Battle Of Instructions: The Kaneshie Experience

Adherence to instructions is a key principle to success. The ability of an individual to heed to instructions is a cardinal rule to avert a situation or an unpleasant situation. The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has opened our eyes that it pays to heed to instructions. Assuredly, we can reduce the spread of the coronavirus in our country only by ensuring strict adherence to the laid-down precautionary measures and protocols. One of such protocols is the wearing of the nose mask. The wearing of the nose mask and its occurring challenges occupies the centre of this write-up. This write up is informed by personal observations made at Kaneshie. What happened at Kaneshie may be a subtle issue but may have greater implications.

As stated in the introductory section, the wearing of the nose mask is the one of the key protocols that has been laid down to prevent community or public spreading of the coronavirus. The wearing of the nose mask has become a battle of instructions between police assistant and some members of the general public especially at Kaneshie. I observed this on my journey from Cape Coast to Accra. Kaneshie is one of the business centres in Accra. As usual after the holiday on Monday, most people were busily engaged in their daily commercial activities. The battle of instructions which is the caption of this piece happened when I decided to use the Kaneshie foot bridge". As part of the measures to ensure adherence to the wearing of the nose mask, police assistants have been stationed at both ends of the foot bridge. Based on the observations made, I can say that their duty is to ensure that all individuals who may use the foot bridge wear a nose mask.

Commendably, as I stood there for about thirty minutes, most people who used the foot bridge were wearing their nose mask and I can peg this at 85%. Many people had their nose mask but few people were making the work of the police assistants a herculean task. Some of these people were without their nose mask. And it took the intervention of the police assistants for them to purchase their nose mask from people who have also taken advantage of the situation to make some money out of it. The most irritating aspect had to with people who had come to town with their nose mask. Some of them had kept their nose mask in their pockets, wallets, bags and other places with reasons best known to them. For most of these people, they could only put the nose mask on when they were denied access to use the foot bridge. Shockingly, some offered excuses that I felt were not much solid as compared to the spread of the coronavirus. I felt that these people could have been punished possibly some lashes to serve as deterrent.

As I stood some few distance from the police assistant and people using the foot bridge, I utter in a silence mood, why is it difficult for Ghanaians to heed to certain basic instructions. Well, I concluded that the experiences and our level of consciousness on issues differ in greater magnitude. Let's take note, the virus spreads in the public domain not in our homes. Once we find ourselves in the public domain, let's ensure adherence to the precautionary measures. As a matter of fact, each individual is a potential carrier of the virus.

# A citizen not a spectator#