When a Ghanaian driver does a 'Hit and Run'

Here's the situation I found myself in on the way back from Accra to Kumasi recently. It's pitch black outside. I'm in a 22 seater ramshackle van (nominally a Mercedes but in reality about 100 hundred machines have been tor n asunder and gelled together to make it semi road worthy). A truck is in our way. The stretch of road is quite good, but as always when night has descended, one can never tell what may appear out of the blue. Fog has descended in patches. But our driver nevertheless decides to give it a go, overtaking the truck, and getting home 1 minute earlier than if he waited for a safer opportunity. He moves into the oncoming hard shoulder to manouevre outside the truck. Then, all of a sudden a loud BANG. All the passengers scream.

I'm near the front of the vehicle and think I saw what appeared to be a bicycle light before the light disappeared alongside the left-wing mirror. The driver passes out the truck, and to my surprise keeps driving, not seeming to give a damn that he probably just hit somebody.

I shout at him, 'Stop driving, you just hit a cyclist.' The woman in the front seat ahead of me turns her head and agrees. But he just keeps driving. Nobody says anything. So I shout again 'Pull over, you may have killed an old man for all we know'. Silence. He slows down from 80kms per hour to about 40 kms p/h and moves into the hard shoulder to allow the truck he had just passed out to overtake us. About 3 of the passengers say something within 10 seconds, at last breaking their silence. But immediately after they talk, the driver, obviously reassured by his fellow passengers, moves back onto the main road and speeds on. I turn to the young, well dressed woman beside me, and offer my phone for her to ring emergency services. She turns her head the opposite direction. So I send an sms to Dorota to ring emergency services (at this stage I am a bit reluctant to do it given the passive nature of my fellow passengers and the fact that the driver and his mate (helper) may feel threatened by such a call).

I've noticed that we just passed the village of Yawkwei, about 100kms from Kumasi. After repeated attempts to call the police or ambulance to no avail, I arrive in Kumasi. I have our vehicle registration number in addition to the place where the accident occurred and the registration number of the truck we passed out, just in case the driver of that vehicle has witnessed something also. I call over a police officer and tell him what I saw. He calls a colleague and within 2 minutes there are 2 police officers in uniform and 2 plainclothes officers questioning the driver, his mate the more senior policeman turns to me and says „Please forgive him”.

At this stage I know it's a useless effort on my behalf. These cops are probably using the opportunity to extort money from the driver not to bring the case further. I travel back home as its late. Consulting fellow Ghanaian workers the following day, I am advised to drop the situation, that my concern will come to nothing. But as someone who has probably witnessed an accident where a cyclist was hurt, that just ain't something to leave one's head over night. So I make a 2nd attempt at the cops. I go to the main police station and am directed to the control centre. At last I meet two cops who take the issue seriously and call the local police stations and hospital admissions to give them feedback if anybody reported an accident in the area. I have had no contact from the cops, so either the cyclist survived unscathed, or else they just dropped the enquiries and the driver of vehicle GS 4900 Z continues to drive dangerously on the Accra-Kumasi road.

And what about the passengers silence. Well, it appears that the 3 who broke their silence may have encouraged the driver to keep going just in case it was a trick to stop him by robbers. I had just read of thieves who shot out the tyres of a bus in the Upper East region of Ghana, subsequently robbing all on board. But this did not appear such an attempt. Unless a thieving cyclist was willing to get killed in the process, that is.

Silence. It's amazing what fear can do to the most normal human being. We're all capable of keeping our mouths shut when we see something that we deem plain wrong, myself included. Having over 20 people willing to keep their mouths shut was something that I hadn't expected witnessing though.

Ghana Immigration's extortion racket

Corruption is often declared a cancer in African States, one which bleeds the official State coffers of much needed funds and lines the pockets of a few nasty elites. That these few nasty elites behaviour then sanctions small fry officers to engage in such practices is something that affects the vast majority of people who have ever tried to get a service rendered in places like Nigeria or Ghana.

For example, I have just fallen to threats that I should buy my ticket and get out of the country as my visa will not be extended for another 2 months. This despite the fact that I have done everything by the book. My project manager received a phone call full of threats from a senior member of the immigration department in Kumasi shouting at him that I should get a flight and leave immediately. But any of us who have been in this game for a while knows what that means. Translated into plain language it could be versed as follows: You son of a bitch, who dare you go offical routes and deny me my bribe. So now I will resort to extortion and make you shit in your pants until you pay up."

Unfortunately the officer in question has met the wrong client. He didn't get a penny, I got my passport back, but I still only have until May 17th then I've gotta find a way to stay and finish my teaching, fundraising work for the students at Edwenase. That's what I came here for, and that is what I intend to do once I don't have to pay off some idiot in a dark green military uniform who bleeds Ghanaians and foreigners alike so he can feed his greed.

