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The thief-catching committees…
There are different breeds including those labelled as ‘cautious thieves’. They are not the bold type and, therefore, steal when no one is looking. However, such thieves are not lucky because they do not have the qualities of the spider. When you think no one is looking, someone might be looking from an angle acute to your left ear.
Some thieves realise the fact that they do not have eight eyes and, therefore, adopt the bold strategy approach. Such a type would walk straight into your house and tell your wife that you’ve sent him to come and service the television and video-deck.
The deck and telly are all in excellent condition and your wife will express a bit of doubt about why you’ve sent a repairer but…
“You mean Mr Osei sent you?”
“Yes. He says the integrated circuit needs to be changed to improve picture quality. A taxi is waiting outside.”
The wife is bound to believe this because the man is bedecked in the working gear of a TV repairman and holds a tester in hand.
Moreover, he walks like a radio-mechanic, smiles like an electronic engineer and has a transistor-like nose. And he is talking knowledgeably about something called integrated circuit which is a scientific term not akin to the vocabulary of housewives.
“When will you bring it back?”
“Before six o’clock. Lest I forget, he says I should take GH¢6,000 from you for transportation and incidental expenses.
So the guy is smart enough to take away all your electronic equipment in addition to GH¢6,000 for beer and khebab.”
Another brand of thieves comprise those who use force. They arm themselves with rifles, semi-automatic weapons, machets, kitchen knives and grenades. They are called armed robbers or jaguda (Nigeria parlance), and they normally operate gangs.
In some cases, there are certain requirements one must meet before he can be a member of a gang. For example you’re below a certain height you’ll not be eligible for admission because when it comes to making an escape you may be found wanting.
You must have the kind of muscles that can help in street-fighting and your face must be distinguished on the negative side, meaning that you must be looking hard and satanic-looking.
After you’ve been robbed, armed robbers can also kill you if they see a possibility of you identifying them later. Dead men don’t talk too much!
The day I really got angry with thieves was in 1985 when one of them professionally stole my Mum’s corn-dough. The old lady had soaked corn and had it grinded out of which she prepared dough in a large rubber container. That night the door to the kitchen was not locked and in the morning we discovered that our dream of having banku that day would not materialise.
Well, I guess the wife of the thief was overjoyed because for two weeks corn-dough would not be a problem to her. She’d only have to “claim’ some okro and tuna and if the husband had been able to steal some crabs, then it must have been a festival.
Stealing has become a profession, albeit an infamous one. It is counter-productive to the progress of society and that is why thieves are enemies of mankind. You can be a millionaire but a thief can make you a penninaire in five seconds. For this reason, the idea of watch-dog committees became laudable sometime back and even now. It was even fashionable for communities to inaugurate their watch dog committees and swear to crush the balls of petty thieves and armed robbers.
But the question is whether some of these thief-catching committees are just existing in name or are really functioning?
I was just asking my younger brother, Edward Alomele, alias Alor, who is an Organising Secretary of a Watch- Dog Committee, what exactly they are doing to combat theft in the community. We are doing a lot,” he said
“But I’ve never seen you in action? I’ve never seen you attending meetings and organising strategies.
You’ve never attended patrols.”
Well, it is normal for everybody to defend the group he or she belongs to, and so I was not surprise that Original Alor, sorry Duplicate Alor, was trying to defend organisation.
“We are always alert and we normally do not advertise ourselves. All our members are always on the lookout for suspicious characters and you’ll be surprise that any thief who ventures would be caught,” he said
I wasn’t quite convinced, though. However, Alor is confident that the committee is alive and kicking. Perhaps, some logistics would make them a bit more revolutionary, and more aggressive (General Quainoo, please accept my apologies for now).
That also brings to mind the police, Ghanaian policemen, in spite of their numerous short-comings have been commended of late. They are breaking up criminal syndicates, but I guess that they would be more effective in dealing with robberies when they work hand-in-hand with watchdog committees.
