Compensation for Shoplifters? Come On!

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

I don't know what the three young women caught stealing undies at a Mr. Price shop at the Accra Mall expected to receive by way of punitive treatment, but the vow of the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection to have these petty thieves legally compensated is nothing short of the downright disgusting (See "Shoplifting Saga: Nana Oye Readies Legal Onslaught" MyJoyOnline.com/ Ghanaweb.com 2/28/14).

Maybe Mrs. Oye Lithur's mother never taught her this, but while growing up at Kankang-Jejeti (now Sekyere) my mother instilled in me the morally responsible attitude of never taking what does not belong to you without the permission or consent of the owner of the item of one's desire. Of course, there is also the following maxim in half-pidgin English which vividly captures the same responsible moral tenor: "The owner of the something is the chopper, not the hungry man/one."

In the Akan-language, it is even more poignant and mellifluous; and it runs as follows: "Nea ade wono na odi" - to wit, "It is the owner who consumes/ appropriates." In other words, the three young women shoplifters appear not to have had any sound moral upbringing. And it is on this abject parental dereliction of duty which Nana Oye Lithur ought to focus her sedulous attention. In sum, the owners and operators of the Mr. Price garment shop, so mischievously targeted by the three women thieves, were darn righteous in their indignation. What they erred on was the rather visceral, or even base, decision to order the three petty thieves to crawl on all fours in full view of shoppers.

The Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister is right in calling for a modicum of sanctions against the branch of the Mr. Price shop where the shoplifting incident occurred. But under absolutely no circumstances ought the culprits be compensated for getting caught in the criminal act of shoplifting. It doesn't make sense, for shoplifting costs shoppers millions of cedis in passed-on added costs every year. Also, it is almost as if these petty thieves are being celebrated for their patent criminality and untenable anti-social conduct.

The right form of punishment against the managers of the Mr. Price shop is to have these obnoxious vigilantes fined. Such fine, however, ought to be deposited into a fund dedicated to the cultural/behavioral education of young anti-social vermin, or shameless criminals, like the three petty thieves against making a nuisance of themselves, as well as embarrassing the rest of us law-abiding Ghanaian citizens.

I was, however, not the least bit amused when Mr. Jerry John Rawlings was widely reported to have added his raspy voice to the deafening chorus of Ghanaian citizens who profusely vented their spleen at the Mr. Price shop managers who decided to literally take the law into their own hands. Nothing could be more at once repugnant, outrageous and hypocritical. And for those of our readers who were either not born or too young to remember, it was Mr. Rawlings and his thuggish Khakii-sporting Abongo Boys of the Ghana Armed Forces who introduced the sort of jungle law protocol adopted by the Mr. Price shop operatives.

Back then, in 1979 and then, once again, in 1982, the then-Flt.-Lt. Jerry John Rawlings and his mutineers, composed largely of a rag-tag band of lowly-ranked, AK-47-toting Buga-Buga soldiers, would strip adult men and women stark naked and parade them like bestial bipeds through the principal streets of Ghanaian cities, towns and villages. And almost invariably, the sole crime of these victims of such brutal, medieval-type military discipline - glibly called "Enemies of the Revolution" - was "selling essential commodities above the controlled prices."

And, dear reader, you know what? These so-called controlled prices had been arbitrarily fixed by people who knew absolutely next to nothing about the highly volatile dynamics of a market economy. These faux-socialist revolutionaries had absolutely no appreciation or aptitude for the basic principles of supply and demand. Today, the grizzled members of the Rawlings posse are, almost to a person, filthy rich - their well-deserved rewards for sending hundreds of innocent, unsuspecting and hardworking Ghanaians to their premature graves.

And then to hear Mr. Rawlings gush pontifical about the Mr. Price shop managers unleashing "such dehumanizing treatment" at our people which is so "backward and primitive" as to "defeat our efforts at restoring the moral fibre of our sociaety." P-L-E-A-S-E!!!

______________________________________________________________

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Department of English

Nassau Community College of SUNY

Garden City, New York

Feb. 28, 2014

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

###