The reason Ga Traditional Council is effective than the EPA is law enforcement - Mawutor

The Ga Traditional Council is more effective in enforcing strict adherence to the ban on drumming than the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) in their duties because of law enforcement, Dr. John Kwaku Mawutor, Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Professional Studies, Accra has stated.

He said this in an interview with Johnnie Hughes on the New Day show, Tuesday, May 11.

Dr. Mawutor was reacting to the ban on drumming and noise making by the Ga Traditional Council which has proven to be more effective in requiting strict adherence more than state institutions like the EPA, AMA and others, who have the resources and wherewithal to achieve more than the GTC.

He said “in this country we have all the laws and every now and then we lament over enforcement, it’s about enforcement. Imagine you close from work, you need that peace of mind to sleep and your fellow will have a church just behind your house, make all the noise without thinking that there is somebody who will have to sleep. And this is done sometimes unconsciously because sometimes when I also close from work I go to church without also considering the people around me. So the next issue is, who is in charge? “The EPA, we just commended the Gas, the Gas didn’t get to this stage just by fluke, it’s a conscious effort to ensure that everybody complies. And you know the Gas has a team of individuals going round to ensure compliance, over the years they have transitioned from the pure traditional way of ensuring compliance to now using state institutions. In the past when they come with a gang of people, if it’s a church they will pack everything, if it’s a drinking spot, they were not targeting in particular probably a religious sect, what they are saying is that it is noise, we appal noise in this period, it is part and parcel of our tradition so just comply with it”.

Dr. Mawutor also pointed out that such strict demand for compliance for these traditional customs is synonymous with all the traditional jurisdictions around the country, just like the Ashantis will adhere to the edicts of their king.

“You know we have this tradition that Tuesdays you don’t go fishing, have we imagined why all these things happen? It has some scientific meaning to it. Just allow the sea and the environment to grow by itself, that is why in 2017 when we waged war on galamsey, small-scale mining was ceased, most of the galamseyers were chased out of the forests, on the rivers, what happened? The rivers started changing colour, it started purifying the system, it needs some level of introspection to ensure that we don’t lose that livelihood. What gives us that livelihood? Our water, our river bodies, as well as the sea, we need them, so you see, we have come to the point where we need to ensure that rules are complied with” he pointed out.

He cited instances where in Western countries like the US, there could be a church right next to your house but there is so much insulation that their activities does not disturb anyone. But in our part of the world, you could find only two people in church yet make all the noise to the chagrin of the residents around.

“In fact behind my own house, sometimes you wake up and the noise is so severe that you can’t do anything. It does affect my work, so all I do is shut my windows and then probably read if you want to read. Our law enforcers have to do their job, we have politicized everything in this country, the political leaders are scared of ensuring that we enforce, they are scared of losing votes. Just recently when the Greater Accra Regional Minister started the radical means of freeing the streets of hawkers, I guess you heard what one of the political activists of his own party said, that he is hurting the party. These are unscrupulous people who don’t want to comply, there are spaces in the market but they wouldn’t like to use those spaces.

“They want to stay on the streets to compete and you know what it takes to kill on the road? Like accidents, just missing a step on your break, you could kill about four or five people and they don’t care about their own lives because of money. So it’s all about the enforcement of the laws” he charged the law enforcers.