Ghana 2010 - my top 10 memories

2010 to me has been a fruitful year, I look forward to a more aggressive 2010. I usually don't stick to my New Year's resolutions, so I won't make any for next year. I however have some memories of 2010 I want to share with everyone, especially my readers in Ghana.

1. The earthquake wake-up call

In January 2010, I received a call at dawn from a family member warning me of an impending earthquake. I was advised to get out of bed run to a safer haven. I got out of the building and was amazed to realize there were dozens of others who had received similar alerts. Apparently it was a hoax! Someone, somewhere had fooled a good number of Ghanaians and believe it or not, it worked. Days later the government authorized the national security agency to look into this matter. It's been close to a year, they are yet to reveal their findings.

2. Pigs came to our shores
In April there was lots of 'fear and panic' when the Ghana Health Service (GHS) warned Ghanaians that H1N1 (Not Swine flu) had infected three persons. Not too long after the announcement, the situation was brought under control and I guess that was the last we heard of the pigs. Bravo to all health professionals.

3. Ghana takes a head-count, I was left out
This year in October the Ghana Statistical Service conducted a Population and Housing Census. The exercise which was scheduled to take two weeks ended up taking longer than that. Personally I think the service could have done a better job. Many enumerators, weeks after the activity complain of non-payment of their stipend. To me this certainly didnt look like a GHc 70 million exercise.

4. The rains came again; Accra got flooded..again!
During the rainy season, some parts of the country especially the Northern regions and the capital, Accra experienced torrential rainfall. Lives and property were lost, and NADMO could only do as much as their resources could allow.

5. South Africa shames critics, Asamoah Gyan disappoints Africa
In June-July South Africa, proved its critics wrong by staging a very colorful and memorable World Cup. This was the very first time an African nation had organised a world cup event, I just hope it wont be the last. Africa got another opportunity to make a mark by qualifying for the semi-finals of the competition for the first time. However Asamoah Gyan, Ghana's number 1 striker, broke the continent's heart by missing the penalty kick that could have made us champions of the competition.

6. Ghanaian miners go down as Chilean miners came up
About 50 Galamsey operators in June got swallowed by the earth as their were busily engaging in the 'illegal' mining activities. No one in the team survived. I was surprised when I heard that people in the area believed this was an act of the gods as a way of increasing the quantity of gold. No wonder they didnt bother to rescue victims.

7. Nigeria's Independence was a bomb....really it was a bomb!
Nigeria celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2010. President Goodluck run out of luck when when two bombs exploded at the event in Abuja on October 1st. Nigerian insurgents were believed to be behind the attack.

8. Ghana attained middle income status, lower division
With a GDP of GHC 44.8 billion, statisticians thought it was time we started calling ourselves a middle income nation. So one morning we woke up and we put on our new tag, nothing else changed, only the figures in the books did.

9. EOCO knocks on GFA's doors, FIFA bares its teeth
In November, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) one morning raided the Ghana Football Association Offices and seized files, hard drives and other documents. They smelled corruption! Fifa issued a 'soft' warning to Ghana advising the football-loving nation to refrain from interfering in the FA's affairs.

10. Professor lets the Oil flow. Warns us not to expect anything spectacular
On December 17th, President Mills turned the wheels for the official production of oil in commercial quantity on board the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Kwame Nkrumah vessel. This was a very memorable event. Many Ghanaians watched the event live on national television, others streamed it online and a handful followed reports of twitter. At last Ghana now produces oil in commercial quantities. Ghanaians were however warned to manage their expectations, the oil wont change much they said, at least not immediately. I found that to be a very sincere statement. I just wished the sincerity had started long ago.

Education: A view from Ghana

Africa is a continent with very little respect for education. It is estimated that at every point in time only about 6 percent of the people living on this continent have a post-high school certification of some sort. What bothers my mind the most is the attitude of the powers that be towards such matters of serious concern. They treat issues relating to education with a pinch of salt. In Ghana for instance the very pillars built to serve as public universities are the same which stand even today.

The biggest problem facing Africa undoubtedly is education. This I guess is not a matter of opinion but of fact. All other problems that face us and seem to be bigger than education can be resolved as soon as the primary problem of education is nipped in the bud.