I’ll recommend that all watchdog committees be re-inaugurated and revitalised and taught how to work better with the police. They must also be given incentives without which commitment to work will run down to zero. The committee members must also receive some sort of training to make them more disciplined and purposeful.
I guess it wasn’t only my mother’s corn-dough that has ended up in a thief-man’s cooking pot. Others too have suffered the loss of more valuable items like TV sets, car tyres, windscreen, cash, sound system and chamber-pots.
My former classmate, Kwame Korkorti, does not like thieves at all. He started hating them since 1961 when some palm-nut soup laden with goat meat his mother had prepared disappeared rather mysteriously from the coalpot. A thief quietly relieved the coalpot of its burden and made Korkorti’s stomach tumble and groan.
The article was first published of Saturday, October 16, 1993
On Sunday, October 11, 2026, it was the turn of Ghanaian Catholics in Finland to lead the singing in the church service of the African Catholic Chaplaincy in Finland (ACCF).
It was indeed a spirit-filled feeling for worshippers present. And for the Ghanaian migrants, the occasion also brought back to them memories of church services in their home country, Ghana.
The ACCF has a roster for each country/community to sing from time to time. Next Sunday will be the turn of the Nigerian community. Other communities that usually sing are the Kenyan/Tanzanian community, the Cameroonian, the Ugandan, group, etc.
A powerful religious experience
The mass services of the Chaplaincy usually give a powerful religious experience and a display of cultural diversity, especially in occasions such as when the Bishop of Helsinki, Bishop Raimo Goyarrola, celebrated mass with the Chaplaincy on Pentecost Day, May 24, 2026.
There was a similar time of spiritual joy last month (September 27, 2026) when Emeritus Bishop Teemu Sippo, former Bishop of Helsinki, visited the Chaplaincy. Bishop Teemu was the main celebrant, assisted by the Chaplain, Reverend Father Thomas Otieno.
Last Sunday, Reverend Father Bernard Sor, a Ghanaian Catholic priest based in Austria, was the main celebrant in the mass service where he performed a rite of baptism. Fr Bernard had celebrated mass a few months ago when he visited his sister and her husband in Helsinki. 
All these well-attended religious occasions indeed leave lasting memories. The homilies (peaching) by the priests usually emphasize religious tenets such as the importance of loving and serving God in truth, existing in peace with our fellow humans to promote unity in diversity, etc.
Unity in diversity and a colourful display of cultures
The African Chaplaincy church services usually produce impressive displays of diverse cultures from different parts of Africa and elsewhere. The events are often spiced by rich cultural displays of dances and colourful attires which are a delight to watch.
On special occasions, members of the Ghanaian Catholic community, in their gay and colourful kente attire and with adowa dance and music, usually lead the procession into the church. Other communities such as the Cameroonian, Nigerian, Kenyan and Tanzanian as well as Sudanese/South Sudanese groups also put up well-choreographed performances from their cultures.
The African Catholic Chaplaincy in Finland
The African Chaplaincy was founded on June 4, 2017, which was a Pentecost Sunday, in a Pontifical High Mass celebrated by Monsignor Emeritus Sippo S.C.I., the then Bishop of Helsinki, at the St. Mary’s Catholic Parish Church in Helsinki.
The Chaplaincy was created by Bishop Teemu in collaboration with the Diocesan body when they detected a great flocking of African immigrants to Finland, the majority of whom were Catholics. This was to give the immigrants a possibility to integrate into the Finnish society by worshiping as Catholics and in their African cultural identity.
The responsibility of the Chaplaincy was given by Bishop Teemu to Father Dr Leonard Wobilla Shwei, who is thus the first Chaplain and ably led the Chaplaincy. He was succeeded a few years ago by Father Thomas Otieno, who continues to move the Chaplaincy forward. Thank you!
