It started as a normal litigation over property rights but ended up having far reaching consequences for the country and indeed the whole British Commonwealth.
And in the middle of the drama was no less a person than a Knight of the British Empire. In medieval times the action of this celebrated Knight would have been construed to be an act of betrayal of the British Crown.
Sir Sam Jonah (KBE) has been engaged in litigation over the ownership of the land on which Network Computer Systems (NCS), an Internet service provider, was operating and subsequently got the courts to enforce his right to the land. The premises of NCS were consequently sealed off.
Our elders say that "dua bata bour netwa ye twa na" but the Knight of the British Empire decided to ignore this wise saying and insisted on his pound of fresh and by so doing did a great disservice to the British Empire whose Knight he is.
By sealing off the premises of NCS the Ghana News Agency could not comprehensively cover the meeting of the British Commonwealth at Abuja as the Internet connectivity of the Agency was cut off. Its correspondent at Abuja could not come through with his reports through the Internet and had to resort to other means.
The 64 radio and television stations, newspapers and various websites that subscribe to GNA files were bereft of news because the GNA distributes its news through e-mail thorough NCS.
Those subscribers that operate from the Accra Metropolitan Area were compelled to go to the Offices of the GNA with diskettes to take the news while those in Kumasi and elsewhere had to be reached on fax - a slow and laborious exercise when dealing with about 20,000 words.
This episode has brought to the fore the need for the GNA to get its own wide area communication network system so that it could deal with its subscribers direct. As the situation is now anytime Ghana Telecom or NCS sneezes the GNA catches cold.
Fortunately the NCS has been able to put in place a temporary arrangement that had restored GNA's Internet connectivity.
Apart from the GNA a number of organisations and institutions were also adversely affected by the singular action of this Knight of the British Empire.
The point being canvassed here is not the right or otherwise of this Knight but his insistence on having his pound of flesh and by so doing holding the whole nation to ransom.
It started as a normal litigation over property rights but ended up having far reaching consequences for the country and indeed the whole British Commonwealth.
And in the middle of the drama was no less a person than a Knight of the British Empire. In medieval times the action of this celebrated Knight would have been construed to be an act of betrayal of the British Crown.
Sir Sam Jonah (KBE) has been engaged in litigation over the ownership of the land on which Network Computer Systems (NCS), an Internet service provider, was operating and subsequently got the courts to enforce his right to the land. The premises of NCS were consequently sealed off.
Our elders say that "dua bata bour netwa ye twa na" but the Knight of the British Empire decided to ignore this wise saying and insisted on his pound of fresh and by so doing did a great disservice to the British Empire whose Knight he is.
By sealing off the premises of NCS the Ghana News Agency could not comprehensively cover the meeting of the British Commonwealth at Abuja as the Internet connectivity of the Agency was cut off. Its correspondent at Abuja could not come through with his reports through the Internet and had to resort to other means.
The 64 radio and television stations, newspapers and various websites that subscribe to GNA files were bereft of news because the GNA distributes its news through e-mail thorough NCS.
Those subscribers that operate from the Accra Metropolitan Area were compelled to go to the Offices of the GNA with diskettes to take the news while those in Kumasi and elsewhere had to be reached on fax - a slow and laborious exercise when dealing with about 20,000 words.
This episode has brought to the fore the need for the GNA to get its own wide area communication network system so that it could deal with its subscribers direct. As the situation is now anytime Ghana Telecom or NCS sneezes the GNA catches cold.
Fortunately the NCS has been able to put in place a temporary arrangement that had restored GNA's Internet connectivity.
Apart from the GNA a number of organisations and institutions were also adversely affected by the singular action of this Knight of the British Empire.
The point being canvassed here is not the right or otherwise of this Knight but his insistence on having his pound of flesh and by so doing holding the whole nation to ransom.
