Araba Koomson is fierce, truly fierce but fair and of course, funny.

Tomb Raider, Cat woman and a little bit of Spice Girls combined.

Araba kept her cool well enough to dismiss a demand by a top NDC official to have her replace the NDC political representative while an on-air discussion was going on in the lead up to the 2008 general elections.

 It was a BNI style demand. But there is also an Araba Koomson kind of dismissal. And like sunny mornings dismiss a dull mist, the air of insistence evaporated.

The rest is history.

This is normal Araba, a very normal trait. Fierce yet effeminate enough to write an article on ‘What is Love’ on Valentine’s Day.

A 100% woman and a 100% man – that is if you cut out physical exhibits of gender.

In the Joy FM newsroom, she has been christened ‘Madam T’. Not really sure what this means except that ‘T’ could mean tough or tenacious.

Either case, it is generally believed to be befitting.

You will find the News Editor plastered in a corner in the Joy FM newsroom brooding over scripts, shouting out names or numbers as she packages the news for 12 noon that feeds Ghana’s discerning listenership.

Packaging the news with compelling content is her job. A risky job if you consider the reality that finding the truth, telling it and standing by it is an endangered exercise.

At Joy FM, it is expected to be routine. Araba recalled an incident that pretty much shoke her. It was the controversy surrounding the ill-fated STX Korea housing deal.

Araba Koomson attended the Ghana International School, a major local factory for churning out confident Ghanaian children.

Her father was a teacher and so like teachers go, Araba went- reading anything that crawls. At school, she found it fulfilling to be part of the editorial board of the students’ newspaper.

And at home, watching the veteran broadcaster Beatrice Adu read the news while mimicking her was a daily chore.

‘One day, one day’ she would have been saying to herself.

Araba Koomson and Joy News Managing Editor Elvis Kwashie

So quite early on, when most young people were trying to get an adult explanation for pubic hair, Araba Koomson had already decided she was going to be a journalist.

Araba spent vacations doing internships at Ben Ephson’s Daily Dispatch. It was an assignment reporting from parliament for Daily Dispatch that set in motion the rest of Araba’s career choices.

Ato Kwamina Dadzie then an editor at Metro TV was in parliament that day.

“I met Araba 12 years ago. She was wearing green dress and she was also green inside” Ato Kwamina recollects.

His overtures to get Araba to join Metro TV were turned down. She was fiercely loyal to Ben Ephson, Ato explained and it took a direct request to Mr. Ephson before Araba Koomson was let go to start a career in TV broadcasting.

Two years after, it was Ato again who recommended to Joy FM’s Matilda Asante that Multimedia swoops in for the TV broadcaster.

Few minutes into talking to Ato Kwamina, he veered off into adoration and adulation.

Suffice it to say, Ato Kwamina’s flattery is unprintable.

‘’Araba is adorable’’, a straight-faced Ato said, repeated over and over like a hit song stuck in replay.

The continuity of this statement was much like water recycled to power fountains.

Well, over to you Araba.

It was a talk about family that drew the softest spot from the Assistant News editor. She revealed how she was told of the death of her younger sister while she was in a meeting at work.

Her younger sister had been ill for sometime and was receiving treatment at the hospital. Araba put off a plan to visit her in the hospital and was hoping to make it up to her sister.

She died. Araba screamed as the news hit her in the newsroom.

The News editor looked teary but explained it is only because she has trouble with her eyes. That’s why she doesn’t drive at night, she said.

Araba loves kids and cooking and after intense editorial focus during the day, her smile is broadest at 4pm when she bids everybody ‘have a nice day at work’.