GHANA MATTERS column appears fortnightly. Written in simple, layman’s terms, it concentrates on matters about Ghana and beyond. It focuses on everyday life issues relating to the social, cultural, economic, religious, political, health, sports, youth, gender, etc. It strives to remind us all that Ghana comes first. The column also takes a candid look at the meanings and repercussions of our actions, especially those things we take for granted or even ignore. There are key Ghanaian values we should uphold rather than disregard with impunity. We should not overlook the obvious. We need to search for the hidden or deeply embedded values and try to project them.
With Dr Perpetual Crentsil
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She did not find out he was cheating. She found out he was drowning.
It was two weeks after their beautiful wedding. The jollof was still in the fridge. A loan officer called her number-not his-and politely asked, “Madam, please tell your husband to pay his overdue loan. We have been calling him.”
That was how she discovered her new husband had entered their marriage with a hidden debt of over GH¢ 40,000. No cheating. No other woman. Just a financial secret.
And that is how many Ghanaian marriages begin to die. Not with a shout, but with a secret alert on a phone.
We prepare for the wedding. We do not prepare for the wallet.
What is money honesty?
Let me define it simply. Money honesty is not that you both earn the same. It is that you both know the same. It is the ability to sit down and say without fear:
“This is how much I earn.”
“This is how much I owe.”
“This is how I was raised to see money.”
“This is what scares me about money.”
Financial transparency is not about control. It is about clarity. You cannot build trust on top of secrets.
Many couples tell me, “Counsellor, we love each other, love will handle money.” I always answer, “Love is the car, but money honesty is the fuel. Love without honesty cannot move.”
How To Buy Your Marriage Insurance Today – My 5-Step Protocol
If you are engaged, newly married, or even 20 years in marriage, you can still fix this. At Counsellor Prince & Associates Consult—CPAC, this is what I give couples:
Step 1: The 90-Minute Money Naked Session.
No phones, no blame. Each partner writes down on paper: Monthly income, monthly debts, monthly family obligations, savings, and your biggest money fear. Then you exchange papers. Read it. Don’t react for 24 hours. Just absorb.
Step 2: Create OUR Money, YOUR Money, My Money.
You need three pots. OUR money for rent, food, school fees, utilities, properties, and the like— joint contribution. YOUR money and MY money—a small agreed allowance no one questions. This stops the feeling of being controlled.
Step 3: The No-Secret Debt Rule.
Agree from today: No new loan, no new hire purchase, no new family financial commitment above GHS 500 without telling each other first. Not permission, but information.
Step 4: Talk About Your Money Personality.
Are you a Spender or a Saver? Are you Risky or Safe? Most Ghanaian marriages are a Spender married to a Saver. Neither is wrong. But if you don’t understand your partner’s personality, you will call his saving “stinginess” and her spending “wastefulness.”
Step 5: Do a Monthly 30-Minute Money Date
Not an argument date. Light, with tea. “How did we do this month? What worried you? What should we plan for next month?” Couples who do this divorce far less.
My Final Word
Before you say “I Do” at the altar, have pre-marital counselling and also have the money talk on the sofa.
Ask your partner:
“If I lost my job today, how long can we survive?”
“What debt are you bringing into this marriage?”
“How much do you send to your family monthly and will that continue?”
If he or she gets angry that you asked, don’t get married yet. A person who is angry about accountability will be abusive about money.
Marriage insurance is not bought at Star Assurance or Enterprise. It is bought in honest conversations when no one is watching.
The wedding costs one day. The marriage costs a lifetime. Don’t enter a lifetime contract and covenant with hidden costs.
You can still insure your marriage today.
Source:
Counselor Prince Offei, CPAC’s founder, is a leading Mental Health Professional, Marriage Counsellor, Author, ADR Expert/Arbitrator, and Spectator Newspaper Columnist. He writes on relationships, marriage, parenting, special needs support, and their connection to mental health. For therapy, counselling, or enquiries, contact Counselor Prince & Associates Consult (CPAC) in Accra on 0559850604 / 0551428486.
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