I want to confess straight away that I have never liked corrupt and dishonest people. Unfortunately corruption and dishonesty are more of the rule than the exception in the present day Ghana. I have posed the question because when one travels throughout the Volta Region one finds so many police stops that I have come to the conclusion that there is something cynical about the presence of such numbers (8 permanent ones from the Adomi Bridge to Kadjebi and about the same number from Denu through Ho to Kpeve). These so called “check points” are more if one considers the impromptu ones by individual policemen/women who want quick money. I will state here without a shadow of doubt that the main purpose of these “checks points” is to rob drivers. Police will certainly deny that this is the case but the fact is that drivers and the travelling public view the police at these “check points” the same way I do. The police certainly must have something better to do than stop drivers and ask the drivers they have known for years their driving licenses day in day out as happens at one police check point between Hohoe and Santrokofi. If such a large presence of the police on the Volta Region roads is indeed for the purpose of fighting crime, then the question arises: “Are the people of the area so violent that one needs a police every 10km or so on the roads?” The unfortunate thing is that about 80% of the police one meets at these “check points” do not speak the EWE language.
Corruption generally has got economic, psychological and moral consequences for the individual and the nation as a whole. In the case of the Volta Region there is an additional consequence, POLITICAL. Because of its history, those of us who were old enough, even some of the younger generation are beginning to ask if it was worth their so called “union” with Ghana on when Ghana achieved its independence.
Before I tackle the economic, psychological and moral consequences of the “check points” I will narrate some typical police behavior/action I have been a witness to at the “check points”. A police man suddenly appeared on the road waiving for the driver to stop. This was at the time when the vehicle my cousin was driving was negotiating a curve. Since I was sitting in the front seat I told the driver not to stop in the curve since that would endanger other road users. When the policeman came to us the first charge was “refusing to stop”. When I explained to him that it was not safe for other road users if the vehicle had stopped in the curve, the policeman said he would “charge” me for “interfering with police work”. To round our “criminal acts”, the policeman saw that my driver was wearing “Charlie Woate” and “charged” him accordingly. We stood our ground and the case never left the curve. But then we had wasted over an hour arguing with this policeman, before he gave the license back to my driver.
In a recent incident, my vehicle had a problem on the road; so I called a very well known fitter to go and fix the problem. He in turn sent one of his apprentices to go and repair the vehicle. The apprentice came and told me he had been sent by his master to repair the vehicle and so wanted the key to the vehicle. I gave my vehicle key to him. After he had finished the job he came and told me that he had to send the vehicle to the workshop for the problem to be properly fixed. I naturally gave him the go ahead. It turned out that the apprentice did not have a driving license and was arrested at a “check point”. I went to the “check point” to find out what happened. There were two police inspectors on duty here. One of them asked me what happened and I told him what I knew. The other inspector on hearing that I had given my vehicle key to the offender, told me I was an accessory to the offence, This statement made me blow up and I gave the inspector my piece of mind and left. On my way to the town, people saw me and told me that they had seen a policeman seating on the passenger seat with someone other than my cousin driving. IT TURNED OUT THAT THE POLICEMAM WHO MADE THE ARREST ALLOWED THE UNLICENSED DRIVER TO DRIVE HIM 4KM FROM THE “CHECK POINT” THE POLICE STATION. I am sure readers will have stories of police behavior similar or worse than the ones I have narrated.
What are the economic consequences to the Volta Region of the myriads of these “check points”? 1. For every cedi the police take from the drivers, the drivers must find a way of making it up in form of either higher fares or higher charges on loads carried. The total effect for the region is reduced income that could have been used for something else.
2. What the police love to see most on the road is heavy duty vehicles carrying goods. The police demand from the drivers of such vehicles sums ranging from GHC3 to GHC10. If the driver refuses to pay, they are told to unload the vehicle because they suspect the driver of carrying contraband goods or something illegal. Since the Volta Region is one of the nine regions sharing boarders with neighbouring countries the drivers realize that the police have a right to search any suspicious vehicle. Drivers are inevitably forced to pay these corrupt police to avoid wasting hours even a whole day unloading and loading their vehicles. The effect of this is higher cost of goods. The goods owner eventually repays the vehicle owner/driver’s bribe to the police by charging higher prices for goods. The eventual high cost of goods affects ALL, including the corrupt police officer who took the bribe, not forgetting the time wasted.
3. Maybe the most negative effect of these “check points” is that they are a disincentive to investors who would want to invest in the region, especially those who would want to establish a factory. No investor in his/her right mind would set up a business where he/she is not sure when the raw materials would arrive at the factory or even if he/she would meet the delivery date for the goods produced.
4. At many of these “check points” police demand to see passports of people of lighter skin colour travelling with commercial vehicles. This is a disincentive for investment and creates an apartheid type view of the country as a whole. Drivers claim that the police have a saying that if a police man/woman does not “make it in the Volta Region then that police will never make it while in the police force”. The drivers also claim that the bribe the police take from drivers is shared among all the police bosses right up to the regional police command at Ho. Drivers also claim that the regional police headquarters give the district police a weekly quota of money they have to collect from drivers; if this is not reached the Ho regional police travel from Ho to Jasikan threatening drivers and collecting money on the way to fill up the shortfall.
To me the most damaging effect is the moral and psychological degradation it has on the policemen/women taking the bribes. These corrupt police officers lose all sense of shame and become unaware of right or wrong. They think of only one thing MONEY. It never occurs to them to ask themselves: “Am I doing the right thing?” “What effect does what I do and how I do my work have on other people or even myself?” The final effect, to me the most damaging, is the psychological effect of these bribes on the corrupt policeman/woman. The corrupt police may use the extra money they “steal” from to drivers to buy a car, look after his/her children at school to the highest level possible or even build a house. One day the policeman/woman would have to put down the police uniform. Once such a police officer has not been able to manage life on his/her police salary, but has to steal from other people to make ends meet, the officer will not be able to make it on his/her pension. I say this because the police do not save this extra money for fear of people knowing he/she is having more money than his/her police salary.
The child of the corrupt police will have to look for a job like anyone else. It is the ordinary people who create most of the jobs. Since their actions on the roads frighten away those who could create jobs, their children will also end up on the streets of Accra, selling dog chains or whatever.
My question to the IGP is ARE THE POLICE OUT TO UNDERDEVELOP THE VOLTA REGION?
Saanle Yao saanleyao@yahoo.com
