How Many Times Can Vodafone Ghana Replace Stolen Cables?

Constitution Review: The 25 Questions Every Ghanaian Must Answer - Part 2

Today, I continue my 3-part post on the constitution review. Let’s dive straight into the questions.

PARLIAMENT 

10. Should any MP be allowed to propose a Bill with cost implications to Parliament for passage into law? Or should only the President have this right?

This is a difficult one. Let’s continue to test the constitution on this one. 

11. The Constitution provides for a minimum of 9 judges to be appointed to the Supreme Court but it doesn’t specify the maximum. What are your views on this?

There should be a maximum number of Judges to be appointed to the Supreme Court. This will help deal with Executive interference in the Judiciary. We all remember President Kufuor appointing judges to the Supreme Court allegedly to influence decisions.

THE JUDICIARY

12. Instead of the Chief Justice choosing which Supreme Court judge sits on a case, should all Supreme Court Justices hear all cases in the Supreme Court?

I think the entire Supreme Court should sit on all cases. 

13. What is your view on the proposal that a Constitutional Court should be established to hear only constitutional cases?

The Supreme Court should sit on constitutional issues. I don’t think there is the need for a Constitutional Court. 

DECENTRALIZATION

14. What is your position on the debate that District, Municipal, & Metropolitan Chief Executives should be elected & not appointed by the President?

Elected! When DCE’s and Mayors are elected, they will be more accountable to the people and not to the Presidency as it is now.

15. What do you think of the constitutional provision which makes the President the appointing authority of 30% of the members of a District Assembly?

That provision should be maintain. It allows for Presidential involvement in the the assemblies.

16. What do you think of the provision in the Constitution which makes elections to the District Assemblies & other local government units non-partisan?

Elections to the District Assemblies & other local government units should remain non-partisan. 

INDEPENDENT CONSTITUTIONAL BODIES

17. What’s your view on the Supreme Court decision that - corruption cases aside - CHRAJ can’t investigate complaints without an identifiable complainant?

I disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling that aside corruption cases, CHRAJ does not have the power to investigate cases without identifiable complaints. Chapter 18 uses the word ‘complaints’ which can be explained as ‘an expression of dissatisfaction’. It does not suggest an identifiable complainant.

18. What do you think of proposals to separate the human rights, administrative justice & anti-corruption mandates of CHRAJ into different institutions?

I think a separation is not necessary now. Let’s keep them together for now.

19. What do you think about the proposals to empower CHRAJ to prosecute corruption cases?

Good proposal 

20. What do you think about proposals to establish a special fund to finance the operations of the independent constitutional bodies?

Very soon, every body will be asking for a special fund. I disagree with this proposal.

Constitution Review: The 25 Questions Every Ghanaian Must Answer - Part 1

The Constitution Review Commission (CRC) in December 2010 posted the top 25 issues that arose from it’s sittings. The CRC is collating the views of Ghanaians on these issues via SMS, twitter, etc. As a proud Ghanaian, I have decided to put out my take on the 25 issues here. I thought about SMS submissions but I am not doing that because SMS’ are charged at premium rate (GH¢0.50 instead of regular GH¢0.04) which I disagree with. If I send an email or make a call, it isn’t at a premium rate so why should sms’ be at a premium rate? Well, if you are willing to pay premium sms charges, text ‘C’ to 1992 on all networks.

Anyway, back to the top 25 issues.The Commission has grouped them under 12 thematic areas. I will share my views in 3 different posts starting with this one.

THE EXECUTIVE

1. What is your view on the payment of ex-gratia awards & emoluments to ex-Presidents & public office holders under the Constitution?

I think ex-gratia awards & emoluments to ex-Presidents & public office holders should be should be scrapped. We all serve the motherland in various capacities and should all draw pensions not ex-gratia.

2. The salary, allowances, facilities, pensions & gratuity of sitting (& former) Presidents are exempt from tax. What are your views on this?

Presidents are leaders and should show the way. Their salary, allowances, facilities, pensions & gratuity should be taxed. As the First Gentleman, you definitely have to do what gentlemen do. It will give them the ‘moral right’ to increase taxes when necessary.

3. Should a Ghanaian who is also a citizen of another country be disqualified from being elected as an MP or appointed as a Minister of State (and why)?

Unless a person renounces his citizenship for the other country, they should be disqualified from elected office and ministerial positions. I think a man’s allegiance can and should be to only one country. You can’t serve two masters, can you?

