NDC, NPP & the Ghana Statistical Service

Today’s headlines was all about the Ghana Statistical Service’s response to Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s speech at the 5th Ferdinand Ayim Memorial Lecture. Every newspaper and headline I saw quoted Acting Government Statistician, Dr. Philomena Nyarko’s response to Dr. Bawumia. In the past week, Ministry of Finance & Economic Planning, Governor of Bank of Ghana among others have come out to criticise the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana.

Source: @GhanaDecides

For me, it is sad to see a state institution like the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) being drawn into the NDC-NPP politicking Ghanaians are fed up with. (At least I am). 

Now one of them is being mischievous here and I wish I knew which of them is. All I know is this undermines our quest to build strong institutions. As many have argued and was echoed during Barrack Obama’s address to the Ghanaian Parliament in 2009, when he visited, we need to build strong, capable, reliable and transparent institutions. P

I really hope our greedy, deceitful and incompetent politicians will leave our state institution out of their politicking. At the end of the day, the politicians will come and go but the our state institutions will remain. Let’s build and defend our institutions. Let’s not let any government manipulate the GSS or any other state institution and let’s not let any party undermine the integrity of our institutions.

God bless our homeland Ghana!

A Successful Biometric Voter Registration?

It has been a while since I wrote here. The Glo post doesn’t count. It was just a quick post to answer all the questions that were coming at me on twitter. I have been quite busy with a lot stuff, the best of which is an election project I am involved in. 

For the past 40 days, we have all been involved and witnessed the biometric voter registration. I will cut the chase and say the exercise in my opinion was successful and peaceful despite the few incidents notable the clashes in Odododiodio and Kennedy Agyapong’s arrest. 

A lot of these could have been avoided if the Police was more vigilant and the political parties had a real control over their supporters.

I travelled to my hometown of Sunyani to register in the first phase. My polling centre, Ridge Experimental School as I expected, had no applicants at the time of my application. It allow for time to interact with the registration officers and take some pictures. I also got to understand how authentication of the device was done and how they back up data. The party agents from the NPP & NDC, although looked hungry were calm and didn’t ask any questions.

One thing which make the 40-day period worthwhile and I am not being bias here, was the #iRegistered tweets and comments. #iRegistered is a campaign which Ghana Decides run aggressively during the registration period to get people to register and share their experiences. It was interesting all the comments and reports which came in. Occasionally, people would tweet at the Ghana Decides twitter account.

So, if you’re reading this post and you are not following Ghana Decides on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr, Storify, Instagram, Skype, then you should do so now. Ghana Decides is a BloggingGhana (BloGH) election project. It seeks to leverage the use of social media in Ghana’s December 2012 elections. 

Glo NetPro Hands On

Glo Mobile Ghana finally launched yesterday and today was their first big day.

I got a data modem from Glo this afternoon. It took about an hour to get the modem as I had to wait in line and everybody was buying at least two SIM cards or modem. Glo NetPro a ZTE MF110 USB modem which sells at GH¢60 with 6GB

Setup

Setup was easy and fast. Setting up on my MacBook Pro took just a few clicks and a little over a minute. 

Welcome


Speed


The first thing I did after the installation was to dive right in with a speed test. With so much talk about the Glo-1 cable, I was curious to find out how fast the NetPro is. The speedtest result was quite impressive with the download but upload disappointed. Only the average, I clocked 3Mbps for download speed and 0.5Mbps for upload speed. It compares to what one can get on MTN and Airtel. I will have to test this over a wide area to come to a better conclusion. 

