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Opinions of Friday, 7 February 2020

Columnist: Rockson Adofo

Ghana does not need any more new laws to work but…

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Ghana has already more than needed laws in place to function well for the benefit of the citizenry. It is not the volume of laws churned out from the House of Parliament, from the various ministries, and from whomever that will make Ghana function to the appreciable level so expected by discerning people to make life worth living for majority of Ghanaians.

Tell me, which laws Ghana has not for our current situation? Has Ghana not already laws in place to deal with all, or almost all, the crimes continually rearing their ugly heads in Ghana to make life unbearable for many a Ghanaian? Are there not laws in place to deal with bribery, corruption, extortion, murder, falsification of documents, embezzlement of funds and State assets and theft, only but to mention a few? Is it not these crimes and many more of which there are already laws in place to deal with that are causing the socio-economic stagnation, if not the retrogression, of Ghana? Are there not laws to address defamation of character, abuse of power by our elected government officials and other public sector officials, who are noted for greedily availing themselves of funds they are not entitled to?

Are there not laws in place to deal with our traditional leaders who abuse the laws of the nation and the conventions of their office as traditional leaders and tribes heads? There are! Why then is Ghana inundated with committal of crimes with impunity to the detriment of not only the county but the people therein?

What Ghana needs more than anything else to earn the respect of our contemporary prosperous Whites is the ENFORCEMENT OF THE ALREADY EXISTING LAWS! The laws are already there. All that is left is to enforce them. They must work!! How can the laws be enforced, one may ask?

Those appointed to ensure that the laws work must be seen to do that. How can they do it since they are themselves the very people breaching the laws for their selfish ends? The law enforcement must be a shared responsibility of all Ghanaians who are of sound mind. Those breaking the laws must be reported using the laid down procedures but where impediments are encountered, let us avail ourselves of the benefits of the modern day scientific developments as are the social media, electronic audio-visual gadgets and exposing rots in the society by leaking them to the foreign press where the local media are in bed with the perpetrators of such crimes hence may decide not to report or make any mention of their misdeeds in their papers.

We should be bold to take the perpetrators of the crimes on. Here, I will advise that Ghanaians must see crime as crime irrespective of who is committing them, how and when they are committed. Unless we cease hero-worshipping people because they are rich, because they are our traditional heads, because they are our tribesmen etc., Ghana will continually wobble in crimes and underdevelopment. If someone is doing something that is right, if a government is doing something that is right for the long-term benefit of the nation and the people, we should all rally behind them. We should not allow our parochial interests to rob us of the long term collective interests of the people and the nation.

The new Inspector General of Police, Mr Bonuah, must be applauded for laying in place structures for reporting police corruption. We need to use the structures to rid the police of their dented corrupt image. Should the police enforce the laws for which they are employed and paid for, there will be less road accidents, fewer committal of crimes etc., in the country to help the nation prosper. Let us report corrupt police officers and any corrupt officials who abuse the trust entrusted in them for the good of the people.

If, for example, a rogue traditional overlord abuses his authority on intent to steal from some people or reap gluttonously from where he has never sown, and is taken on by an audacious person, please support the person taking on the criminal chief. Don't go to the side of the chief because he is a chief and must at all cost be respected. NO!!. This unrefined attitude by Ghanaians is the cause of the many crimes going on in the country as are masterminded and orchestrated by our elected government officials, appointed public service heads and our tradition leaders.

Do I have to write as though I am writing a doctoral (PhD) thesis or dissertation before Ghanaians will understand the point I am trying my hardest to put across? Those people who rally behind criminals to obstruct genuine means taken to deal with them to wean them off criminal conducts must be ashamed of themselves. They are equally guilty as the criminals themselves.

If a traditional overlord is trespassing the boundaries of his authority to steal from other people, to suppress other people to set a bad precedent for future chiefs to use to suppress certain people of whom he has no authority over, I call on Ghanaians to support whoever takes on the rogue chief but not to condemn who is taking him on. If a president or a government takes action against abusers of the law, please don't condemn the government accusing it of tribalism, nepotism, practice of selective justice, and all sorts of nonsense to discourage the government from doing the right thing in the interest of the general public. We have to be farsighted rather than myopic in our thinking.

If the laws of the western greener pastures we flock to fleece had not worked as they should, would such countries become so attractive and a strong magnetic pull to whisk us away from our shithole African countries to their lands to even be happier to do the menial jobs for them to earn us a decent living?

Oh Ghanaians, it is long overdue that we should have learnt sense to develop.

We don't need any more formulation of laws to prosper than the enforcement of the already existing laws!!!