4. What is your view on the proposal to limit the number of Ministers & Ministries appointed by the President?

A limit on the number of ministers is a good idea but on ministries is a little bit complicated. If we put a ceiling at a certain number and after sometime, there is the need for a new ministry. Let’s say Ministry of Nuclear Energy, we would have to go back to amend the constitution. 

5. What is your view on the provision in the Constitution which requires the President to appoint the majority of his Ministers from Parliament?

That section of the constitution needs to be amended to give the President the right to appoint majority of ministers from outside Parliament. Not all good hands would want to vie for parliamentary seats…. not all good hands.

6. It has been proposed that the roles of Minister of Justice & Attorney-General should be separated. What are your views on this?

It is has worked elsewhere, it can work here too. Currently, the Ministry of Justice & Attorney-General is more interested in the A-G part of its mandate than the other. 

7. What do you think of proposals for an independent National Prosecutor to take the Attorney-General’s place in initiating & prosecuting all criminal offences?

I think separating the A-G’s Department from the Ministry of Justice should be enough. If the A-G Department is independent of political interference and giving the needed funds & logistics, it should be able to perform its duties satisfactorily.

8. What do you think should be the consequence when a sitting President or Vice-President leaves the party on whose ticket he was voted into power?

In the event, a sitting President or Vice-President leaves the party on whose ticket he/she was voted into power, he/she should be allowed to run his full term. Not only did the people vote for the party, they voted for the candidate and his running mate.

9. Some have proposed that Presidential & Parliamentary elections should be held earlier than December. Do you agree? Why?

I don’t see anything wrong with the current December date. I don’t mind a November date either. 

to be continued…

God Bless Our Homeland Ghana!

Kwashayed!

Kwashay kwa:shay, v.  (ghanaian pidgin english) - to be mugged.

I had a horrific experience on Monday at about 20:30. I got mugged by four guys armed with cutlasses on motorbikes at 37 on my way to the station to board a trotro home. I lost my backpack and a cellphone. My backpack had my MacBook, 320GB external HD, Vodafone USB Modem, GT Bank Visa Card, Voter’s I.D Card, Office documents, the Senior Librarian’s flash disk and other petty items. One of the muggers swung his cutlass at me. I don’t know whether he intended to cut or slap me but it came as a slap and I didn’t get hurt.

On Tuesday, I went to the bank to cancel my card and request for a replacement after which I went to the Cantonments Police Station to file a complaint. I spent quite sometime at the Police Station and it seems they had received a similar complaint the previous week. After waiting for a while, they took my extract and I was asked to wait for the investigator to come take my statement. It was quite a long wait and at a point they decided to ask me if I could write my own statement. Of course, I replied and I was given a piece of paper to write my statement. The investigator came, read my statement and she asked me why I didn’t come lodge the complaint right after the incident. With a blank stare, I told her I have no excuse, but truth is I was much more concerned about getting home safely. I had been mugged in a military zone and there were soldiers about 100m away who didn’t see what had happened. Oh and there is a military police post also about 100m behind me. I was asked if I could identify the muggers, which I told them I can’t.

If you have been to the Cantonments Police Station and I believe the other police stations won’t be different, you will realise that the station doesn’t have a computer. My statement and extract were taken on a paper and then entered into a ‘Station Diary’ and another officer will copy it out for you. Everything is done manually. I wonder how they relay complaints to other stations. Does the Ghana Police Service have a central database? One of the police officers shared a view with another complainant that ‘development and crime move hand-in-hand’. This is a view I shared some years ago but I assisted a friend with her thesis and I can say that is not entirely true. Take the Scandinavian countries for example. They are developed and have really low crime rates. A well paid and equipped police force will be better positioned to fight crime in Ghana.

When I got to work on Tuesday and told a colleague, she couldn’t believe me because I went crazy in the office when my mac’s charger died two months ago and now I had lost my mac and other stuff and I was keeping my cool. I am grateful for all the support I have received. People who don’t even know me say sorry and sympathize with me.

I lost a lot of data and I don’t even want to think about it. All the office documents, reports and profiles I have worked on, blog posts for 233Tech (apologies guys), my 70GB+ iTunes library (arggghhhhh… all the music and purchases; iOS apps, classics etc), passwords and a lot of sensitive data. I just hope the muggers restart my mac and it asks them for a my password. I had a backup of almost everything on my external HD which was in the backpack too. I used cloud app and dropbox to backup some of the data but that’s just a few documents from June 2010. I am all for online backup now. I am definitely getting insurance for my next mac and online backup will be a must.

