Barely a week into the introduction of the automated digital traffic enforcement system called TraffiTech-GH, the response of some road users has already exposed a deep spiritual deficiency in us.
TraffiTech-GH is meant to enforce road safety and make road users obey traffic regulations in order to bring sanity to the chaos we experience on our roads.
Under this new system, the Ghana Police Service now uses TraffiTech-GH to capture traffic offences such as speeding, red-light violations, and wrong-lane usage that often result in fatal accidents.
Questions
Obviously, as with the introduction of new systems and policies, TraffiTech-GH is raising many questions about roadworthiness, the real motive behind this new technology, its sustainability, and the beneficiaries of the penalties, and the sustainability of this technology.
Other questions are: How realistic are the penalties? Is this not a smart new tax? What are the exemptions in cases of emergencies?
And where are the cameras and the necessary road signs?
Legitimate as these questions may be, my interest is not in them at all. Rather, my interest is in the spiritual undertones the new traffic system exposes.
The system has automatically grouped road users into two categories.
First, according to reports gathered by the media, some drivers of commercial and private vehicles “now drive slowly and carefully.”
The second group comprises the hundreds of drivers who have been caught violating traffic regulations and have been issued tickets requiring them to pay a penalty or go to court to contest their “arrest” by TraffiTech-GH cameras.
The first spiritual deficiency that I think TraffiTech-GH has exposed in us is that we are prone to doing wrong things because we think no one sees us!
The drivers who now drive carefully do so because a TraffiTech-GH camera might be recording their reckless driving, so they drive gently and cautiously to avoid the penalty.
It is a spiritual deficiency to assume that as long as we think no one is watching us, we can hide behind excuses and commit all kinds of atrocities.
We commit wrongdoing because we think no one will know.
Divine radar
That mentality throws divine radar out of the window.
By failing to understand that God is with us wherever we go and sees everything we do, we relegate him to the background and live careless lives.
The result could be more devastating than a mere traffic fine.
We relish the truth that God is near us to prevent us from being harmed by spiritual and human forces. “I am with you always . . .” (Matthew 28:20), God assures us.
“I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
We like this God-with-us protection, but we don’t like the fact that God sees everything we do and that we shall give an account of our lives to him.
The popular children’s service song reminds us of this truth: “God is there; God is everywhere / Whatever you do, he will see, he will hear, he will know / And he will reward you or punish you!”
The story is told about a man who went to his neighbour’s farm to steal cassava, taking along his son, a children’s service pupil. Before he started uprooting the cassava, the man looked behind and around him to see if anybody might be watching.
When he thought he was safe, he began uprooting the cassava, but his son said, “Father, you forgot to look up!” When the father looked up and observed the endless spread of blue sky above him, he abandoned his thievery and went back home.
God’s omnipresence and watchfulness, well expressed in Scripture to help us deal with clandestine activities, go beyond surveillance cameras.
“The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good” (Proverbs 15:3).
Wicked living, like reckless driving, carries a penalty in the long run.
From Hebrews 4:13, we learn that “no creature is hidden from God’s sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
The fact that we shall render an account of our lives to God should help us pursue right living.
Accountability
But besides scriptural warnings, we have human radar systems that often throw searchlights on our behaviour and activities and expose us. Among them are the auditing systems and public accounts investigations built into workplace ethics.
Whenever we are made to account for a responsibility entrusted to us, it means the cameras and searchlights are turned on us.
To avoid the ensuing penalty, the possible presence of a TraffiTech-GH device—or any other surveillance device, for that matter—cautions us to do what is right to avoid paying penalties.
But even more advanced form of living is to learn to do the right thing even if no camera is watching us.
The writer is a publisher, author, writer-trainer and CEO of Step Publishers.
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