Technology in 2016 Polls

Since my last posting, I have been accused of self-righteousness by no other person than the Chairman of the National Media Commission, Mr. Kwasi Gyan Apenteng. It is understandable that he should be upset, after all, I am skeptical about the intended collaboration of NMC and telecommunication companies to check social abuse on election day. However, not only do I remain unrepentant but have even strengthened my position since the alleged hacking of the US election process by some Russian hackers. If the almighty US system could be hacked during election, possibly influencing the results, then what cannot be done to ravish an already tottering Ghanaian IT system?

By the way, I am puzzled by Mr. Donald Trump’s silence over the hacking issue, because if the tables had turned, he would have gone ballistics and asked for a revoting. In retrospect, all the time that he was crying that the system was rigging the electoral process for Mrs. Clinton, what if he was actually saying I am going to rig the elections? Until the hacking allegation was raised, all accepted the election results, which situation Donald Trump likely anticipated, and could have capitalised on, if he had anything to do with the alleged technological manipulation, but I have digressed.  

I really am apprehensive about IT manipulation since there were rumours that the Ghanaian fax system for transmitting election results to the collating room in the 2012 elections was manipulated. The rumour traced the fax line to somewhere in Dzorwulu, Accra. Apparently, the results being transmitted to the collating room in Accra were changed there. The rumour linked Chinese with the hacking technology. I do not know if that rumour was investigated, but I have been telling friends that stakeholders must pay particular attention to the railway lines being laid in the Western Region, because it is being laid by Chinese, and it is an underground system, both operational factors in the rumoured reroute in 2012, but I have digressed again.

It is Monday, December 5, 2016, two days before elections, yet the political pairings go on, even by the national TV. Why does the NMC not begin by stopping those political pairings? Studios ought to be directed to air objective dialogues by seeking expert opinions on issues. Yes, everyone is subjective in perception, but true communicators can lead discussions by exploring claims by politicians, pragmatic implications of campaign promises, exposing falsehood, to mention these. Of course, this would be possible with a real investigative media front.

On Saturday, December 3, 2016, I was flipping channels for quality news. I stopped at Joy Prime because Mr. Kwaku Baako was a panelist on the newsfile programme. As usual, the politicians were there, but with Mr. Baako on the panel, I knew I would get analysis. I did. NPP and NDC did their usual thing. The NDC person was worryingly entertaining; the body language and utterings bespoke mere youthful exuberance. I was happy when Mr. Baako hinted that he would need to learn and grow on the job. I wholeheartedly hoped that the young Felix got the message, or did he? After the politicians spoke, Mr. Baako came in with documents and thorough analysis through which he exposed the shallowness of the political perspective. May be the Chairman of the NMC watched the programme, but then he and I agree on the analytical and objective stance of both Messrs. Baako and Duodu, so I don’t even know why he is upset with me.

His other point was that the length of my article was inappropriate for a social media platform. To be fair to him, I was surprised myself at the length, because I started by wanting to be brief. I told him I had to let off steam, among other reasons. But the Chairman should know that there is no hard and fast rule regarding the length of articles posted on social media platforms. Yes, the channel is usually explored for brief messages, and most Ghanaians don’t read, but nothing prevents us from posting long, serious articles. I promise to be brief this time.

The point I have been making is that we ought to be serious as a people and explore academic and pragmatic approaches to national issues. We can do that through legitimate research. I advocate that policy makers should take academia seriously and challenge the latter to serious research and make workable recommendations to government and industry. Research is the only path that would make this country progress. Since we do not have that, politicians destroy education, exploit Ghanaians through lies and embezzlement, then buy their votes come election time.

This past weekend, political parties have been entertaining my community through carnival. Yes, get them to dance and walk long distances till the point of exhaustion, fete them and let them go home to sleep. The youth enjoy themselves; the greedy ones move from one camp to another, their way of counter exploiting cheating political entities. A great way to interrogate governing policies, manifestoes, and national development infrastructure or lack of such.

The Chairman can be upset with me all he can, but even he cannot run away from the harsh realities of this nation. When we fertilise the environment with everything partisan, we cannot expect to wake up on December 8, 2016, and hope to monitor social media platforms in order to avoid chaos. It does not take a day to create trouble. Events build up to a climax, and we are dutifully creating events. IT doesn’t solve problems; humans explore IT intelligently to solve human issues, but we all know that. Ooops, did I promise to be brief!

I still believe in the discernment of fellow Ghanaians, their intelligence and desire for peace. We are not completely devoid of decency. I reiterate that these qualities will take us through peaceful election. One of the nations with the best data security system has allegedly fallen victim to IT hacking. I repeat: How does Ghana’s fragile system fare? I would love to be proved wrong, so Chairman, I am holding you to the challenge: Mobilise the communication media to check hooliganism on election day.

Ooops, I did promise to be brief!