Data Bundles

Very little information is out there now on the available data bundle for Glo NetPro. Naa from Glo Customer care was helpful with some of the available packages. The packages have apart from having data limits also have time limits;

  • Diamond |  GH¢ 80 | 90 Days | 10GB | 24hrs
  • Gold | GH¢55 | 30 Days | 6GB | 24hrs
  • Silver | GH¢40 | 3.2GB | 24hrs
  • Bronze | GH¢ 15 | 1.2GB | 24hrs
  • Day Business | GH¢ 30 | 30 Days | 3GB | 8am - 8pm
  • Night Personal | GH¢ 25 | 30 Days | 3GB | 8pm to 8am
  • Pay-as-you-go | GH¢ 0.05p


…to be continued

The President’s Encounter With Senior Editors & Journalists 2012: A Complete Waste of Time!

Good morning Ghana! I guess some of you spent some time watching or listening to the President’s interaction/encounter with senior editors and journalists at the Castle yesterday. Even if you missed it on radio and tv, you probably saw a couple of tweets or Facebook updates on it. 

Mills interacting with Media. Credit: Presidency of the Republic of Ghana

I did listen via radio in the office and after the one hour interaction/encounter, I found it a complete waste of my productive time. I was left very disappointed by the questions the senior editors and journalists asked as well as the response from the president. 

The senior editors and journalist focused on questions (in my opinion) are of very little relevance to the needs of Ghanaians now; not a single question was asked about education and health. I dare not mention technology, export and support for local businesses. I am not sure there was anything on unemployment and the other basic issues affecting Ghanaians. Instead, these so-called senior editors and journalists spent the little time talking about the relationship between President Mills and President Rawlings and how it would affect the his chances in the December poll. Ten questions were asked about the payment of judgement debt of GH¢53 million to Mr. Alfred Wayome. Yes, 10 questions and none bothered to ask about education. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to talk about the state losing such a huge chunk of money but 10 questions whilst the basics are not tackled is quite pointless. This is what these so-called senior editors and journalists sought to do; they all wanted to be quoted as asking the president that ‘controversial’ questions and also get those useless front page stories for their newspapers. Shameless journalists.

One of many questions which in my opinion was out of place and unnecessary was that by Mary-Ann Acolatse, formally of Metro TV. She asked if the government would pay compensation to someone wrongfully imprisoned for 14 years. Isn’t this something you take to the courts, the A-G or the Commission of Human Rights & Administrative Justice (CHRAJ)? Again, probably one greedy journalist try to put her media house’s story in the spotlight. There were some praise singers as always.

With an encounter which comes once every year, I think we should have gone past one hour… but then, these journalists wouldn’t have gone past asking about the president’s health, wayomegate and ask more sensible or meaningful questions.

The reaction on twitter was no different from mine after the encounter. Tweeting with the hashtag #GhanaDecides, people expressed their outrage at journalists who made the whole encounter seem rehearsed (maybe it was). Like me, most tweeps from the it hard to believe these were really senior editors and journalists. The poor quality of the questions asked reflects in the discourse these media houses chart in the country. After all, to them, asking about improvement in health care won’t sell; they would rather ask about the president’s health. I bet the president would have been caught fumbling if he had met BloggingGhana or Barcampers.

As we move towards the December poll, I urge the people and the media to ask relevant and intelligent questions when given the opportunity. That is a pretty good way of holding politicians accountable and achieving the Ghana we ought to be.

God bless our homeland Ghana!

Why Aren’t Our Nations Better Off?

African nations have had independence for so so many years: Why aren’t our nations better off? That is the question Nadia Zeine asked on twitter a couple of days ago. It is question I have often tried to answer. Off the top of my head, I can think of these five reasons; Leadership, Followership, Aid, Corruption, Neocolonialism and Religion.

We haven’t been too lucky with the leaders we have had in the past 3 decades or so. We have had very ignorant, selfish and greedy leaders who have done nothing but robbed our nations of their wealth and signed contracts primary school children wouldn’t even sign. Development can come when we have strong development-oriented leaders who are interested in the welfare and development performance rather than vague policies, nepotism and ethnic divisions.