I would like to draw your mind to a silent killing phenomenon which seems to be Ghana's dilemma although we hardly pay attention to it. I am talking about a cycle which always ensures that the best of students enter into University and the next level of students enter polytechnic.The third level of students find themselves in training colleges either as teacher trainees or as nurse trainees.

If we took the time to closely evaluate the calibre of entrants into the training colleges,we would realise that most (not all) of these students could not obtain high grades in English and Maths. These are the very people who will one day come out of such institutions to teach our kids English or Mathematics. My question is Why open up teacher training institutions for them, just because they did not obtain the necessary qualifications for into the University or Polytechnics ? I believe the willingness to teach should be a matter of choice and interest and nothing else.

I am looking forward to seeing a day when the best of students from our high schools would love to go into teacher training colleges to become tomorrow's teachers for our kids to benefit from their knowledge.

Next time you go into a government hospital and you do not get the best of treatment from the nurses..............think again probably she is not there because of interest rather she was pushed into nursing.

Ghana beats Serbia in South Africa 2010 World Cup

I have never hidden my support for the Brazillian national team in international tournaments such as the World Cup. The Samba boys have been my favourites since I begun watching football about two decades ago. However the Ghana black stars have given me good reasons to consider them as a team to reckon with. The Ghana national team put up spectacular performances at the previous world cup event in Germany; winning against power houses such as the US and Czech Republic to the surprise of many.

This time too, Ghana has started its world cup campaign triumphantly, by beating Serbia by a goal to nil, becoming the first African team to win its game after Algeria, South Africa and Nigeria all failed to win. The black stars put the nation in frenzy after Ghana’s most prolific goal scorer, Asamoah Gyan converted a spot kick that swayed the Serbian goalee in the opposite direction. Ghana will meet Australia in its next game, the latter seems to have a psychological advantage over the socceroos, especially given the fact that Tim Cahill will miss that match after he was sent off in their game against Germany.

The Ghana Black Stars’ Serbian coach Milo, has proven to us all that the team is definetely need not be woven round the Midfield Dynamo of Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari and Stephen Appiah. With Chealsea’s Essien out of the tournament and Appiah’s fitness issues, many thought the coach was out of options. He however got himself three points in his basket with youngsters like Asamoah, Dede Ayew, and Prince Boateng . I think it is about time we got fresh names into the team.

6 reasons why I won't put my phone off for 6 hours

At a Ghanabloggers meeting, a member announced that the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) intends to protest against poor service quality by telecom operators on the 27th of May between 6am and 12pm this year. It sounded like a very good idea, but upon second thought, I realized the approach needed to be re-strategized. According to the leaders of this protest, it will cost the telecommunication industry an estimated $6 million.

Six-hour strike not enough!
I think the objective is a laudable one and I must frankly commend the brains behind the organization. Kudos to the CEO of the CPA Mr. Kofi Kapito. I however think switching off my phone for a period of 6 hours with the aim of punishing Telecom Giants like MTN and Zain is analogous to attacking Goliath with a catapult (without God’s hand!), this would seem like a tickle to companies that earn as much as 46,1 billion rands a year (More than 6.5 billion) in revenue and earned more than $54 million only from Ghana.

People have failed to understand that once you recharge your mobile credit account, the amount is credited to the network in question, whether you use the time or not. Putting your phone of will make very little difference unless of course one refuses to purchase credits for the rest of his/her life impossibility in this day and age). The end-user who in this case has a very little bargaining power will still resort to the very network he insults for his communication needs in the future.

If I am still not clear think of it this way, as a husband, you refuse to eat your wife’s lunch with the aim of showing her how bitter her food tastes like, just to have a double dose when it time for dinner. The question is what message will your wife get????

Other service providers are bad too!
I am wondering why it is just the telecoms we are demonstrating against. I was hoping we could rather ask for better service from service providers as consumers who pay hard earned cash for 'such services. What about GCB, GIA, ECG, WAEC and all the other companies with 'G' in them? Should they go scot free? Aren’t we creating the impression that it is only the telcos that are providing us with poor service?

