Law Enforcement: A Governmental Burden Or A Collective Citizen Responsibility

Whose responsibility really is it to keep the rules and laws of a nation intact? Is it the parliament’s responsibility, is it that of the judiciary or is it solely the responsibility of the police service and army? What then is the role of the common citizen like you and I, who the rules and laws were made for, in upholding legislations of the country?

The parliamentarians make the laws. That is their part. The judiciary is also present to make sure proper and appropriate punishments are meted out to deviants who go against what society has come to accept as wrong and inappropriate behavior. The Police service also acts as the enforcer. So what role then does the citizen who is the major beneficiary of the sweat of all the fore mentioned arms play in the process of rule of law in the country?

The very little we can do is to obey the laws as they protect us. A simple task – we obey, the rules protect us. Is this too difficult for us to sacrifice for ourselves?

I witnessed first-hand a situation that made me believe Ghanaians are the demons of Ghana. I was jolted out of my slumber in a public bus by a middle aged man who wanted to alight from the public transport. Apparently, the vehicle had not gotten to an appropriate point to allow passengers off it so the conductor (mate) declined the man’s request. The man protested, basing his argument on the fact that the bus was stuck in traffic and he could easily get out. For once in God knows how many years; the conductor stood his grounds, refusing to disobey the law. Luckily for the poor conductor who was receiving tons of insult on that sunny mid-morning, a police officer came around. The presence of the uniformed law officer should have quieted the passenger in normal circumstances but it did not. In fact, the passenger’s request to get off the bus heightened, as he argued that the police officer was a new recruit.

He spoke in the local Akan language to wit “look at him, he is a new recruit. It is written all over him. What can he do? Let me get off. After all he will take just One cedi”

That is the level of disrespect we show our law. We spit directly into the face of laws that are made to protect and keep us safe.

Having acknowledged that, I would like to pose a question. Is it the fault of we the common citizen that we utterly disregard our police officers and undermine our own laws. Besides, is it not our own old people who taught us that the puppy only laps at the lips of its owner if he plays with it? Our Police service has grown in diminishing importance from being fearful law keepers who the naughty school child runs from to being school children in black long-sleeved uniforms who see their honorable uniforms as mascot attires to scare drivers and take bribes. It is such a shame to the nation.

The sole reason, I believe, for the passenger's behavior was because he has lost faith in the police service and for that matter he deems the law us impotent as he deems the law enforcer. Think about how the police can lose such amount of faith that was placed in them some years back, and the result strikes at one unpleasant word; Bribery.

The bus I was seated in was quiet during the discourse between the conductor (mate) and the wayward passenger. No one bothered to speak and whether it was fear or uncertainty in choosing which faction to debate for that kept us all mute, only God knows.

So now I ask; is lawlessness a result of government inactions to check bribery in our law enforcement agencies or is it because we, Ghanaians now find delight in simply disregarding our laws?

How did our police service move from serving us with integrity to serving us with bribes taking?

Do the shortcomings of our Police service give us the nerve to disrespect our laws?

Law enforcement in my opinion is a collective responsibility and to be more exact, the citizen, who the laws protect, is more central and core to this than any other key player in the subject.