Life for those who have ever wanted something from an immigration office can be pretty frustrating at the best of times. In Europe and the US I've been lucky enough. The colour of my skin has prevented me from the harshest treatment. I've had my fair share of bad experiences with officials at borders or checkpoints though. Lots of hassle and violence from Israel border guards during non-violent conflict work in the West Bank, Palestine. More hassle entering and leaving the country. They wanted to know what Arabs I knew and why I was helping muslims! Deportation from the US in 2008 at Chicago airport by Homeland Security officers due to my legal (I was fully acquitted in 2006 by an Irish jury) assistance in disabling a US warplane at Shannon Airport, Ireland prior to the outbreak of the Iraq war. Witnessing heartless Irish immigration cops being bastards to foreign women and children at Dublin port. I'm sure you could add many more to this if you wanted.

Now when it comes to Ghana's immigration, well, Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe hits the nail on the head in his classic novel 'No Longer at Ease', charting the fall of one Nigerian State official to embody a new age of rampant corruption in Nigeria's State services. Ghana appears to be little different, although it would be hard to surpass Nigeria's brutal record of crookedness and bureaucratic multi-coloured tape. An envelope of cash brings an immediate response to an official and kickstarts them to work on your case. The absence of a 'dash' means you will wait, and wait, and fall into a lot of frustration as you are sent from this office to that office only to find that they won't give you what you are legally entitled to. They are a State mafia, extorting money from both professional ex-pats who come to work as either volunteers or business people to do work which, and here I quote one less corrupt junior immigration officer, „will do work for free that Ghanaians won't do even if you pay them”. That is a rough, generalised remark, that I have come to observe to be a half-truth.

To get my final 2 month extension I was expected to pay at least an 80 (50 Euro) cedi bribe, which I refused. Most other vounteers I know of are taken care of by their NGOs, whose representative must depart with a nominal sum depending on how many volunteers passports they want stamped. Due to the fact that I came here independently and am rendering professional services as an experienced teacher and social worker, they are trying to screw me similarly. Whether it is scholarships which have been gained due to academic brilliance, or deserved promotion due to hard graft, nothing will transpire in Ghana unless you pay some extra money to feed the greed of the lecturer, immigration official, administrator, etc.

Even when I lend an extra basin here at our centre from the kitchen staff, a basin which belongs to the centre, I am asked to bring them something in return. Handouts and back-scratching are the name of the game, but the true essence of mutual aid is one lap behind when it comes to some people's greed.

It's a frustrating process, one which drives most people to pay up and just get what they need and deserve. So when I go to Accra to try another avenue for my visa to be extended, I expect to asked for a 'dash' in a white envelope again. I already paid a futile 20 cedi sum to try and get a previous extension. It didn't work and I did it against my better judgement. In fact I did it as that is what my centre manager told me was the only option. We know know that they thought it was too little and even very big sums were rejected by them - so many volunteers have had to leave Ghana ansd re-enter through Togo to continue their projects.

If I am expected to give 'a little extra' yes, they can stick it up their holes. I'll leave the country and try and get back in by land rather than paying these corrupt wasters anything so they can sit on their arses and play all day with a hi-tech mobile phone purchased from the profits of their racketeering.

Is there any solution to this racket? I doubt it will change for a very long time, if it ever does.

Do you like immigration officers?

Cause I certainly don't.

I'm off to Togo next Wednesday. Not for tourism reasons but to try and get an extension of my visa. I've been here 6 months in Ghana but Immigration at Kumasi are no longer giving the three 2 month extensions which they used to. Something got to do with too many fraudulent applications coming in. They want to tighten ship. Funny thing is, off the record, one corrupt immigration official informed me that if only I had not gone down the official route from the outset I would be getting the additional extension without any fuss.

I won't mince my words here. I really hate the vast majority of immigration officers and their abuse of power. I have found them lazy, incompetent luddites, whether it is in Ireland, the U.S., England, France, Poland, Germany, Lebanon, Syria, Serbia, Israel, etc. They seem cloned with a multitude of asshole genes. But they hold sway when it comes to travellers and their desire to get from A to B and back. So I will be a nice boy when I go travelling next week. I will have all my documents in order so there are no reasons for them to ask for a 'dash' (present, bribe).

Such is life when you give humans a uniform and permit them to act like idiots with a baton and a gun close at hand. If you are a nice immigration officer and have stumbled across this while you are bored at your job then I'd like to meet you, cause you are as a rare a breed as the dodo!