Why bite your nose to spite your face?
I am thinking the CPA has chosen a very bad time to do this demonstration. Why? For a few reasons; In June, the over 30,000 graduates that were churned out of our universities and polytechnics will be looking forward to applying for jobs in various companies. The phone is the main point of contact between recruiters and applicants. I doubt these young graduates would want to take that risk especially because we are in recruitment seasons. Most of those advocating for this event, surely have landlines they would use in their offices and thus wouldn’t mind putting off their blackberries or iPhone off for six hours, I wouldn’t advice other people on the other side of life to do the same. You might just end up losing more than what MTN would.

Blame the NCA not the Telecoms!
The National Communications Authority (NCA) is supposed to oversee the performance levels of these telecoms. Its mission is to “regulate the communications industry by setting and enforcing high standards of competence and performance to enable it to contribute significantly and fairly to the nation's prosperity through the provision of efficient and competitive services.” The question we need to ask ourselves is whether or not the NCA has been able to meet this objective.

In a letter dated June 14, 2007 the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) slammed its hammer down on MTN Nigeria for poor services on its network after several warnings. MTN was then asked to submit to the commission on weekly basis a report of its achievements on quality of service parameters for an initial period of ninety days or until it (MTN) improved service quality. Also in 2008 the NCC again ordered two mobile operators, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited and Celtel Nigeria Limited, to refund about 4.7 billion Naira (about 41 million USD) to subscribers for poor quality of service rendered in the month of January 2008. This is what I call an authority.

In the past, the NCA has sanctioned some operators for poor service and has gone on further to warn them for poor Quality of service (QoS), but these measures haven’t stopped the latter from its acts of poor service delivery. Even the Vice-President of Ghana (a former Minister of Communication) has gone on further to ask the NCA to attend to such issues with sharper claws.
Instead of demonstrating against the operators, I think we should rather demonstrate against the NCA or whoever is supposed to empower the NCA with the right resources to do their job well.

Lack of uniformity, low publicity
The publicity regarding this event hasn’t been the encouraging. I know dozens of thousands of people who still don’t know anything about this protest.

We will go back to our them anyway!
I am just wondering what people will do after the 6 hours. My guess is, they would put their phones back on and enjoy the poor services of the very operator you protested against!!

In my next post I will attempt to come up with a few suggestion that can be considered by the CPA and all other consumers for that matter.

Accra gets flooded....again!

Just after about two hours of rains yesterday the city of Accra got flooded, leading to the collapse of bill boards and buildings in the city. This is a yearly situation that is slowing down the progress of Ghana as a country. What is surprising about these issues, is the blame-game carried out by bodies supposed to ensure the implementation of bye-laws in metropolitan areas.

The ordinary citizen blames the AMA, the AMA blames the lands commission, whiles the Lands Commission blames the citizenry for not obeying simple laid out rules and regulations. There is one thing that is clear though, this situation has happen more than once, or twice. It is a has become a yearly ritual Ghanaians have become used to and prepare for around rainy seasons every year.

Frankly, I dont think the world should come to our aid should our capital be consumed one day by uncontrolled floods because this is a problem that has been staring at us in the face for the past decade and even beyond. The ealier a long lasting non-political solution was proposed to this epidemic, the better.

The 4 most unfortnate cheating men of 2010.....so far!

Tiger Woods, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Bill Clinton, David Letterman, what do all these men have in common? Looks like the question about why men cheat has come up again. This year has seen superstars crumble in the media circles because they were not able to keep their wedding vows. A couple of weeks a ago I tried to answer the question about why men cheat? Sex got them into trouble, others were more fortunate than others. Below are the four most unfortunate men so far in 2010.

John Terry
John Terry, England football captain lost his captainship in the national team after it was discovered he had had an affair with his former team mate Wayne Bridge's girl. As if that was not enough, some companies terminated their sponsorship contracts with him.

Ashley Cole
A fellow team mate at Chelsea FC, Ashley Cole is alleged to have been divorced by his wife Cheryl Cole via SMS not too long ago. The split followed an allegations that the singer's husband, had been unfaithful.



