Competition in a market can compel producers and sellers to act irrationally and to concentrate their efforts in just being in the market rather than trying to maximize profit and minimize losses or even break-even. Telecom industry in Ghana, no matter the economic constraints, is a very booming marketplace where providers are no longer thinking of minimizing losses but out-competing their colleagues in profiteering. The reason is that there is a very lucrative threshold market that has consumers with unguided curiosity contending with very liberal consumer and policy protection guidelines.

In a world driven by information and communication technology, no single person who wants to succeed in socio-economic pursuit can do without its products such as mobile telephoning, internet and computer processing. This is particular true of those that live in developing countries like Ghana where everybody is still trying to bridge the technological gap and to catch up with the developed world. Mobile phones have been, especially, widely embraced in Ghana mainly because of its value in facilitating linkages with relations, friends, partners and customers. To this end, Ghana is known to be one of the countries with the highest degree of patronage and usage of mobile technology.

In response to the high demand for the mobile technology, there has been an influx of Mobile Technology providers into the shores of Ghana in recent times. These include MTN, tiGO, Zain, Glo, Vodafone and Kasapa all of which flamboyantly showing their resource worth. They do that knowing how much great net profit they are currently making or going to make in the end.

Of course, one cannot begrudge any company if such aggressively lavish spending on promotions, parties and sponsorships is the kind of advertisement strategy the company has adopted to penetrate the telecom market. In so far as such a company or companies can maximize their objectives that would not contravene the principles of socio-economic sanity in an economy, there has to be a support for it. What could however be worrisome is how and where the monies used to implement such strategies come from.

For instance, without mentioning names, where do 4×4 a week, GH? 3000 every day, two jackpots of GH? 100, 000 and lots of other mouth-watering prizes come from when quality service provision remains a nightmare? One could say that the GHp 50 or GHp 100 charged per entry into such a transaction would help redress the balance. Then and even then, even if one can still doubt its balancing ability, is it not an additional discomfort on a customer still struggling between obtaining some costly call credit or units and having quality reception? It is probably so and certainly an indication of some extortion of consumers’ interest in the telecom market in Ghana.

If not so and it is another other than grumbling-but-cannot-do-without patronage, why is it that majority of Ghanaians possess two or more of the chips of the various mobile telecom providers? Is it because of general consumer love for variety or that they are in search for a more reliable mobile network? Or is it that they have searched and cannot find any all-round qualitative network and just have to be jumping from one mobile telecom provider to another!! More and more nagging questions could be asked but wouldn’t it be necessary to know what the regulatory authorities are doing to rather ask the mobile telecom providers to redirect their attention and efforts towards providing a, more reliable, qualitative and less costly telecom service like what is pertained in other parts of the world!!!

Invariably, mobile telecom providers in Ghana are in an economic bliss and one should not wonder why their profit margins swell up. Unfortunately however, the consumer is at a disadvantage and socio-economic wellbeing is at risk. This is because; given the necessity of its usage, imagine an ordinary consumer would spend GHp 750 on mobile phone calls a day while spending GHp 300 on food daily. Evaluating the costs and benefits of the expenditure, one would come to terms that the marginal cost for the use of mobile phone a day outweighs its marginal benefits. Not that the usage of mobile phones is not as important as the food but the marginal unit cost is too much for consumers in a developing economy like Ghana where there is low per capita income and people striving to spring up from the gigantic poverty basket.

In a constrained economy like Ghana’s, it is very important to ensure that essential services that open up the flow of economic activities are strategically and keenly regulated such that the meager incomes of the public are productively allocated but not wasted and skewly directed to a minority few for ostentatious spending. It is high time the lavish spending by the mobile telecom providers are checked and efforts made to reduce the cost per unit call credit to more affordable levels in order to secure a balancing walk between consumers’ interest, economic sanctity and providers’ viability.

Ministry of communication must therefore wake up with its subsidiaries to strictly regulate the lavish spending embarked upon by the mobile telecom providers, especially in the run-up to the 2010 tournament in South Africa. They must concentrate more on their core mandates otherwise the economic consequences would be inimical to consumer satisfaction and livelihood security.

