Both the government and Telcos are not thinking

As a writer, I feel that I need to add my voice to correct this nonsense happening currently in this country, at least for myself and the ordinary citizens that labour to pay their taxes.

Albert Einstein made some powerful quotes that speak very much to our current ways of doing things as a people. What do the quotes say?

He once said that “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." He also said that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

And one of his profound quotes also says that “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”

Think critically about these profound quotes of Einstein and tell me that what our government and the Telcos are doing to us is sane and I will show you how insane you are as a person. As Ghanaians, we practically queue for everything in this country, why?

We queue in our banks. We queue to get identity cards. We queue to get basically anything or everything that's somewhat important. We even queue to buy food. It's irritating that in 2022, this is where we are, yet we claim to have leaders. Do we really have level-headed people leading us in this country, considering the above quotes of Albert Einstein the genius?

Ras Mubarak, a former Member of Parliament posted this today on his Facebook timeline “I have used my MTN phone number for nearly 24 years. I would not Re-register my SIM card. The process is cumbersome, the argument for Re-registration is not compelling.

"If my network provider blocks my number, not only will I be happy to use the good old landline, I’ll organise a boycott campaign against the service provider. The service providers have much to lose if citizens take charge of how they want to be treated. Who needs a mobile number anyway when there are too many options.”

I support the above post of Ras Mubarak one hundred percent and I will join his boycott campaign if SIM cards of fellow citizens are blocked as well. Why would the Government subject the citizens to such humiliations and the Telcos are in full support of it against their own customers who have made them super-rich?

Why would you give deadlines to subject people to leave their work just to go and queue for hours or even days for some bogus SIM card registration activities? If the government cannot synchronise the systems and play complementary roles, why should we the citizens suffer for such incompetent institutional disharmony?

I haven't even been issued the Ghana card yet, because of the unnecessary queues at the venues as a result of old and inadequate biometric machines. So how am I supposed to re-register my SIM card? Meanwhile, I have an International Ghanaian passport, yet I am not a Ghanaian without a Ghana card. Such ‘myopicness’ of a government. It's a shame.

But I think the major problem here is that we the citizens or customers of these Telcos don't truly know the kind of power that we wield. Because both the government and Telcos stand to lose more if they block our mobile numbers.

These are technological and digital times all over the world, there can be an App created by these Telcos where one can easily self-register without having to queue for days just to register an ordinary SIM card. I believe the National Communications Authority (NCA) can even collaborate with the National Identification Authority (NIA) to make the biometric data of citizens available to the Telcos.

More than 60% of the population does not have a Ghana card, yet the leaders gave a very short deadline to SIM card registrations and others which we must compulsorily use the Ghana card to register to prove we are Ghanaians. Do some of these leaders have sores in their brains? Because it baffles me how they do things like kindergarten pupils.

I will endorse a boycott campaign any day against these Telcos if they do not change their current ways of doing things. Hon. Ras Mubarak is a wise man and I fully support his opinion on the matter because I hold very similar thoughts and ideas.