I have maintained that ‘in as much as we have a leadership crises in Africa, I believe we have a followership crises as well.’ We have followers who don’t analyse or pay attention to the real issues and vote accordingly; we have sycophants who only seek their well-being and not that of the state. Followers have failed to criticise leaders constructively and vote the right people into power. Followers have been more interested in what they get rather than what nation.

Aid, Aid and more Aid. I am just one chapter deep in Dambisa Moyo’s Dead Aid but I share her views on aid; Aid has been and continues to be, an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian disaster for most parts of the developing world. Aid has done nothing but led to the underdevelopment of our continent. Aid has been seen as a end rather than a means to an end. Governments have become lazy because of aid. We have become too dependant on aid that we have failed to generate the money we need for development. This is one area we can learn from China. China in its economic transformation sought foreign aid as a supplement to national resources and as a means to acquire know-how and management skills. The opposite is true with Africa. Governments after governments boast how much aid they were able to secure. This has to change!

Corruption continues to be one of the reasons for our underdevelopment. Although we have some good examples in Botswana, Cape Verde, Seychelles and Mauritius, African countries continues to be in most corrupt nations. I have always said we don’t punish corruption enough in Africa. We live in countries where corrupt public servants are ‘asked to proceed on leave.’ How do you deal with corruption in a state like that? The only way to deal with corruption is not true fruitless education drives we have seen around the continent but to give out stiffer punishments.

Before the end of the cold war, Africa was the ground for the proxy wars; Mozambique, Angola which have caused tremendous damage to their economies. Neocolonialism continues to be a problem for the continent. Today, it has taken economic dimensions through unfair trade practices.

It is my view that every society which is over-religious or over superstitious will always remain underdevelopment. Our being over-religion and over-superstitious has affected the development of our continent. We take religion too seriously. We would do whatever the pastor, imam or priestess says even if it’s wrong. We rely too much on religion to solve our problems. Religion won’t! I believe in religion but I think religion comes in where science can’t provide an explanation.

Africa’s future is up to Africans. The earlier we take our destiny into our hands and correct these wrongs, the better.

In Loving Memory of Laud Affum Asamoah (1984 - 2011)


This is the worst news I have heard all year. I was mentioned in a tweet by Nana Wireko this afternoon asking if it was indeed true that Laud Affum Asamoah had passed away. I couldn’t believe it. Was it a sick joke? I immediately reached for my phone and called Laud. I felt a sigh of relief when the I heard it ringing on the other side just to be told moments after that the number cannot be reached at the moment. After 3 tries, I checked his Facebook and behold RIP posts on his wall. I checked his brother’s wall and he hasn’t posted anything in a while. Reading through the posts, I made a couple of calls to my brother and a couple of people we went to school with. They all didn’t seem to have an idea. I finally checked his girlfriend’s wall and she had an RIP message too.

Laud Affum Asamoah, you will sorely be missed. You are one of the best people I have gotten to know. 

Laud became my best friend from Class 6 through Junior High. He was part of the bunch of kids who joined Holy Spirit School in 1996. Laud had come from Ridge Experimental and he was known to everyone as the kid from Chiraa. He was commuting to school from Chiraa daily. Back then, we pronounced his name |loud| instead of |lôd|. Together with Shadrack Osei Antwi, Dickson Akomea and Anthony Owusu Acheampong, we formed a strong bond. We would walk home together; we would share ‘ice kenkey’ together and we would talk politics and sports. In junior high, we would share opposing views on politics in Ghana. I can’t forget how we used to talk about 2pac and Notorious BIG and how he used to rock K-Swiss. It was his signature shoe then. 

He was the first person I knew with rheumatism. Though it wasn’t funny, I used to laugh and tease him about it. Laud would also tease me for crying when I had bad grades in maths in class 6. Laud offered me a lot of advice in junior high. There was a time when I did some bad stuff worthy of isolation by my friends as Dickson suggested but Laud and Shadrack urged that we move past it and stay friends. He was indeed a true friend. His friendship shaped me. It thought me some real values. 