It is a common knowledge to those that go round or work in the ministries that Ministers of state or their Deputies travel abroad too much. What the ministers go abroad to do and the benefits they bring home as per the costs of their travels still remain the greatest puzzle in the meaningful efforts to build a better Ghana. It is a known modern developmental recognition benchmark that, more often than not, regimes and their countries fail because the state actors misallocate scarce resources to non-productive ventures, fishy deals, ostentatious spending and unwarranted wants or needs.

At the right angle of public observation, during the New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime, President J. A. Kufuor’s numerous travels were largely inimical to common public good. This is because much as there could have been some benefits especially accompanying some few relevant travels, the cost of most of the foreign travels embarked upon by the ex-president negatively overt-stretched the national coffers. This was to the peril of relevant development projects and to the disadvantage of local monitoring and evaluation duties of the president. However, it was also acutely necessary for public outcry to have been directed towards the travels of ministers of state, their deputies and other state actors who took advantage of any less or non beneficial opportunity to travel abroad. The costs and negative effects of such travels were equally as bad as that of the ex-president.

Whether realized or snubbed, a combination of pent-up ill-feelings against how the state actors misbehaved with public resources largely contributed to the demise of the N.P.P government leading to the current economic quagmire Ghana’s development has found itself in. Without question, the crowing of the cock is the harbinger to the dawn; the initial signs are clear and the end signs could be threatening. The end results would be disastrous. That is why there must be a serious civil action with continuous vibrancy to ensure that the right things must be made to be done before it is too late.

Thus, if not acted upon, the current ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government could shamefully lose power in 2012. Economic and social conditions would worsen. The same crop of politicians would take over. Blame-game would regenerate. Soon afterwards, the state machinery hemorrhage or governmental bleeding would continue. Ghana’s development future should be very bleak and middle-income country would be long in coming. God forbid! But that is where the source of worry is!!

Ridden on the back of change to power, President J E A Mills’ led government should wake up and minimize as much as possible the number of international conferences, courses, workshops, seminars and private visits embarked upon by the presidency, ministers and other state actors. These cause untold bleeding to the already distressed economy still under painful recuperation.

At least as prudence and efficiency doctrine would have it, the logical questions that must always be asked when even there is an invitation to attend such programs abroad are; If no to a program, would it negatively affect the progress of Ghana and what net benefits would such a program accrue to the country if attended? If it is about training or workshop, to what better use would the targeted participants put it? Is it not possible to attain such training locally or even if it is necessary to acquire such training abroad, is it not possible to do without it. If the country cannot do better without it, to what productive use have predecessors of such training put it? In this case, strict structural and bonding mechanisms must be put in place before the scarce resources of the nation are misallocated unnecessarily.

Of course, it is good news that President Mills himself has shown an early goodwill to minimize foreign travels. But is it enough! It cannot be enough if his staffers, Vice and staffers still navigate across the nooks and crannies of this world. It cannot be enough if ministers, deputy ministers and other state actors can still travel abroad and spend two to three weeks there at the expense of the distressed public purse, the dividends of which being negligible. Meanwhile, due to system failures and institutional weaknesses most activities of state come to a standstill when such people are flamboyantly spinning about.

As for the proof of the picture being painted, social observational audit reports could be a place of solace. Internal audit reports would be a safe haven. Auditor General’s reports should unveil the reality of the bad picture at stake. The proof is right with everyone.

But one must not lose sight of the fact that being in a global village, international diplomacy is costly but needed. This is especially so when a developing country like Ghana is trying to network with other countries in order to explore varying opportunities and to take advantage of them by importing the optimum benefits on the highly competitive international market. Nevertheless, globalization also comes with high-tech mechanisms such as the internet, mobile phone and video conferencing, etc. These seek to reduce the cost of taking advantage of the opportunities therein and to speed-up global transactions in efficiency and convenience.

For instance, why a tourism minister or trade minister or information minister would have to attend international conferences before Ghana can be effectively marketed when corporate organizations and individuals have been able to use the power of the internet to achieve their market targets is a source of worry. Thus, much as international diplomacy and globalization could necessitate some international travels, the coping mechanisms that come along with internationalization verily minimize the scale and dimension of the crisscrossing that would have been otherwise required.

