On The Okadas Again

The legality or otherwise of the commercialization of motorcycle commuters is not new in the country, especially in Accra.

It started on a small scale with occasional police raids in a bid to stop the business. The efforts yielded no fruits. Not even a law outlawing the business could stop the riders from commercializing their occupation as law enforcement officers lost the steam to carry on with the charge.

Today it is a full-fledged business, a source of livelihood for many who, but for it, would have nothing to do as a breadwinning venture.

Now fully entrenched as a feature of the Accra skyline, we wonder just how the law barring it can be applied with effect.

Be it as it may, a superior police officer incharge of the Greater Accra unit of the Ghana Police Service Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD), Chief Superintendent Anderson Fosu-Ackaah, has rejuvenated the subject once more.

He has only reminded us about the law which for now remains latent. Although he has advised commercial motorcycle operators or okadas to be mindful about the law, we can bet he lacks the capacity to enforce it.

When his boss, DCOP Angwubutoge Awuni, tried it he eventually abandoned the project because the cooperation he needed to undertake such a Herculean task was lacking.

The Okada issue is a reminder about how some laws remain in the statute books with the power to enforce them out of the reach of the ordinary law enforcement officer.

Many interest groups make it impossible for such laws to be implemented – one of the many shortcomings affecting the attainment of good governance status in our part of the world.

Why should a piece of law be kept under wraps simply because it is in the interest of somebody or a group for it to be so?

We are recalling for the umpteenth time the irresponsible conduct of the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Afotey Agbo, when in the heat of the last political season he encouraged the okada operators to carry on with their business – a subtle way to get the votes of that constituency. This was in total breach of the law, the passage of which he was a part.

Unfortunately, we are in a part of the world where such moral infringements cannot deprive those who commit them their jobs and so the minister maintained his position without a bruise. We wonder whether he even received a verbal query from his superiors.

That is one of the many factors why progress remains elusive in the country's undertakings.

Perhaps the motor traffic chief has some ideas about how he intends to tackle the okada lawlessness which for now stands as a clear example of an open breach of the law under our noses – all of us.