We drifted apart after junior high. Laud went to Prempeh College and I went to St. James and he also had to move to Goaso where his father had been transferred to.  

Though life kept keeping us apart, we reunited after senior high. He went to the Regional Maritime University and I went to the University of Ghana. I remember Laud paid me a visit in Legon one Saturday and we had a pleasant conversation.  

After uni, we would meet every time we were in Sunyani. Laud was a true friend. He would get in taxi and visit every weekday. We would share music, movies, tv series, talk, joke, cook or go find food and all. Politics and national development was something we talked about a lot. I remember the pre and post 2008 elections. We were together when Dr. Afari Gyan announce the run-off results and the Tain vote; memorable times. 

When Laud graduated from RMU, he was posted to the Upper West Region to teach in a Junior High. We sure laughed about it. For someone who had studied Ports and Harbour Administration, posting him to a school in the North made little sense to us. Laud wasn’t keen of changing his posting. He had taught in Goaso after Prempeh and he was prepared to be a positive impact on the kids. We would talk over the phone about the conditions there and how difficult it was. Haven taught at St. James and Alfred teaching at Methodist High, we would meet when he was in Sunyani and share our experience. He had some pretty hilarious stories to tell. 

How can I forget how I came to call him Sir Laud. Laud came over one day. He had a new Sony Laptop. We booted it and the login screen popped up with the name ‘Sir Laud’. As usual I laughed about it. We all started calling him Sir Laud. Laud had more nicknames than me; another addition to Asamoah Kɔkɔte and the other names.

Life kept us apart and being the best of friends. I got a job in Accra and he landed a job in Tema. We barely spoke because of our busy schedules. The last time we spoke was when I need some prices of commodities. Before that we had a lengthy chat when Anas Aremeyaw Anas released his video on corruption at the Tema Harbour. We shared ideas about making Ghana better. Oh Laud!

Raised Methodist, I have had Lewis Hartsough’s ‘I hear Thy welcome voice’, Methodist hymn 351 playing since I heard the news. I know you are in the Lord’s bosom now. My condolences to his family and girlfriend.

Laud Kwabena Affum Asamoah, I will sorely miss you. Till we meet again.

 

One Year Away…

We are exactly a year away for the 2012 Presidential and Parliamentary elections. I bet I am not the only one excited about the 2012 elections. I had a couple of retweets when I tweeted it this morning.  2012 presents a new dimension in Ghana’s elections. 

Apart from the much touted biometric voters’ register and ‘vote of confidence’ in the sitting John Evans Atta Mills, I am excited about how social media will be used in our elections. The use of social media was quite low in 2008. We saw only a few tweets and Facebook status updates from Ghana. Today, we have the major news outlets; Joy 997, Citi FM, Peace FM and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation all have twitter accounts now. I believe the number of Ghanaians on twitter and Facebook since then has tripled.

I expect a revamped Electoral Commission of Ghana website to include social media just as the Independent Electoral Commission of Nigeria (INEC) did in 2010. Hopefully, the EC will have a Twitter and Facebook page in 2012.

The candidates are also gearing up for 2012. I have seen a couple of politicians on Twitter including Vice President, John Dramani Mahama and the Nana Akufo-Addo 2012 campaign team. I will verify and detail the social media accounts of politicians and key people to follow in 2012 in another post.

I am curious to see how my home region of Brong-Ahafo will vote in 2012. As they say in the USA, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation” but in Ghana, it is “As Brong-Ahafo goes, so goes the nation.” Christened the “Chameleon of Ghana Politics”, the Brong-Ahafo has gotten every election right since 1992 and I don’t expect that trend to end in 2012.

This is most likely to be Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Electoral Commissioner of Ghana’s last elections and I expect him to do a fantastic farewell job. I trust the Ghanaian blogging and Twitter community to do a great job with telling the world, the real situation before and after December 7 2012.  

God bless our homeland Ghana!

How Many Times Can Vodafone Ghana Replace Stolen Cables?