The debate could go on un-end. What matters most is that President Mills appears as a humble, result-oriented, God fearing, orderly, intelligent, committed, transparent, prudent and disciplined leader of Ghana who means well for the progressive transformation of the livelihood security of the inhabitants. His great features could only mean well if he resolves to shift from the bureaucratic nightmares and twisted formalities that unnecessarily slow down the process of development but has become the order of the day for the ministers and state actors he currently presides over. The change must come!!

Decongestion starts with an individual and ends with an individual conglomerating with enticed group of individuals. Don’t give that individual the opportunity for others to gather around if the place is unauthorized. Those that are to ensure that such an unauthorized place is not occupied by an individual or group of individuals must be severely punished, when such a place is later occupied up to a scale of mini-market or mini-settlement. An attempt to evict such group of people should come with social responsibility - A responsibility to respect the rights of everyone irrespective of social class. Since ignorance of the law is not an excuse, the illegal occupants must be given some penalty to pay.

But they must equally be compensated because in a largely illiterate society where ignorance predominates, it would be unfair to be strict on common breaches of the law that could have been avoided by an appointed state official who has reneged in his/her duty. The foregoing has simply summarized decongestion of streets in the cities and removal of unauthorized structures.

Nevertheless, the problem of decongestion in cities such as Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, and Takoradi seems to be more than it seems. Take a look at this practical scenario:

A group of people are in the streets selling and discomforting vehicular and pedestrian movements leading to waste of time and economic costs that untraceably or immeasurably affect the larger economic growth of the country. Even that the public that feels discomforted come around and also patronize the goods sold on the streets. Officials had been employed to ensure that this never occurred. They sat in their offices and got paid billions of cedis without work done. These officials later come around to evict the people when the place has become a social and marketing center of recognized social interaction. It becomes difficult for them. They now request for more working hands to get the people out of the streets.

A combination of more working hands and miscellaneous costs add up to other billions of cedis or even more than what was earlier paid by the state but without good work done. Not long after this additional cost has been incurred to clear the streets, the hawkers or street vendors get back onto the streets. The earlier discomfort continues and financial lost to the state would have been incurred.

Meanwhile, at the time this waste and hypocritical exercise is being embarked upon, mini-markets are developing along streets else where in the same city. Before the turn of recognition, roots of social interaction have been established at those places and it becomes very difficult to deal with.

Conversely, in technical analysis, people are not supposed to sell on streets and along pavements. Kiosks and buildings are not also supposed to be raised at unauthorized places such as public lands and water-ways. But these are just ideal urban planning benchmarks that have been variously defied by majority of settlers in the cities. For instance, if strict town planning rules were to be applied, it would not be surprising to have majority of the settlements in Accra demolished or have the whole city reconstructed. This tells how deep-seated the problem of decongestion is and how congestion assumes a cultural dimension.

Imagine Agbogbloshie/konkomba market settlement that harbors over 55,000 mainly highly deprived rural-urban immigrants is to be demolished because the settlement is unauthorized, poses security threat and hinders Korle lagoon project which regularly spends about 5,000 euros without any tangible success!!! Where, when and how would the demolishing exercise begin? How did all these people get to settle there? Now as a community, it would be unwise or even illegal to just wake up one day and serve notices to such people to vacate the place or face forceful eviction. They are not animals without social dignity to protect! I believe nobody suggests so but actions could imply so!!

The best thing to do is to reorganize our social systems and to reconstruct our worldview about settlement, discipline, order, commitment, patriotism and ownership. The city authorities need to embark upon an intensive sensitization drive on the bye-laws and accompanying penalties. The society must be made to understand that Ghana has now gone beyond those old days when settlements and trading activities were haphazardly done.

All the city authorities need to coordinate in the sensitization and implementation drive so that if selling on the streets in Accra is not good enough it should equally not be good enough in Techiman, Takoradi or Tamale. City authorities and town and country planning also need to coordinate and ensure that their staffs are up to their tasks. Bye-laws must then be enforced and no mercy should be tolerated. The police and the judiciary must be active partners in the enforcement drive. All the institutions and stakeholders involved must be appropriately resourced to discharge their duties well.

