Discipline on our roads please!

Ghana has just celebrated 60 years of independence and the one thing that all Ghanaians have agreed on is this: we have not fulfilled the aspirations of our people by creating a just, free and fair society.

Poverty, disease and ignorance still wreak havoc on communities and individuals and anxiety, fear and depression stalk us day and night. Our country is not where it should be. Our people are nowhere near where they thought they would be. Our infrastructure is weak, jobs are few and frustration, especially among the teeming youth, is high. Even the employed fear and tremble when they consider retirement, wondering whether their post-retirement days would be used to live out an existence or would be filled with the rest and recreation that their hard work should deserve. To top all this is the vexatious, human-made issue of indiscipline on our roads. Yes, indiscipline on our roads.

No country has developed without discipline and a strong sense of nationalism and national purpose. National pride and patriotism manifest themselves in several ways but the most obvious is how disciplined citizens are in all they do, think or say. Indiscipline on the road is one of the most obvious signs of serious, pervasive indiscipline in all aspects of a nation’s life. In Ghana, indiscipline on the road started slowly and insidiously but it has now reached epidemic proportions and requires immediate redress before it gets completely out of hand. Motor bicycles flout all road traffic regulations right under the watch of police officers. Vehicles drive against the traffic on one-way roads. Vehicles jump red lights as if the lights do not exist. As for motorbikes and red lights, it is a different matter. The riders of motorbikes seem to have re-written their own road regulations which is simply this: motorbikes are not subject to Ghana’s road traffic regulations! Sadly, law enforcement is allowing them to get away with it and the situation is now very frightening. Yet in nearby Togo and Burkina Faso, even bicycles respect all traffic regulations and the penalties for flouting these are severe and immediate. So why can’t Ghana do the same? Why, oh why?

Fellow Ghanaians, we are a country in crisis and a country desirous of making progress. If we had the means, would we ever invest in a country where law and order seems to have broken-down? Would we feel free and comfortable in a country where motorbikes pose a real and present threat to all road users? Will we go as tourists to a country where the police appear unwilling or unable to stop indiscipline on the roads? Will we spend our hard-earned cash in a place that looks like an accident waiting to happen?

Indiscipline is rife in Ghana – in several sectors and across several areas and disciplines. The way we treat our fellow Ghanaians in hospitals, pharmacies, clinics, laboratories, tax offices, ‘tro-tro’ stations, public offices etc. leaves a lot to be desired. And yet we are desirous of being a progressive, middle-income country where tourists would come and spend their hard-earned cash. This cannot and will not happen. In fact, the only types of tourists and investors who invest in such fragile environments are the “wrong type” who come in for short-term gain rather than long-term partnership.

Ghana is bleeding and the most obvious way to send a clear and unequivocal signal to the country is by tackling indiscipline on the road. Mr IGP, we beg. We beg paaaa. Please let the police act. Let riders of motorbikes know that they are subject to the same laws as all other vehicles and road users. They must stop at red lights; they must NOT go against traffic; they must cross Zebra crossings as if they are pedestrians; they must not be drunk whilst riding and so on and so forth. If we cannot check this carnage, would we have the moral authority to confront all the other forms of indiscipline in our society?

For now, let us fix the carnage, indiscipline and chaos on our roads. If we cannot do this, one wonders what else we can do. This is a call to all Ghanaians. We have a charge to keep. We have a God to glorify. And there is no better way to serve God and country than by starting to be part of a disciplined Ghana, starting with discipline on the roads. Once again Mr IGP, we beg. We beg paaa. We beg with all our being and all our Ghanaian-ness. We beg! We need progress. We need sanity. We need productivity. But we cannot get any of these if we do not have discipline on the roads. We all have a role to play but please sir, let the police begin to enforce the law. We will all be affected somehow but in the end, Ghana will be the winner and future generations will thank us for creating an orderly, disciplined and productive society. May God help us all.