THE THOUGHTS ROOM

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways, My ways, says the Lord (Isaiah 55:8) In some few hours another year will come to an end. I know many of us started the year 2017 with so many hopes and aspirations, with several resolutions, with several promises to ourselves, to our families, to our parents, to our friends, and most importantly to God. Many like myself may not have achieved the long list of wishes and desires we hoped for in the year but God has been good nonetheless. He’s been a faithful father even when we strayed like the prodigal son. And on the last day of the year as has been the tradition, many of us will troop into the House of God to show our appreciation for all He’s done and is yet to do and once again make some one or two resolutions. Looking back at 2017, from January till now, all I can see is God’s goodness in my life. Yes, I may have had a tall list of items I wanted to achieve, top of them was to have a closer walk with God a...

Hard as it was for Araba to move on following her breakup with Raymond, she was left with no choice. All she had was her life to continue with, a loving family and supportive friends. She also had a God to depend on. He had been her source of strength right from the beginning. There was no time to pity-party. Her strength was admired by friends and family. They couldn't believe that she had quickly moved on with her life. After all what more could she do? She had to complete her schooling and she had to concentrate at work as she was still on probation. There was no way Raymond's impatience or decisions were going to stand in her way to success. It was difficult yet easy for her to quickly move on. All too soon, her quest for a higher education had come to an end and she passed with honours. She had made her family proud, and more importantly, she had made herself proud. But her joy was cut short. She may have achieved all she had listed within the time frame she had mad...

"Grab a cup of tea and go to bed. It will do you some good." That was the response at the other end of the phone when Araba called him to catch up on the events of the day. She was however met with a female voice; and surprised at the first instance, she called his number again to be sure that she hadn't called a wrong number. But she wasn't wrong. It was his number. The number she's been calling him on since they ever met. It's the same number she's been texting him on so who was the lady on the other end of the phone. It had been a hectic day for Araba who had just started a small business to augment her monthly salary. Her busy schedule didn't give her the time to call him since after all he had also been busy with work and other stuff. The year was coming to an end and she was more than elated about it because the long holidays meant she would get to spend some meaningful time with him. She had already made a proposal to host his friend...

I live at Ashongman Estate in Greater Accra and for the past two days I have been living in darkness not because I have failed to pay my electricity bills but because the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has denied me that privilege. Just when I heaved a sigh of relief on Monday afternoon at about 3pm, after staying in the dark since 9am on Sunday, the power distributor took back the lights few minutes after I r etired to bed. But for the cold weather, I’m sure their act would have denied me a sound sleep. I’m not sure if we are back to dumsor since the president has stated clearly that he will not declare our return to the inconsistent power supply that had plagued the nation since 2011. Nonetheless, I sought to find answers. I called the ECG call centre and a sweet female voice responded at the other end of the phone. She gave her name as Bernice. I inquired why my electricity supply had been inconsistent since Sunday morning. In her bid to satisfy my curiosity she...

Wednesday morning on my way to work, a tipper truck driver rammed the back my sister’s car and broke the tail lights. We were of course angry but calm in handling the situation. The driver, who was coming from the main Legon road, in his attempt not to give a “trotro” driver space to join the main road from the overpass, ended up smashing our car and also denting the side of the car I was riding in. IGP, Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan The first line of action was to call the police. Although we were close to the Legon Police Station, we couldn’t leave the accident scene because the police would have to come to the scene to collect information on how the accident happened and mark the area. I picked my phone to make the call. But not sure of what to do after the police short code 191 gave me a busy tone, I went on to search for a police contact number on google. The first link which popped up was the police website, www.police.gov.gh/contactus . I scrolled down but couldn’t fin...

Sometime last year I had to apply for a Ghanaian passport to enable me make a trip abroad. It amazed my work colleagues when I said I was going to the Passport Office at Ridge to place my application. They were amazed because they had expected me, as a journalist, to have had one by then. The truth is I had tried but given up my chase for a passport in 2011 after a “goro boy” (a passport contractor) at the then Foreign Affairs Ministry near the Tema Station in Accra demanded GH¢50 from me to have my passport processed within a month. This was in spite of my buying an “express” application form at GH¢100 which promised or rather guaranteed that I got my passport in three weeks. I refused his offer. A friend took his word for it and had his passport in three months. I kept the form nonetheless and later when I tried submitting it, I was told I had to buy another form because it had expired. I was less perturbed about getting another form at GH¢100 again since time was running...

The lead scientist for the Ebola Vaccine trial in Ghana, Prof. Fred Binka has offered to volunteer for the clinical trial. Prof Fred Binka According to him, he would be delighted to be used for the vaccination trial if that will bring an end to the misconception about the trial scheduled to take place in the Volta Region. Prof. Binka who is the Foundation Vice-Chancellor of the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, said on Starr FM that “I have had a battle with the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA); I would be the first to take the vaccine. Because this is a political disease and maybe we have to find different ways of doing that. I don’t think I will be offering Ghanaians something that will be dangerous to them.” “But if they can see that I personally can take the vaccine, I will be happy to do that. When this vaccine came to Geneva, the assistant WHO director took it and so there is no problem at all,” he said. At a recently held sensitisation forum in Accra, Prof. Binka ...