As for those illegal settlers and occupants that have already been established, there has to be a conscious and systematic approach to make them understand the dangers associated with their actions, the benefits of vacating, the fairness involved, resettlement procedures, penalties involved and cooperation required. There must be a continuous conscientization drive to de-link people’s minds from the past and bring their thinking to modernity.

Thus, without a holistic action that involves all stakeholders, proper coordination, cultural reorientation, systematic mechanisms, fair-play, hard work and reawakened functionalism, successful decongestion of the cities in Ghana would be far from being achieved. City authorities must be preventive and proactive but not overly reactive.

Krrrrrrrrr! Krrrrrrrrrr! Krrrrrrrrrrrr! Krrrrrrrrrrrrr! Krrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!

Oh he is not picking up! Or that is a wrong line? Or maybe he’s gone somewhere. No! Ah! No!! But he is known to be everywhere! I think he is refusing to pick-up my call because I am quite sure 01110 is the phone line to God. Let me recheck again. I might be using a wrong code. But why! It should be correct because I can’t doubt the credibility of the one that gave the number to me. Do I have to? Don’t I have any cause to?

I think not. I should think God is still at something else. Maybe he is too busy and doesn’t want any interruption. Or he doesn’t receive calls from strange numbers! He might be surprised how I got his number. Oh I better stop beating about the bush because my guesses are just premature or at best immature. Why don’t I wait a minute and try my luck again?

Hmm! I’m just too pressed. I’ve got to vent out my pent up emotions directly to him. No I think I’m wrong. I’m rather depressed, suppressed, confused and helpless. Yes, that is it. Yeah, even more than that! Maybe I can’t just understand myself but how else more do I need to know myself and things around me!! My conscience is at play. My reasoning is at work. My wisdom seems twisted. My comprehension limited.

Who would help himself to help myself? Who would make others help themselves to help her!! Who can help me or others understand the vicissitudes of nature. Or heartbeat of creation! Or the tribulation of faith or of fate!

I am optimistically pessimistic but sometimes pessimistically optimistic. Other times I am just optimistic and sometimes I am pessimistic. Who I am, I don’t know. Nobody else can know unless they solve their own dilemmas. Others more are pessimistically Pessimistic or optimistically pessimistic or at any vector of its permutation. What makes us different? About what! Maybe about fate, faith, destiny, hereafter, justice or creation or anything else! In the wonderland of wonder I am and on the journey of mystery I seem to travel, for which my destination is unknown. Who knows and who must be known!!!

When I get to him finally, I will tell him all the things about this nasty world of greed, unfairness and evil. He must have known about it already. But I will tell him what I have seen. What I have heard. What I have sensed. What I have imagined. What I have failed to imagine. What the world and its people have failed to understand.

If am unable to get to him through 01110, I will keep trying till I find his ear to hear what a hypocritical and contradictory world he has created that beats the comprehension of the ungratefully unscrupulous humans who have made such a world just so as it must never have been.

Studies have shown that poor people in distress that are disabled or have no skills or whose employable skills have been discriminated against and made redundant by system failures either resort to begging for survival or become a nuisance to a harmonious society. Our inability to address these anomalies tends to represent the greatest evil for many generations.

Whether in conformity or a dimension of its own kind, the problems among Muslims and seeming crisis in Islam could trace its source from the many idle hands and hand-to-mouth beggars that only find solace in atavistic resignation to fate but not on a touchstone of well informed faith.

If Islam were to be followed according to its prescribed tenets and doctrines, there would not have been beggars lining up at mosques during prayers or on the streets after prayers. Neither would there be idle-hands that more often hijack the peace of society in the name of Jihad which fundamentally means ‘strive’ for the good of humankind. Nor would there be thieves, hypocrites and other rascals among Muslims that constantly pursue their selfish interests to torment the harmony of society but hide under the cloak of Islam to perpetuate their heinous motives.

Islam in itself comes with nothing but PEACE and ORDER both in this world and in the hereafter. Deeply enshrined in Islam is to be each brother’s keeper, alms giving, capacity building, and closeness to God. Ordinarily, the greatest achievement for any human being could be to love God, oneself and others. These also come with Islam and, indeed, other religions.