I have been on Vodafone Fixed Broadband since April 30, 2010 and I have little complains about the uptime. The uptime is actually great (for me).

My problem with Vodafone Ghana is the number of times the broadband/fixed line cables get stolen and replaced. It seems nothing is being done aside replacing them, absolutely nothing! It just keeps recurring.

In the past 4 months, the cables in my neighbourhood have been stolen 5 times. All 5 times, Vodafone Ghana has replaced them within a week but done nothing to prevent them from getting stolen again. Someone is obviously not doing their job well. How on earth does replaced cables get stolen in a week or two and all you do is replace them? Does Vodafone Ghana have that much cables to replace stolen cables every week whilst some potential costumers can’t get on the service because there are ‘no cables’.

I live in New Achimota, not too far from the Korkdam Hotel. I woke up at dawn, Sunday, a little after 3am like I always do to finish some outstanding work. I wasn’t surprised to see my internet wasn’t working. I reached for the landline and there was no dial tone. Yes, the cables have been stolen again. Strike number 6 and all in the last 5 months.

Cables Hanging

Disappointed, I went to bed and phoned costumer service in the morning to report it. Madina? He asked. No, Achimota, I replied. He took my details and said “We will get back to you”. So, this is not an Achimota problem after all. Madina too? My friend Barima, who lives in East Legon has had similar complaints (and he has a tougher time getting them replaced. I am quite lucky Haruna from the Achimota exchange always answers my calls). So what is being done to stop this?

The cable thieves can’t win! Besides, I have paid for the service and as much as Vodafone Ghana expects me to pay my bill every 30 days, I don’t expect to be cut of the service haven paid for the service. As a matter of fact, when I went to pay my bill for November, the costumer service lady convinced me to upgrade to Browser Max (2mbps) and pay 2 months of bill for which Vodafone Ghana would give me an additional month for free. My account thus expires in February 2012 and I don’t expect to be disconnected from the service till then.

For weeks, I have been playing the neighbourhood vigilante, waking up at 2am (for the most times, the cables have been stolen on Sundays, between 2am and 3am) to check on the cables. I get scared sometimes and my friends have advised me it’s not the safest thing to do.

My After-2am Tweets

This is not funny. Whoever is in charge of broadband or fixed lines at Vodafone Ghana should get to work. Can’t they see the pattern; Weekends, After 2am? Isn’t Vodafone Ghana big enough to get the police on this or think of a brilliant way to beat these criminals? If this whole fixed broadband isn’t working, it shouldn’t be difficult for Vodafone Ghana to provide NLOS modems.

Now, I have to wait up to 5 working days for the cables to be replaced and my broadband internet to be restored and another week or two for the cables to be stolen again.

Power to you!


Thank You, Steve Jobs!

I woke up to 5 missed calls, 3 offline messages, 1 facebook wall post and 5 twitter mentions. It was nothing but kind words and bad news about the death of my hero.

Rest in Peace, Steven Paul Jobs. I owe much of what I am today to you. Thank you!

Apple Unveils iPhone 4S

October 4 came and as expected Apple Inc unveiled the next generation iPhone; iPhone 4S at the company’s media event, Let’s Talk iPhone.

The new iPhone has the same design as the iPhone 4 but it’s different on the inside.

So, what’s really new on the inside?

Well, the iPhone 4S features an A5 processor which delivers 2X the speed of the iPhone 4, has an 8-megapixel back camera with some modifications to provide better pictures and HD (1080p) recording with up to 30 frames per second. Apple iPhone 4S is also the world’s first ‘World Phone’. It is able to switch between CDMA and GSM signals. The iPhone 4S offers download speed over HSDPA+ of up to 14.4mbps, that is twice what the iPhone 4 delivers. It will be available in 16GB, 32GB & 64GB when it launches on October 14.

