EMERITUS WRITES………..“THE MISPLACED PRIORITY SYNDROME OF AFRICAN POLITICIANS”
ADE-ENA AKURUGU MOSES
I have been following the news and happenings in this country as a bourgeoning citizen vigilante which is in line with our president’s admonishment that, we should be “citizens but not spectators”I am still recovering from a psychogenic shock after I heard that Ghana launched a National Digital Post Address System which an already existing App can perform almost the same functions.
The App is nothing but additional coding and renaming of Google maps.I do not entirely blame the president and his elders for the fact that, they are BBC (born before Computer) but I am much worried that [ads1]upon the numerous intellectually inclined youth in our government could be sat back and watched Ghana to be swindled of a colossal and whopping amount of 2.5 million US dollars of the taxpayer’s money to launch an online tracking mobile application that is already existing.
To even compound their ignorance, several communicators and top government officials including our most touted economist of the century and Second Gentleman of the Land, H.E. Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia also defending and lauding such a ridiculous deal. It is an embarrassment for a country like Ghana who is 60 years old post-independence with several renowned professors working home and abroad, some even at NASA to pay for an already existing service which is free.The most discomfiture aspect is the inability of the app to even function for the first week after its outdooring and launching.
We have several apps that give the accurate location of one’s position in Ghana which we could have used only 5% of the 2.5 million US dollars to educate the public on how to access and use these Apps. Examples of such Apps are MTN Handbook and AsaaseGPS which can be downloaded from play store for free. These Apps can identify your location and have a send button to send your geographical coordinates (current address) to the supposed agency for assistance in an emergency situation.This forthcoming Biometric National Identification Registration will be a boost where all persons’ addresses can be tracked and cross-matched to verify their addresses when the need arises using the aforementioned Apps or Google maps.
What government needed to do was naming of all streets in Ghana and her citizens’ addresses can be accessed with these street names using Google maps.Again, we still have 90% of our public basic schools in rural areas without a single computer. It will interest one to know that this century which is considered an information age and a computer world, we have pupils in our rural areas who had never physically seen desktop computer or laptop before left to talk of operating it. The government could have channelled this money into furnishing every public basic school with a laptop to be used in the teaching of ICT which will help these children to match up with their counterparts in the cities and the developed world. NDPAS is as weird as buying a television set for the blind instead of a radio set.
It is also worthwhile noting that, this App even if working properly will not add value to Ghana’s economy or whatsoever as ballyhooed by our most revered economist and Vice President. Banks and other institutions are going to still rely on the manual intake of their clients’ addresses. All public servants are on a biometric register yet they cannot be tracked and we still have ghost names which are evidenced by the chronic demand for payslips of workers to aid in head counting. Considering the number of people using smartphones, illiteracy rate and internet connectivity in the country, and settlement system, it is a misplaced priority.
It is a big shame that we still defend such a duplicitous project. My advice to the Ghana Post service, National Communication Authority and the National Security Council is that they should be true to the president and should not soil the hard-won reputation of the president. The launch of such an app and its reverberation suggest that we still have a long way to go in terms of Information Communication Technology which is startling as a 21st century nation. Something we could have just modified our street naming system and leverage on Google has to cost us $2.5m? Where is our innovation or creativity?
I personally deemed this as the misapplication of the nation’s resources. We do not know what we want and where we are going as a nation. In fact, we are in a staggering boast and will soon sink.Our neighbours and the world must be laughing at us. How many ambulance vehicles do we have and how many of our hospitals have sophisticated devices to monitor and receive signals from this supposed Post GPS App and rapidly respond to them? Or the cell phones of our dear Ghana police and Ghana Fire Service which whenever you call them, it has to go to the head office in Accra before they respond that will help? Smh! It is totally outlandish and gross misdirected priority!Let’s set our priorities right.
I am a citizen, not spectator!
Written by: ADE-ENA AKURUGU MOSES, EMERITUS (UHAS-SRC PRO)
+233547193748
adeenamoses@gmail.com
LEVEL 300 Bachelor of Nursing Student
UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH AND ALLIED SCIENCES