I am looking at the brighter side of it all. This is a chance to get back to reading books, save for that MacBook Pro, watch TV and listen to the radio. It can’t be that boring, can it? I am still in high spirits and I will bounce back!

After all, what don’t kill me can only make me stronger!

Vodafone Ghana; One Year On, The Same Old Crappy Service

Happy Anniversary Vodafone Ghana. It’s been a year since you launched and at least if Ghanaians can’t feel your ‘service quality’ like in other countries where you operate, we can see your many red cars and flashy billboards as evidence of your presence in Ghana. I heard on Joy 99.7FM that you made a loss last year because you invested heavily. If that’s true then my basic economics tells me you’re going to reap the benefits soon.

                                                                                               source: nanakofiacquah.blogspot.com

Oh yeah, you’ve started your own trademarked internet cafés. I love them and that’s the only thing I like about Vodafone Ghana now. I do all my legal and ‘illegal’ download there :) but I don’t think they’re 40mbs cafés unless you can prove beyond resonable doubt. I think it’s between the range of 8mbs to 16mbs. And whilst you are at it take a look at your café on the High Street, Accra. They wifi was down all of last week. I doubt it has been fixed.

It’s sad that after a year, you’re still living in the days of Ghana Telecom. Still the same old crappy service and your staff, I don’t know where you get some of them from. I work in the export development sector but I know the ins and outs than a lot of those you put at your info desks. Do you circulate press releases to them? Not of all of them are top of affairs.

Anyway, let me tell you about my experience at your headquarters today. Yeah, I mean the circle offices. That’s your headquarters, right?

So, I have been thinking about dumping Zipnet for Vodafone Broadband. Zipnet’s service is very crappy now. They came from behind and beat you to it. You know we don’t really have alternative in Ghana so I called 102 yesterday to enquire about the service and if I could get it fixed by May 1st. ‘Oh yes!’, the guy who identified himself as William said. ‘We’ve changed and you could have it fised in a week’ he added. I ust laughed. I bet he felt stupid. If you didn’t read my previous post on getting Vodafone Broadband in Sunyani, you should know it took me a month and two days to get it fixed. He asked for my location. New Achimota, I said and he asked me to drop the completed form at any Vodafone Shop or if I could drop it at the Circle office. The Circle office is on my way to work and it’s the headquarters so it will be processed quickly, I thought.

As usual, I downloaded the Vodafone Broadband Application form, and filled it out. I got to the Vodafone office this morning and asked the lady (She didn’t have her name tag on. I didn’t see anyone with the tage on) who attended to me if I could have the service installed by May 1st. ‘You can’t give us deadlines’ she said. ‘I am making an enquiry not giving you a deadline!, I hit back. She took my forms I had downloaded from the Vodafone Ghana website and taken my time to fill and asked where I got it from. I told her the Vodafone Ghana website. ‘This isn’t the form we use’ she said. What? She must be kidding me. She took me to another desk where this guy gave me the old Vodafone Broadband application form. I examined it and saw the details required were the same as the one I had downloaded and printed. I asked him what the difference was and he said ‘I’m here and this is what we use’. I declined to fill it and asked him to check from their website which he said he couldn’t do then. He said if I’m ok with it I should take it upstair for processing, which I did cursing in my head. Again, I ask you, where do you find the staff? Seriously, you should hire me to recruit for you.

Upstairs, I was asked where I got the form from again. Don’t put the form up if it’s of no use or tell your ignorant staff about it! The guy took the form to another guy who I overhead asking him where I got that form from. He came back and said ‘You have to take this to the Achimota exchange’. WTF is wrong with these people? I quietly left the office. 

You can imagine my fury as I jumped into a trotro. I was late for work for no reason. I got to the office, took a pen and paper and started writing this post since I don’t have a desk at work yet and I didn’t take my mac along today. Seriously Vodafone, you have to put your house in order. You can start by firing your ignorant and arrogant staff who don’t even know the value of a smile. Have you ever visited an MTN office? The staff there smile a lot and even if you’re mad at them, it calms you down. Maybe, you can take your staff on an excursion. 