What everybody is talking about though is Siri, your new personal assistant. You can ask Siri to send an email, set a reminder, tell you about LOL, place phone calls, ask about the weather and a lot more and Siri will do all that with ease…. all by talking to Siri.

I know not a lot of people are happy with the iPhone 4S. Personally, I don’t know if the iPhone 4S will break sales records but lest we forget, the iPhone 3GS had a similar reception when it was announced but it went on to outsell the iPhone 3G. The iPhone 4S can do the same.

I think the iPhone 4S is the best iPhone yet and had it not been for the rumours which spilled the specs and features and the high hopes for a teardrop design, people would have been wowed.

If you have an iPhone 4, there is no real need to upgrade to the iPhone 4S. Apple says the iPhone 4S will be available in 70 countries by the end of the year. This means Vodafone Ghana will probably not be carrying it by the end of 2011. My bet is still on Vodafone Ghana to be the first iPhone carrier in Ghana. I will just have to wait to see how much the SIM-free version will cost in the UK or whether the USA will have a SIM-free version as well. Currently, the SIM-free iPhone 4 sells in the UK for £429 (GH¢1,095) and in the USA for $549 (GH¢905). A SIM-free iPhone 4S should be around the same price.

Am I buying the iPhone 4S? Yes!

Goodbye, Steve.


Today’s post is dedicated to my personal hero, Steven Paul Jobs, who thought me to believe in design and quality. As we all know by now, Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple Inc, the world’s biggest technology company and makers of the Mac, iPhone, iPad and other great products. 

The news about Steve’s departure although saddens me was inevitable. Steve’s health has forced him to be on medical leave since January. In 2009, he had a liver transplant and he has been reported dead several times. 

As Walt Mossberg of All Things D writes; Steve Jobs’ resignation as chief executive officer of Apple is the end of an extraordinary era, not just for Apple, but for the global technology industry in general and I agree with him.

I however have no doubt his successor, Tim Cook (The Apprentice as some of us refer to him as) can run Apple Inc. as well as Steve Jobs did. Tim Cook has been with Apple since 1998 and is decried as an operational genius. He served as iCEO in 2009 and has been running Apple for the past 8 months.

I wish Steve Jobs good health and the very very best on his new position as Apple Board Chairman.

You are forever my idol!

Letter from Steve Jobs

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role. 

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve 

Apple Press Info

“Pennies in a Jar” is songstress Nikki Jean’s debut album. It’s a great album most people have overlooked. may favourite tracks are; Million Star Motel How to Unring a Bell My Love Mercy of Love Sex, Lies & Sunshine

“Pennies in a Jar” is songstress Nikki Jean’s debut album. It’s a great album most people have overlooked. may favourite tracks are;

  • Million Star Motel
  • How to Unring a Bell
  • My Love
  • Mercy of Love
  • Sex, Lies & Sunshine

Watch The Throne!

The first thing I did this morning was to download Jay-Z & Kanye West’s ‘Watch The Throne’.


Grab it here

App Store Now Available for Ghana!

Apple Inc. has added 33 additional countries to its Mac & iTunes App Store. New to the list are 5 African countries; Ghana, Nigeria, Angola, Algeria and Tanzania raises the number of African countries to 16.This means users in these countries can create an App Store Account with their Apple IDs, link it to their VISA, MasterCard or AMEX credit/debit cards and purchase apps. It also means developers can sell their apps in these countries (new territories) by adding them to their sales territory lists in the iTunes Connect web application. 
A lot of people have been yearning to see the flag of Ghana on the App Store and with Apple aggressively expanding its international reach, Mac OS X Lion only available in the App Store and iCloud set to go live in fall, there is the need to add more territories. What users will find disappointing is purchases cannot be made with App Store vouchers. Users will also not be able to purchase music, movies, tv shows or iBooks in the iTunes Store (which is not surprising because there a lot of copyright hurdles to clear first). I have provided a few screenshots from the Mac & iTunes App Stores. I dare say the iPhone & iPad will launch in Ghana soon.