But in order not to venture into a maze of religious technicalities, it is only worthwhile to invest my opinion in the ordinary outlook of how Muslims could relay Islam to the realities of the times but not just being restrictive to offering the obligatory five daily prayers or indeed just praying. Such a reality is to mitigate the hand-to-mouth beggars who only depend on the generosity of a penny given by a billion dollar boastful man or a million dollar showy woman. A help of such nature is only meant to keep the beggar begging for life. Begging for life comes with many implications including creation of a gamut of beggars’ ancestry and nursing a network of hooligans and delinquency.

There has to be a solution to these problems because nobody likes its effects. One scenario of a solution is to embrace what is known as an adoptive capacity building principle. Here, every rich Muslim is required to adopt at least one orphan, disabled or helpless elder who is seen at a mosque or elsewhere begging. An adopted beggar is to be catered for by the Adopter. This would include, feeding and clothing the beggar, sponsoring a trade or skills training for the beggar and making sure that the beggar is rehabilitated within a spade of required period when he/she would not be back to begging.

Those beggars who are too elderly or disables whose capacities are beyond repairs would be limited to feeding and clothing and helping a close family member to be capable enough to take care of the beggar. The process of adoption should be continuous. Thus, as and when an adopter has transformed an adoptee, another person is adopted again by the adopter unless such an adopter has reached a point when more beggars cannot be looked after due to dwindled income or increased family or personal responsibilities.

In this respect, all beggars must have a registry and a committee formed to oversee their adoption, assistance and discharge. A counseling committee should be formed to advice the adoptee and adopters. Any rich Muslim who is noted to be wealthy but has refused to adopt at least one beggar should not be left to God but must be sanctioned from attending such a mosque. Also, an adopter must swear an uncompromising affidavit of good will and commitment to God in the presence of the Imams and the congregation.

A breach of contract should also not be left to the punishment of God but should be expunged from the mosque and other appropriate sanctions applied. It is high time Muslims stopped this stoic resignation to faith and act more responsibly on behalf of Allah – This is Jihad but not the war mongering posture or the God would punish you syndrome.

No beggar should then be allowed to stand by the mosques or elsewhere begging. They must be monitored, counseled, registered, controlled and sacked from standing by the mosques to collect pennies that might not take care of their basic needs. Beggars that have been assisted to become independent must also be charged to adopt some others should they also become richer in future.

However, a rich adopter who unfortunately has become poor in a matter of time during the period of adoption should quickly report to the committee responsible and the necessary transfers are done. Such a person can adopt a different person in case the riches are back. There must be a way of reviving such persons should they fall into a distressed situation.

Also, closely monitored and transparent fund should be set up to collect monies from middle and lower income Muslims who might not be able to fully adopt beggars or highly distressed people. This fund should register members and dues allocated to them. Unregistered members can also contribute to this fund. But all punctual Muslims to a given mosque must be made members and tasked to pay dues based on their declared income and occupation worth.

The proceeds of the fund should be used to adopt remaining beggars and help solve critical problems that hinder the realization of self-dignity by any Muslim or any member of the society under severe distress. The fund should extend to the larger society as it grows and must engage in social outreach programs in due course.

Time has come for Muslims in Ghana or elsewhere to be caring and development oriented. Adopting these measures and others could save the face of Islam a great deal.

On the 7th of January 2009, over 50% +1 of active voters in Ghana heaved a great sigh of relief as they joined every body else to celebrate the swearing in of Professor John Evans Atta Mills as the next President of the 4th republic. Obviously, President Mills came in to meet a bizarre situation – a condition which he and those that voted him into power were quite aware of. Livelihoods and welfare had been severely wounded; high unemployment and corruption, rising cost of living, mismanagement and nepotism, slow pace of development, profligate spending and arrogance, and widening inequality verily informed voters’ decision to make Professor Mills the President. Expectations were therefore high – so high to the roofs. The suffering Ghanaians really wanted a change for a better Ghana - A better Ghana that would not only relieve them of their current predicaments but also one that would build a solid and sustainable economy for both present and future generations.