I had to leave work early so I could take my application to the Achimota shop. Evelyn recieved me. She was alright. She asked a colleague if I had the right form. I bet she will copy iy out on the old form. She said it could take up to 3 day for a site survey. That’s a 5 minute job. I wonder when I will get my broadband fixed.

So, on the occassion of your first anniversary, stop spending so much on gigantic billboards, fancy adverts and the ballons you’ve decorated your offices with and spend it on staff training and improving your services and then we can celebrate with you. My people say ‘Adepa na etɔn ne ho’ meaning ‘Good things sell by themselves’. Don’t forget Glo is launching soon o! They have their own undersea cable. MainOne goes live in June and MTN has already laid fibre optics across Ghana. A word to the wise is enough!

Happy Anniversary Vodafone Ghana!! I hope you start making some profits soon so the sate can take it’s cut. 

NB: If you’re reading this and you know a top gun at Vodafone, please print this post out for him/her or send him a link. As usual, I’d appreciate if you drop a comment on the post of share your experience. The last post I did on Vodafone Ghana had over 12 comments. Sad thing is that they all disappeared and no new comment lasts more than 48 on the blog. I’m puzzled and have written to Disqus who said they they’re invetigating it. Nonetheless, I will put all your comments together as a blog post since I have copies in my email. 

PS: This post has been edited and all the cuss words taken out :)

PSS: If you know anyone I can talk to to get my broadband fixed asap, I will be grateful.

The Week Before The Holy Week

Next week is the holy week. It starts with Palm Sunday through to Holy Saturday. Holy week is the week preceding Easter that is the last week of Lent. This week has been very eventful. It has kept me from blogging and getting on twitter like I would have wished.

 It started with getting a call for an interview in Accra on Thursday. My first thoughts were, one day we would do interviews over the internet. You enter the room, turn the webcam on and face the panel. The interview went very well. I nailed it. The panel asked some interesting questions. They asked me about the impasse between the Techimanhene and Tuobodomhene. How it happened and my take on it. I wonder if being from the Brong-Ahafo Region makes you a spokesperson for the chiefs. Anyway, they were very interested in what I had to say. I guess in the end I made a lot of sense. The panel also asked me about Healthcare Reforms in the USA and my take on it. Thank God they didn’t ask me about the One Premium Health Insurance. That would be pinning me to the wall. 

I realised that the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCO) is really serious about power rationing in Accra. I saw a schedule in the Daily Graphic of Thursday March 25. I hate power rationing. It’s sad this one is not ending till mid April. I hate Accra.

On Friday, I decided to pass by the Vodafone Cafe on the High Street on my way to Cadbury. It’s a downloaders haven. I am still not convinced that the Vodafone Cafes are 40MB/s. Been to the Cantoments and the Accra Mall cafes and I think they are operating 8MB/s or 12MB/s cafes. For GH¢1.80, I was able to get a lot done in an hour. I believe I downloaded about 2GB. I wonder how the other cafes are competing. We all know the Vodafone Cafes have trampled Busy Internet. As for the smaller cafes, my question is how do you compete with your ISP? They got all the speed. 

I decided to take the night bus to Sunyani on Friday. Everytime I get on an STC, I wish they had wifi on board. I could do a lot with that. Anyway, a news item caught the attention of passengers on board. It was a Peace FM news item on some police officers who alledgedly tried to extort money from a trader. Just imagine the bashing. The was a confrontation on the bus involving the Intercity STC staff and two passengers. I will write much on that some other time. 

Today was a good day. I spent almost all the day at my auntie’s with my cousins and my nephew. There is nothing like family!

I have to end here. I’m really exhausted. I’m not sure I will make it to church tomorrow. If you do, please wave that palm branch high and sign hosanna!!!

#okbye

Vodafone Ghana: Repeating The Mistakes Of GT OneTouch

Some weeks back, I grew tired of waiting for Glo Mobile Ghana to launch and the Glo-1 cable to go live and on the advice of a friend, I decided to get Vodafone Broadband at home.

So on the 24th of Februay 2010, I went in to Vodafone Ghana’s Sunyani office to put in my application. It was a Wednesday and they indicated that they would have someone come do a site survey by the close of the week. The week ended and no one called or came to do the site survey. By the way I stay in a residential area not far from the CBD and there are a lot of telephone lines and a couple of broadband connections in my neighbourhood.  

