Ghana Police is Helpless

I have stated, though not on this blog, that I dislike the use of motorcycles as a public transport. My reasons for the opposition are very personal and hopefully by extension general. This morning, I saw someone fell off a motorbike on the High Street in Accra. He did not get any injuries, but at the point of the action, I felt my heart jump out. So, that may be my first reason: I deem motorcycle (especially with 2 or more people) as a perilous adventure.

Ghana's curent road and traffic regulations are against the use of motorcycles as taxis. And it should remain so. For a long time, no one ever introduced this danger as a means of public commercial transport. I never read or heard any Ghanaian call for it. Somehow, I'm sure we knew it would only add to the hundreds of deaths on our roads. But now, they are here.

Just an interlude, when I travelled to Ibadan, Nigeria, I went by road. The 9-hour journey took me through Benin. On my return, I made a stop in Benin. My plan was to window shop, then may be buy a thing or two. But my shock came when I attempted to cross the road from one end to the other. Motorcycles like a swam of bees. I hated it. The motorcycles controlled the road and I hated it. The dangers of okada in Nigeria are well documented.

Back in Ghana, we do not have special roads for motorcycles. The police has no effective means of checking motorcycle users' behaviour--hell, even cars and buses they struggle to control or enforce law and order. This will not change anytime soon. Another problem is that motorcycles now want to share the pavements with commuters. They shove you off onto the road, and they think they are right.

I cannot stand for this and I think any sane person should not make the traffic congestion argument here. If there is congestion in the city, if people find it hard getting a bus ride home after work, we should find an efficient way to solve the problem. It is why we have city authorities. It is why we have the ministries of local government and roads and transport et al. We should get a solution. For so long, we have loved the mediocre. And yes, the motorcycle taxi thing is a mediocre solution from mediocre minds.
If anything at all, those riding these death machines want to make money. That is all. they want to make money without considering safety.

But here, the Ghana Police looks on helplessly. They know that these riders wait around at specific locations to pick up passengers. They call out to you as you wait for a bus. I have experienced it. I have 2 photos that I took at Tema Station. But the Ghana Police wants to play hopeless and helpless--failing to enforce the law. And that is our death as a country!