My over-imagination has always cost me the joy of flying. To imagine that you are in a huge metal and fibre box kept afloat over mountains, deserts, jungles, oceans and vast swamps by the magic of the dynamics of wind, air motion and pressure and an engine heavy enough to punch a crater in the earth's crust, can take away all the thrill of a turbulence-free flight. Just one little malfunction of a delicate part and .. .! When it gets really bad, Jomo, I usually beckon one of those leggy cabin stewardesses over and ask for glass of wetin-call-the-old- Irish-brew. Better to go with a foamy mug nestling warmly in the skull than to go screaming in morbid terror, don't you think? Apparently the president of our mighty republic is immune to this morbid affliction of mine: The man has spent the past seven years literally airborne or so his critics swear. Next week, President JAK sets out again, this umpteenth time around, for the Caribbean and thence to the land of the happy Chinks. Hey, we are about to sell the 4,000-kilometer national fibre optic backbone the Chinks lent us US$ 100 million to build, but I am coming to that. When he leaves the Chinks toward mid August, President JAK dashes back home to see how this controversial physical geographical entity called Ghana which he presides over is doing, and then he sets forth yet again for visits to the United States, Germany and The Netherlands. Now, before you begin muttering that the man is outdoing old Glummer in the art of global travel, be informed, Jomo, that His Excellency has had to decline acceptance of invitations to many other countries, so that he can spend more time with his people, see? Folks should be grateful instead of grumbling. One of the things President JAK will probably miss most after he leaves office next January, is the joy of inter-continental travel. For the good people of Ghana, a major concern when he leaves, will be the leadership qualities of his successor, yes? Voting day with its usually mutely electrifying tension and unbearable suspense will come much sooner than you expect. It has something to do with the trick time always springs on calendar-bound events of great significance: Yet no one, no non-partisan civic organisation, has deemed it important to lend us voters, good counsel regarding what qualities we should look for in the presidential candidates, as a necessary guide to informed choice of the man to whom we must surrender our welfare and security for the next eight years. The yawning void has been amply filled by the presidential candidate themselves and their supporters who are jumping up and down all over the place chanting "Vote Watt Callim for President." In my uncertainty, I went to one bloke for help this week and you know what he told me? He asked me to look for what he called the qualities of the typical African president who has haunted and dogged our political history since the end of colonialism on our continent: I must vote for someone with the capability and propensity to destroy his political enemies, rule the nation with a steel fist, brandish the constitutional powers of the president under the noses of critics and dissenters and ransack our national treasury. I told the chap in the face that he was a crank. He grinned and said he expected me NOT to vote for an aspiring leader with the propensity to do all that! 1 promised to give you a rub down on the proposed sale of Ghana Telecom didn't I? Cancel the sale. Defer it till the next government is sworn in early next year. Review it. Go ahead and sell and don't mind the critics. These are some of the opinions 1 have heard about the proposed sale. Someone sought an explanation from me. 1 ended up confusing the poor bloke: • "Why is the government selling Ghana Telecom?" "GT is said to be bankruptcy-bound, having run up a debt of US$ 400 million." ''What! The big men chopped the money?" "Some of the debt is in respect of taxes Ghana Telecom failed to pay." "To whom does Ghana Telecom owe the taxes?" "The government." "The government owes itself?" “You could put it that way." "I don't understand." "That makes two of us." "Why are many people? Protesting?" ''They think GT is a strategic national asset that should not be sold. Besides Vodafone's US$900 million price offer for 70 per cent shares in GT is grade three peanuts." As of January 1, 2008, Ghana telecom did not appear to be a lost case in spite of its debt. It controlled about 99 per cent of the national fixed line network. Revenue stood at US$290. It led the mobile phone service market with more than 7.5 million subscribers, representing some 35 per cent of the market share. Annual growth rate was estimated at 9.3 per cent. The national optic fibre backbone we are building along the Electricity Company's transmission lines with a US$100 million loan from China is almost complete. For US$900 million, Vodafone gets the entire fixed lines infrastructure, the mobile phone network and the fibre optic backbone. Now don't forget that Internet technology and its awesome communication reach and power will soon be totally dependent on fibre optic infrastructure. That is why many people are also uncomfortable with the national security implications of selling the national fiber optic backbone to foreigners in an era of very advanced telecommunication technology. Those who want GT sold to Vodafone first thing tomorrow morning are neither impressed nor swayed by these arguments. They insist Ghana telecom is now only an appalling eight per cent assets and more than 90 per cent debt. They say with the congestion on GT's network, the company needs to expand but cannot add to its debts by trying to raise more capital for any expansion programme. Debate ended? Not on your life, Jomo. Critics of the deal say they suspect the government is trying to kill two big birds with one stone in this deal: Raise a large amount of foreign exchange to support an economy which is feeling a biting pinch in the wake of rocketing world oil and food prices and get rid of a national asset in investment trouble! Email: georgeabu@hotmail.com Website: www.sydneyabugri.com