As the Week Draws to a Close in Accra:: Regulation? What Telephone Regulation?; CAN 2008 is Here...Almost; More Ghana Rain

The week opened with a lot of speculation on who would be the next coach of Ghana, after they survived an “ordeal” of a nine-man-committee. Would it be Claude Le Roy, former coach of DRC; Cecil Jones Attuquayefio, or the elusive Troussier? It turned out that Troussier would fail to turn up, citing family problems. This would be the second time he would do a non-show since 2004, prompting speculation by some sports journalists on CITI97.3FM, and elsewhere that he was probably expecting to be handed the job on a silver platter.

Yesterday, the speculation was rife almost everywhere that Le Roy would get the job. Regrettably Sir Cecil Jones was being tipped by some as the second-place man, which is both odd and not, considering he’s a Ghanaian national, but also remembering that after Doya’s “success” in taking the Ghana Black Stars to Germany for FIFA2006, maybe a foreign coach might just bode well for the team…and the country.

Rain, and More Rain
As I write this, I cannot help but hum to myself : rain, rain, go away, come again another day. But I would be wrong, ‘cos in this cause the rain is very much needed. The rain is of a cat-and-dogs variety, and there, regrettably, is no guarantee that it will be falling in the Volta River catchment area, and therefore into the Akosombo Dam!:-( Such is the nature of the country as regards rain. Just a small example to illustrate is that earlier this morning, as the rain started to pour, I called my Mum who is on the Spintex Road—some twenty minutes drive from here—only to find out that there was no rain in that area!

Ghana Prepares for CAN 2008—Officially
In any event, today is a bit of a special day, because today is the day that Ghana officially launches the mascot for Ghana CAN2008 [Ghana: CAN 2008 Global Launch to Be Aired Live Via Video Streaming]. Regrettably, there’s some serious bad communication somewhere as the http://www.ghanacan2008.com website is in a very rudimentary form. Not a website worthy of notice:-(

I’m just listening to JoyFM—regrettably, CITI97.3FM has gone off air for a bit—and I am hearing that the schedule of the load-shedding might continue beyond the fifteen dayas—subject to approval from the Ministry of Energy. Yeah, the Minister of Energy is called Joseph Kofi Adda. Considering the haphazard way in which the national load-shedding was implemented, I would have personally advocated his resignation. I know for a fact that had it happened in the UK, for example, no one would have prompted any resignations in Parliament: it would have happened almost-automatically. Instead, he comes out to knock down the criticism of VALCO consuming most of Ghana’s energy, which you can read here.

Where was he to say “sorry” to Ghanaians for not having anticipated this crisis. Yes, it is a crisis! Howe can Ghanaians so docilely accept this type of behaviour from the government on a critical element of what drives the nation—energy?!

As regards resignations, I would say that, in fact, it is something the West does quite well. That said, if the furore over Blair resigning for Gordon Brown, British Chancellor of the Exchequer, is anything to go by, one might just have to swallow one’s words!

Regulating the regulators
I think there is a popular phrase in Latin that runs qui custodis custodes, which I heard from an Inspector Morse series a few years ago in Brussels on Belgian Dutch television, when they were crazy about that fantastic and most-cerebral of British crime series. The phrase, in essence, means who guards the guardians?, and after the National Communications Authority declaring that it would slap a billion-dollar fine on the execrable performance of Areeba Ghana, we have heard nothing as of now. The last we heard anything was in mid-August. The article (linked above) maintains:

"Kasapa Telecom, operators of Kasapa, ranked as the best service provider while Millicom Ghana Limited, operators of tiGo, came second, with Ghana Telecom's Onetouch coming third and Scancom's Areeba came last."

And then, what about the PURC, which maintained that it would, according to the Chronicle newspaper"discontinue the quarterly adjustment of tariffs"?

My gut instinct tells me that should be the court of public opinion???

Have a good weekend!

Tags:
ghana news; ghana; accra; as the week draws to a close in accra; can 2008; can2008; can 2008 ghana; Blair resignation; ghana electricity; citi97.3fm;ghana purc;Ghana rain;inspector morse;I love accra;