The unfortunate Ghanaian polygamist
Locally in Ghana, a man from Obuasi met his untimely death after he lied to his two wives (a polygamist already!!) to spend some time with his mistress in a hotel. Prior to the meeting the man had been advised by his doctor to stay away from sex because of his heart condition. He however ignored this counsel and went in for fun. This caused him his dear life.

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3 ways Governments can get closer to its citizens

Image by alles-schlumpf via Flickr

This week I wrote a post on how Ghana could copy the way US is leveraging on the power of technology and social media to reach out more to the citizens. Obama's state of the Union address was made available live to more people and in more ways than any event hosted since the Obama’s Inauguration. More than 1,300,000 people tuned into to the live video feed of the President’s State of the Union Address provided on the White House blog. After the speech, over 50,000 people stayed on to watch and engage with administration officials during a live Facebook event. Below are three lessons all governments can learn from the US example.

Start a blog, and be sincere about your issues
In this social media era, blogs are a very dependable way of disseminating information of any kind; good and bad. Just as the White House of US has started a blog to discuss happenings in government, I believe other local governments can do similar. The number of Ghanaians online is not as encouraging as it is supposed to be, but there still is a good number of Ghanaians with Internet access who would love to read reliable information presented by a source such as its own government official.

Catch them online via Facebook, twitter youtube
My research shows that there are 277,600 Ghanaians on facebook, some of these people access these platforms (especially Facebook and Twitter) via mobile. I believe very healthy discussions can be organisd on facebook chats and on twitter. Issues can be addressed online and questions answered by authorities in power.

Listen to its citizens online
Many aggrieved citizens vent their frustrations online by stating it in their facebook statuses, commenting on posts or by writing a post on the issue. There are many different smart tools the government can use to keep track of what its citizens are "saying" or discussing online. I believe this will help the authorities make better decisions in most cases.

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• Obama gets a mixed review in Ghana (theworld.org)
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The Haiti Disaster - Ghana must help

Tuesday, 12th January 2010 will definitely go down history as one of the most memorable days in the world. Haiti was struck by a 7.0 earthquake caused not only Haiti but the rest of the world as well. Total number of lives lost is yet to be made certain, but I hear the number runs over 50,000 people. All of a sudden the term “Re Cross Haiti” has become one of the most search terms on Google.

One thing I must commend is the way people have gone out of their ways to deep their hands deep into their pockets to make donations towards relief processes. President Obama together with all mobile networks started an initiative we all must applaud. This allows mobile users in the US to donate $10 to the Red Cross to help with the disastrous situation in Haiti following a major earthquake. So far a total amount of over $5 million has been realized. All users have to do it to text “HAITI” to 90999.

Other superstars and sportsmen like Tiger Woods and Haitian-born rap star Wyclef Jean have also donated their time and money to ensure that the situation in Haiti gets better. Tiger Woods donated an amount of $3 million to Wyclef’s Yele foundation.

Ghana is yet to join the chain of ‘helpers’, on January 15th the President of Ghana expressed condolence to the president and people of Haiti. I seriously think more can be done although Ghana is a third world nation. The Obama initiative in the US I believe can also be replicated in Ghana. I am sure we can all put In our widow’s might if these options are provided on MTN, Tigo, Zain, Vodafone and Kasapa.

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WOZA 2010 – Africa will not fail

For the first time in the history of the World Cup, an African nation has been given the chance to host the most watched and most prestigious football completion. In the months of June and July next year, all eyes will be on South Africa, most of these eyes will off course expect nothing less than a spectacular event.

In spite of a few shortcomings the host-nation faced a few months ago, it has made lots of progress in terms of its infrastructural requirements. Five out of the ten stadia to be used for the World Cup 2010 next year have been completed. The others are expected to be fully finished by December 2009. A lot more has been done about the country’s security and transportation services to make sure next year’s football fiesta will be memorable. It is also an opportunity to prove to the World that Africa is capable of hosting an event as big as the World Cup.

A few years ago, Africa was given the chance to host the Miss World event in Nigeria and things didn’t go as planned. In the end, heads lives were lost, Africa was insulted and the event had to be moved to London. We all as Africans regret the way things went that year, and that is why next year’s World Cup in South Africa needs to be a top-class event. I am also expecting a more competitive performance from the African teams that will be representing the continent. This will prove the critiques wrong and perhaps give Africa more daring chances in the near future.

