the Ghana Journalists’ Association adjudged him the Most Promising Young Journalist of the Year and the overall Best Journalist of the Year for 2011, just a year after he left journalism school. He is also a recipient of the 2012 National Youth Achievers Award for Media Excellence and overall winner of Ideas Award by Legacy and Legacy in the same year. In 2013, he was adjudged the Best Anti-Corruption Reporter in Ghana.

A product of Krachi Senior High School, Manasseh Azure Awuni graduated from the Ghana Institute of Journalism in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies and went to read for a Master of Arts degree in Communication Studies at the University of Ghana’s School of Communication Studies. Before joining Joy FM in November 2012, Manasseh worked as a freelance journalist, focusing on rural reporting and reports that highlighted the plight of the poor and the vulnerable in the society. The Bongo boy, as Manasseh refers to himself, enjoys gospel and boborbor music. He reads for pleasure and writing is his hobby. Manasseh is also the author of Voice of Conscience, a collection of selected articles on anti-corruption, politics, motivation, obituary and a mixed basket of topical national issues.

He is happily married to Rebecca Eduafo-Abraham, and they live in Accra, Ghana.