Who Governs Ghana’s Roads?

Ghanafuor, symbolism matters. In this age of AI, smartphones, and viral social media, images travel faster than statutes. What citizens repeatedly see on their feeds becomes, in their minds, the law itself. So when a vehicle without registration plates cruises freely through Accra or Kumasi, it is not merely committing a traffic offence. It is broadcasting a far more dangerous message: that rules are optional, authority is negotiable, and the Republic has exceptions.

This is why the demand on the DVLA is simple and non‑negotiable: except for vehicles in the presidential fleet when transporting the President of the Republic, no other vehicle — regardless of ownership, status, or traditional authority, including those belonging to the Asantehene — should be allowed on Ghana’s roads without valid registration plates. Full stop.

Let me be clear. This is not an attack on the Asantehene, who is widely respected as law‑abiding and peace‑loving. The real problem lies with the extremist tribal‑supremacist advisers who whisper into his ears and encourage him to flout a law that binds every Ghanaian. Their counsel is an abomination before the Leviathan that is our Republic — the sovereign authority that, lest we forget, holds the ultimate power over all who reside within its borders. Hmmm, 3y3 asem ooo.

Legally, Ghana is a unitary and indivisible Republic. Our Constitution recognises no “state within a state.” To carve out exceptions for traditional authority, political influence, or wealth is to corrode the very foundation of legal supremacy. If registration plates become optional for some, they become meaningless for all. And when laws lose meaning, democracy begins to fray.

The DVLA CEO must therefore put his foot down. Enforcement cannot be selective if it is to be credible. In an era where a single photograph can shape public perception more powerfully than a thousand legal briefs, the state must ensure that symbols align with substance. The simple sight of every vehicle bearing plates is a daily civic lesson: no one is above the law.

This is not about disrespecting tradition. Far from it. It is about protecting tradition by anchoring it firmly within the constitutional order that guarantees peace and stability for all Ghanaians — a nation where no tribe is superior or inferior, and where extended families are woven from multiple ethnicities, bound by blood, marriage, and peaceful coexistence.

Case closed. Wake up ooo, Ghanafuor. Yooooooo. A word to the wise…

Hmmm, Anansesemkrom Ghana paa nie. Tweaaaaa.