So this has been another one of those weeks with a strange mix of remarkable events, hasn’t it?

First of all, WAEC papers leaked again. Right on schedule. But while others were trying to figure out whether these constituted leaks or foreknowledge, we tried to understand what kinds of society would raise kids who would even think that cheating in exams was an option.

Or what would move a parent to buy the leaked questions for their kids. Or what teacher would distribute exam questions in advance to the kids in their class. Quite clearly, the problem is not with the fact that people are willing to leak questions from WAEC. The problem is that there is a whole nation of us with our mouths open under the WAEC colander waiting to lap up the leaks as fast as they drip.

We decided this week to address the issue of service (or lack of it) from Telcos and ECG. All of that vanishing credit. How are consumers able to tell whether they are getting the credit they pay for? According to the Telcos, it’s our smartphones that are stealing our credit with unauthorised data usage. But according to the NCA, it’s inaccurate billing services being used by Telcos – which makes me wonder why they, as regulators, are allowing this to happen. Meanwhile, you and I keep pouring our hard-earned money down the drain, and nobody seems to be fighting hard enough for our rights.

It’s no different when it comes to the ECG credit issue. Again, we’re all finding difficulty explaining how our credit keeps running in such an inconsistent manner. This week, GHC50 lasts five days, next week, it lasts one day. Makes no sense. You report it to ECG and their explanation is that we owe them money. We owe them? On pre-paid meters? Now I’ve heard it all.

The ECG rep we spoke to on Wednesday attempted to explain. Something about a fault, and a delay in transmitting data due to slow internet. Either way, it’s not our fault. So why should we have to pay for it? Unsurprisingly, ECG disagreed with me on that. So I asked if all the meters met the prescribed standards. He said yes, but then the Ghana Standards authority immediately refuted this, claiming that the ECG was importing unapproved meters and later seeking authorisation from the Standards Authority for them. Of course, the ECG denies this. So again, the two institutions keep bickering over this, while you and Ikeep pouring our hard-earned money down the drain, and nobody seems to be fighting hard enough for our rights.

Then there was that unconfirmed report of 22 Wesley Girls students having been caught engaging in some occult practices. The GES has since announced that the story is false, and it was simply some unapproved religious book about summoning angels that was discovered in the possession of a student. But this story – false or not – brought back the conversation about occult practices amongst young people in schools and colleges. What’s the attraction? Is it all really occult, or is some of it just initiation rituals for fraternities, sororities and secret societies? How can parents spot the changes in their kids that may point to their having joined such groups? And what can schools do to protect kids form this sort of thing?

The two biggest stories this week however, were the Citizen Ghana victory in the High Court, which now opens the floodgates for accessing information from government. As long as the information does not fall under certain exceptional, conditions, Government will be obligated to answer your questions within 24 hours.  We did wonder what this meant for the right to information bill though. Is it still needed? What else will it do in addition to what our laws presently empower us to do.

And then of course, we’ve been dealing with these terror threats. It started with a couple of prophesies that there would be attacks on hotels near the airport or near the beach on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday this month. Then a memo surfaced – purportedly distributed within the immigration service - ordering heightened vigilance at our borders, and revealing some intel gathered from the interrogation of a Malian national believed to have masterminded the Grand Bassam attacks in Ivory Coast.

Basically, Ghana and Nigeria are next on the list because they want to be sure people don’t think only francophone countries are targets of these groups. Totally logical, I’m sure. But the obvious question is, how safe are we? Are our borders secure enough, are citizens alert enough? Are our security forces trained enough? Are they equipped enough to deal with potential threats. Time will tell, but I wish it wouldn’t.

My name is Kojo Yankson, and it’s been one of those weeks.

GOOD MORNING, GHANAFO!