Kwame Nkrumah was not a god after all !!!!!

On Thursday, Ghana woke up to hear about the Founders Day celebration in Ghana and Africa. This day had been on the drawing board since President Mills’ announcement in his speech in January. Ghana now has one more holiday to celebrate. Founder’s day comes as one of the only days Ghana will celebrate in commemoration of a former head of state.

I never had the chance to meet Kwame Nkrumah, and I strongly believe you too did not have that opportunity. I grew up to think Kwame Nkrumah was a semi-god of immense capabilities and that is how come he was able to wrestle independence from his white-skinned rulers who were to be feared in that era. Today, I know a few tales and myths I heard about Kwame Nkrumah were not so true after all.

Little Kwame Nkrumah in his childhood stripped at his mum’s back, is reported to have told his mother, that she had stepped on a fish. When his mother took the pains to bend and check for herself, it was true. She had really stepped on a fish and didn’t even realize it. I found this myth hard to believe at first. Now, I have no difficulty disbelieving it. Kwame was really great but not a god.

There were also some myths about him being a true servant of one of the most powerful gods in Ghana. And as such he was protected from any human attacks. Some believe that is how come he escaped his attempted assignation at the Airport. It was reported that Kwame Nkrumah knew about the bomb that had been planted into the bouquet that was to be presented to him. This myth is a little bit difficult to disprove or substantiate.

One thing I know for sure, Dr, Nkrumah was a great ruler (although he was a little bit over ambitious with his goals). But he was certainly not a god, at least not a god enough to predict his overthrow.

Airforce1 is gone but Obama is still in Ghana

Days after the first family left the country fort the US. Bloggers are still talking about him, business men and women are still using the Obama brand to sell their wares and omany more are talking about him. I just took a ride through town and found out some traces of Obama still in the country. I am pretty sure it will take months before some people will get over his visit to Ghana

An art I found on the Osu Oxford Street.

One of the many Obama signs I found in Accra

Atta Mills partners Obama in a historic Partnership for change

Obama seems to emerge from the tree in this one!!!

OBAMA COMES TO AFRICA- Ghana gets cleaned up again

The first Black American president of the United States will pay a visit to Ghana on the 10th and 11th July this year. Along with him will be his lovely wife Michelle, Air Force One and an entourage of high-profiles members of his government. Many Ghanaian see his visit to be a breath of hope unto the Ghanaian economic situation. Not too surprising Accra and other vital parts of it are getting new looks to show Obama how environmentally friendly we are as a nation.

It is reported that Obama will visit Cape Coast with his wife, in this light the Mfantseman Municipal Assembly embarked on a massive clean-up exercise a few days ago. This action according to the Chief Executive was done to give the district a positive image. Streets of Accra are being white washed and gutters that have been choked for months are being attended to. These measures are similar to the measures taken by previous government when the Queen of England came to Ghana. Nor are they any different from the ones taken when Bill Clinton visited Ghana in President Rawlings’ regime. Days before Clinton visited Ghana; lunatics were taken off the streets of Accra and hidden away form public view, only to return to their various ‘posts’ after Clinton’s departure. The . Now no one seems to care about their welfare any longer, not the government, not the churches, or the NGO's .Kaneshie overhead which broke down weeks ago got fixed a few days to Obama's visit. Pathches on the roads leading to and from the Airport area have been filled and maintiained. All in the bid to impress the incoming messiah. My question is “Do we always have to wait for the BIG names to come before we clean up?”

I am pretty sure if Ghanaians had a cleaning habit the floods that destroyed lives and property in Kaneshie could have been avoided. We do not need an Obama or a Clinton in the country before Accra is put into an attractive shape.

My other concern is the hypocrisy involved in these actions. These important guests will arrive in Ghana for a day or two in within these days trust me there will be no black-outs, no filthy gutters and no lunatics in sight. Is this the real Accra or for that matter the real Ghana? I believe if we want to portray Accra as a clean city, it doesn’t need to be a nine days’ wonder. It needs to be a part of our system. The AMA or whichever body is in charge should see to the maintenance of the city. The right thing must be done at the right time in the right way!