Last week Friday was the first of April. As is our tradition on the Super Morning Show, we put together an elaborate prank for your consideration. This year, we staged a fake arrest. An intricate drama in which a mystery man came into the studio and “arrested” me for causing fear and panic.

Myjoyonline.com put out a matching story to corroborate our little subterfuge. Following our stunt, a number of interesting things happened.

First, social media went wild. So many of you put up posts about what had just happened. Some of you immediately declared it a prank. Some of you were not entirely sure, and were analysing, trying to decide whether or not it was real. And then there were those of you who were completely taken in by our little charade. And genuinely concerned for my wellbeing too!

Strangely, I felt most guilty about those of you who actually believed the prank – even though the whole point was to make you temporarily believe it wasn’t a prank… yeah, paradox. Anyway, this morning, I thought I’d better explain to you all why we decided to perform this particular practical joke on the First of April.

Do you remember what we did last year? We brought on two people who pretended to be Customer Service reps for ECG and the Ghana Water Company. They deliberately said things to wind you up – like the reason why tariffs are going up is because it costs a lot to send board members around the world on shopping trips. Listeners got so angry at our two fake guests, they threatened physical violence against them. They accused the team and me of being reckless and not considering their emotions in bringing such annoying people onto the show.

Now, this was at a time when the whole nation was on the brink, losing time, money, revenue, customers and tempers to the power crisis. Utility tariffs had just been jacked up and that was all everyone was talking about. That was the atmosphere into which we dropped our hand-grenade of a prank.

Anyway, my point is this: we don’t just pull meaningless pranks - we devise wind-ups that also serve as a satire of the most topical issues at the time. You see, even when we’re entertaining you, we’re making you think at the same time. This is why we are the best in the business.

So anyway, this year, we did exactly the same thing. Amidst stories of National Security arresting the SA 3, keeping them longer than the 48 hours permitted by law, finally bringing them to court, and then ignoring the court’s instructions to release them on bail, keeping them over the Easter holidays, everyone was talking about our National Security apparatus and whether or not its operatives have too much power. It seems they can do whatever they want. Oh, and Parliament is considering giving them even more power with the Spy Bill. We simply have to further this topical conversation.

When a practical joke is done well, it suspends disbelief. Those who fell for it did not stop for a moment to consider how plausible it was that National Security would ever conduct an arrest live on National Radio. Just like last year. Callers threatened to slap, strangle and spit on our fake guests, without stopping for a moment to consider whether what they were hearing was actually plausible. That’s a testament to how much you trust us here on the Super Morning Show, and we appreciate that very much.

So for all of you who felt that this year’s practical joke was expensive, insensitive, in bad taste, a little too close to the bone, I want to first of all, say my dear friends, I’m sorry for causing you to worry.Please don’t take offense. It’s the ones you love that you play jokes on – not your enemies.In truth, the team and I are a little embarrassed at how well the prank worked. But I also want you to realise that this means we have a real problem. If this is the level of impunity that you think National Security are capable of, then we really need to talk about this.

My name is Kojo Yankson, and I wonder; did we ridicule National Security, or is National Security ridiculing us?

GOOD MORNING, GHANAFO!