Rejoinder to Story on Nii Moi Thompson-Vodafone

The News Editor
GhanaNews Agency
Accra, Ghana

Dear Editor:

My attention has been drawn to a news story on Ghanaweb and attributed to the Ghana News Agency entitled, “Facts (sic) Sheet: Vodafone has experience in fixed line operations” (July 30, 2008). The story reads in part: “Dr Nii Moi Thompson, an economist and leading member of the Convention People's Party who has been at the forefront of the criticism of the Vodafone deal, has described Vodafone's claims of experience in fixed line operations as completely false.”

Elsewhere in the story, your reporter writes: “He said if government did due diligence on the those claims it would find that in New Zealand, for example, Vodafone was just a client to an operator of the fixed line voice service and not Vodafone itself.”

I wish to make it clear that I have at no time spoken with any reporter from the GNA on the matter, nor have I, at any forum, questioned Vodafone’s experience in fixed lines operations. I dare the report to produce evidence of any interview I had with him or her, or produce any other evidence of me making such a statement anywhere. It seems the government’s propaganda machine would stop short at nothing to use certain media houses to distort the real facts surrounding this reckless attempt to dispose of yet another strategic state asset.

What I have questioned – mostly in radio interviews and not in an interview with any reporter from GNA – is the government’s claim that Vodafone has “extensive experience” in managingfibre optics (not land lines), which was why they were giving them our three fibre optics infrastructure to manage under the so-called Expanded GT Group. (I must make it clear that this sale is not of Ghana Telecom as we know it, but of Ghana Telecom plus three major fibre optics assets built and operated by the people of Ghana. It is this bouquet of national assets that are being offered to Vodafone on a silver platter in the error-filled sale and purchase agreement).

I have argued that if it is experience we are looking for in managing fibre optics infrastructure, then we have it right here in Ghana, at the state-owned Volta River Authority, whose 15-plus years experience in fibre optics management is far superior to that of Vodafone, which is new in the field. Indeed, a number of local television stations have broadcast on VRA’s Voltacom fibre optics network commercially – and successfully. Additionally, nothing stops us from building our own capacity to manage our own affairs, including fibre optics.

I am also disturbed that a reporter from an otherwise reputable news organisation would write a story on the basis of second-hand information, without bothering to verify the information from the person to whom they make attributions. Equally disturbing is the fact that the reporter would simply grab the propaganda sheet of an interested party in a contested sale of public asset and simply recite what is on that sheet without any attempt at verification. This is a blot on the reputation of Ghanaian journalism in general and GNA's in particular.

I trust that with this letter you will rectify the misrepresentation created by your reporter in the minds of the reading public.

Sincerely,
Nii Moi Thompson (niimoi@yahoo.com)
Accra, Ghana.