However, after seven months into office as the President, everybody will agree that nothing better seems to be changing. Unemployment keeps rising. Living cost keeps deteriorating. Wastage still goes on. Bureaucratic nightmares still exist. Nepotism continues unabated. Corruption and deception are still on the rise. Flimsy excuses on non-performance hang in the air. Mismanagement is still deep-seated. Inequality keeps widening. Indeed, a number of aspects of the socio-economic milieu have been frozen and remain stagnant. These and many others have often forced NDC sympathizers to take the laws into their own hands. This is because it looks like the change has only come for the Ministers and other functionaries of government only to sit in their offices and preside over rot, complain unnecessarily, hold non-productive meetings, throw hands in the air in despair and continue with what their predecessors used to do.

At least, having sacrificed their lives for the NDC party to regain power, it is natural that supporters cannot wait unconcerned when no serious activity is seen being done at the ministries and departments to change their fortunes for the better. The excuse has been that mess is being cleared, foundation is being laid and inadequate funds. Meanwhile, clearing the mess too is so slow for hungry, unemployed and thirsty graduates and other hard-working Ghanaians out there! Building the foundation also keeps falling apart. Funding would not also come from the blue!

Remember that NPP upon assuming the reigns of government in 2001 went in the same direction which was not right enough for our liking by the time we got to know them in 2008. Remember also that the foundations of Ghana had already been solidly built by President Nkrumah and his CPP government. Also, be reminded that the mess in Ghana has been in-built by the general socio-cultural decadence from time long past. Remember that when it comes to lack of bread and butter, though supporters are much more aggrieved, all other Ghanaians are peeved. Remember also that lack of funds must not be an excuse for an experienced expert professor like President Mills.

Thus, in a generally depraved country as Ghana, any leader who would want to clear all the mess before realistic projects are embarked upon especially in a determinable 4-years’ period, is bound to fail and lose political power in the end. After all, the end will always certainly justify the means, so postulated by Machiavelli. What many sympathizers care about is to change their lives for the better and nothing else. The best thing is to jump some of the rules behind which saboteurs and corrupt officials will hide to derail the efforts of the government. This is because it is very difficult to be orderly in a disorderly society that uses bureaucratic nightmares as a system of rule.

Admittedly, President Mills led NDC government is doing something slightly different and eight months might not just be enough to judge a full scale performance level of such a regime that has a first mandate of four years. But procrastination is not only the thief of time but also a harbinger to failure.

For instance, what has prevented the government from recruiting to fill the numerous vacancies in the public sector? Who should give the government the funds to meet its obligations, if it is because of lack of funds? Who should negotiate properly for the government if it is the inability to employ is due to IMF conditionality? Is the government not capable of raising money as earlier thought of by the electorates? What is the employment ministry doing when unemployment rises and workers continue to agitate for better wages? Why was there fuel shortage when prices of fuel were earlier increased by almost 30%? What were the energy minister and his outfit doing? What really is attorney general and her outfit doing when past corrupt practices hang unexamined and infractions continue to exist unchecked?

What has been done to Hon Muntaka Mubarik and his allies who betrayed him at their dubious den in the sports ministry? What are Housing, Transport and Lands Ministers and their outfit doing when several government properties that were not properly taken-over still remain dribbled out? What is Ghana at 50 Commission really investigating when it is clear that there is an impelling rot which only needs prosecution? What is Ministry of education doing when universities are escalating their fees? What is being done when Women and Children affairs ministry is right in the midst of head-porters and marginalized women and children? What is even the essence of the Chieftaincy ministry when parallel chiefs and potential crises are rippled across the country? Why are those that openly opposed and continue to oppose NDCs ideology and existence in government continue to hold very strategic and sensitive positions in the economy? What about the apparent police neglect and the palpable corrupt practices that continue unabated? What is ministry of interior doing? What about Agric Ministry – the backbone? What is ministry of information doing when government’s plans are clouded in twisted secrecy?

Clearly, a closer look at the driving forces of government reveals a telling but unsatisfactory story. I and perhaps many Ghanaians still have confidence in President Mills’s ability to bring the better Ghana we are craving for. But this would soon fizzle out if His Excellency does not put his ministers on their delivery toes. The system is for now, too slow for the liking of anybody who desires for a better Ghana within 4 years. There has to be pragmatism and the real jobs and livelihood security opportunities must flow.