The following Friday, I got a call from Vodafone and they indicated that they got my number wrong and just realised I put an alternative number on the form. Come on, a whole week to figure that out? You’ll be contacted next week, the gentleman said.

Anyway, a friend prompted me that it took two months to get his installed and that I should contact the personnel in charge of the site survey. He gave his name as Sammy and sent his cellphone number to me. I called Sammy on Monday, March 8, 2010, which was a holiday and he was very helpful. In 15 minutes he was at my place and within a minute the site survey was done. An hour later, someone called me from the Vodafone office. I was asked to fill a new application form since they couldn’t find my old one, which I did and made payment for the installation and a month of subscription (I wanted to pay for 2 months, which I now believe would have been a mistake). I was told I would be contacted within the week and the installation done. I called Sammy as soon as I left the office to thank him. 

As at Friday, March 12, no one from Vodafone had given me a call so I decided to call Sammy again. This time he didn’t answer my calls but he had someone call me from the Vodafone office, the person I am sure would be doing the installation. Again, he told me next week and explained installation is done within 10 working days after payment. I also hit back saying that I had put in the application about 3 weeks ago. In the end, I was obliged.

Today is Friday, March 19 and my broadband still hasn’t been fixed. I was preparing to go to the office to demand why my broadband hasn’t been fixed when I received a call from Vodafone Ghana. This time, the gentleman who called, who I believe is the same person I have been in contact with asked if I had paid for the service and whom I had paid to. The question sounded stupid to me. A receipt was issued and I saw the guy entering my details in the computer. Doesn’t it show on their records? I told him I had and I don’t remember the name of the person I paid to. He put me on hold and I heard him telling a female colleague; me ka sɛ w’atua meaning I told you he has paid. He got back to me and said they (Vodafone Ghana) would give me a call and have it fixed. I asked him what time the call would come in and he said next week. Ahh, what’s wrong with these people and next week? I told him I really need the service and my application is about a month old. He replied that they will get it sorted and with that I took to writing this blog post.

I don’t know whether I would be fair to say whether the staff at Vodafone Ghana are incompetent or the telecom giant’s way of doing business is just wrong. One thing I can say without hesitation is that Vodafone Ghana  is repeating the same mistakes with their broadband like Ghana Telecom (which was re-branded to Vodafone Ghana) did with OneTouch, their mobile phone service. I don’t understand the long wait. I don’t know if people in Accra, Kumasi or Sekondi-Takoradi also wait this long to get connected. Vodafone has a monopoly in the broadband market in Sunyani and in cable broadband in Ghana and perhaps don’t realise they have to sit up. I have used 2 wireless broadband services previously in Accra. The first one, Skyburst was at my place do a site survey in 2 hours and I got my modem the next day. The second Zipnet also sent someone to do the site survey right after I made a call to them. Within 2 days, I had my modem in hand and Zipnet’s costumer service was one of the best I have experienced in Ghana. It’s a shame they don’t cover Sunyani yet. 

In the past, that is late 90’s and early 00’s, people had to queue for OneTouch SIM cards and they were sold at exorbitant prices. Can you imagine buying a SIM card for GH¢80 (£36 / $56)? Yes, that’s how much the early adopters paid. Some paid more to cut down on the wait time. Those days are over but I can see those days in the Vodafone’s Broadband service.  

* Why the long wait for something which could be done in 3days or a week? It’s not like they have a shortage of ADSL modems or cables. The wait is just too long and unacceptable.

* I find the connection fee of GH¢55 (£25 / $38) quite expensive although it has been lowered from GH¢99. Why can’t installation be free and the ADSL modem remain the property of Vodafone? I think a lot of people would subscribe then or even if the installation fee is lowered to GH¢15. 

* A 256kb/s service with a data cap of 10GB costs GH¢45 a month. This is very expensive and I find the download cap annoying. It’s just 256kb/s and you already have a download cap? Anyway, I understand the reasons for the high cost of the service; the slow and expensive SAT-3 cable. With the Glo-1, ACS, MainOne cables going live or arriving soon, we should have a drastic reduction in data cost. 

* The staff, the staff, the staff. There are millions of Ghanaians out there who need jobs and it shouldn’t be difficult for Vodafone to find competent employees.

* The quality of the service will be discussed in a later post.

Aah.. my blood pressure just went down so I think I will end here. I hope someone from Vodafone, the toothless National Communication Authority or an ISP is reading this. 

PS: I know I complain a lot. My ex-girlfriend told me that!