ENHANCING GHANA-US TIES

13/03/08
ONE of the drivers of regional integration is the free movement of people and goods across national borders.
However, unfortunately for us in the West African sub-region, it is always a nightmare to travel across borders, even now, 33 years after the formation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Although the benefits of a globalised economy, which has reduced the world to a small village, are enormous, most Third World countries find it difficult to come to terms with the present reality.
Meanwhile, business opportunities abound in the West African sub-region which has a population of more than 250 million. What is needed is for the 16-member economic union to pool resources and work in concert to reap the immense human and material potential in the region.
In the opinion of the DAILY GRAPHIC, years after the formation of ECOWAS, one would have expected that the movement of people and goods in the sub-region should no longer be a burden.
Needless to say, the reality is that apart from the hassle that one goes through at the borders at the hands of Customs and Immigration officials, there are also a countless number of checkpoints, manned by Customs and Immigration officials and policemen, all under the guise of maximising revenue and safeguarding the security of the state.
In the face of all this, our leaders never miss an opportunity to drum home the essence of regional integration and economic union.
Here in Ghana, a trip to our border posts will reveal our lack of appreciation of global trends, even in the face of security threats posed by terrorism.
Travellers and traders are subjected to unnecessary checks and delays, thereby creating the conducive and fertile ground for some unscrupulous officials to extort money from them.
But there seems to be a respite in the offing, with the decision of the Ghana Police Service to prune down the checkpoints on all the major roads of the country to allow for the free flow of persons and goods.
For us at the DAILY GRAPHIC, this piece of news is refreshing, since travel time and the period for doing business will reduce considerably to ensure increased productivity.
However, we are a bit hesitant in rejoicing over the news because this is not the first time we are hearing about the intention of the police to remove checkpoints from our main roads. In the past, similar assurances had been given but they all turned out to be a nine days’ wonder, for the checkpoints came back in greater numbers than before.
The DAILY GRAPHIC prays that this time the police will stick to their word and implement the directives to the letter, so that the rationale for the exercise, “to satisfy the demands of the motor traffic laws of the country and reduce the number of barriers within the country to the barest minimum to facilitate free flow of goods and persons”, will be met.
While encouraging the Police Service to carry out its intentions, we would like to caution it not to shirk its responsibility of maintaining law and order in the country, since the removal of the road barriers could provide a field day for armed robbers to harass road users.
Meanwhile, to make the exercise achieve its objectives, we urge the Ghana Police Service to dialogue with its counterparts in the sub-region to carry out similar exercises in the other countries.
For, without the police elsewhere doing the same, what we do here could be likened to a drop of water in the ocean — nothing much could come out of it.