KB Asante: Voice From Afar column

The country resounds with strikes and rumours of strikes.  People work for months and they are not paid.  Ghost workers abound and they are paid even though their thumb-prints are not captured in the biometric magic.  Authority is blamed while people forget that they are part of the problem.

An experience illustrates the frustration of many and indicates what we should insist is done and what we ourselves should do to stop the descent into chaos.

I was away for some time and on my return I found that my telephone was not working.  My son had made a report and nothing had happened.  I sent an aide to report the matter to the telephone authorities and he came back to report that I should wait for eight working days for the matter to be attended to.  I went to the telephone office at Cantonments and I was told the same-story that I should allow eight working days to elapse before I worry. 

I blew my top off and I had to check myself from being rude to the charming lady whose duty it was to relay the nonsense to me.  And why did I blow my top off? I had been with a couple in London who worked from their house.  They used the internet supported by a land-line telephone for their work.  They made consultations, sent memos, bought and paid for goods through the internet.  They enquired about flights and booked and paid for trips on the internet.

They were not compelled to leave home to join a jammed traffic to reduce productivity.  They did not use their mobile for these transactions because the mobile was prone to atmospheric disturbances and the land-line enabled them to work efficiently.  On one occasion the land-line was down and they contacted British Telecom.  The company was full of apologies and in less than one hour the fault was corrected.

Why should we in Accra, therefore, need eight working days to find what is wrong with a telephone line? Are Ghanaian workers incapable or is foreign management providing what Africans deserve? Perhaps, all our telephone providers are interested in is money and profits. 

But our supervisory authorities should know that the situation impedes work output and is intolerable.  Our government should know that Ghanaian businesses cannot compete in the global village without adequate telephone services.  And this is the crux of the matter.  What do the competent authorities do? And how do we the people react? Do we simply buy two or three mobiles because we expect incompetent service and hope that one would work while the others relay untruths about the subscriber having switched off and other excuses?

The competent authorities should do their work.  Services and industries do not work better by simply replacing our own entrepreneurs and administrations with others from other lands.  Our telephone and other supervisory institutions should do their work.  We should learn to ensure that those to whom we sell our enterprises do develop the industry and do not only cream off the juicy parts.

We should also demand unadulterated truth from the heads of institutions.  For example, if the National Health Insurance Scheme is breaking down because health providers are not being paid because funds are inadequate or unavailable we should be told.  If the financial administration is lousy, those responsible should be replaced. 

There should be no excuses to hide incompetence.  We should be told the plain truth and what is required of us.  For example, if the National Health Insurance Scheme is breaking down, it is unhelpful and irresponsible for those responsible to say that there are “delays in payment” due to “structural and financial challenges which are being addressed”.

 If there is no money, authority should admit it and find out whether the shortfall is due to bad planning and forecasts.  Errors should then be addressed and more financial resources found if necessary.  Necessary increases in electricity and other utility charges will meet with strong resistance from the TUC and others because we have not always been told the plain truth.

We should stop burying our heads in the sand while national structures smoulder.  Even confidence in parts of our democratic institutions is waning.  Voter turn-out in our recent District Assembly elections was poor.  The low turn-out suggested that we had little confidence in decentralisation and relied on the centre for solution to even local problems. 

The trend has persisted for some time and it is time we made local government more relevant to the needs and expectations of local people.  Local government resources should be enhanced and people encouraged to deal with local problems on the spot and not rely on the central government for solutions.  Elections are expensive and the cost of the recent elections cannot be justified by its outcome.

Something is certainly wrong.  But we are all involved and we should do our duty while we insist that those placed in authority or as heads of institutions do their duty or bow out.