Features
When laws do not work …is there justification for abnegation of responsibility? (Final part)
Section 5 of the Bye-laws bans the playing of any recorded music for the purpose of advertising as it constitutes a public nuisance. Under section 6, no operator of a night club, restaurant or drinking bar or entertainment spot is allowed to play music in such a way as to cause public nuisance to the residents. The section emphasises that any music played in such a place must only be heard within the confines of the place.
Section 7 requires that music must be played “at reasonable pitch up to midnight,” during a wake or party. By operation of section 8 music played during church services must not be so loud as to cause nuisance to the public and residents. Written permission is to be obtained from the Assembly whenever music is to be played before 6am and after 12 p.m. during a religious service. Music played through public address systems in religious institutions or in entertainment halls must be confined to such places.
Ultimately, religious, commercial, educational, industrial or entertainment facilities sited in residential areas should limit their noise levels to conform to the prescriptions of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Users of generators are even expected to reduce the noise level so as not to cause nuisance to the neighbours. Contravention of any of the Bye- laws shall on summary conviction draw fines of not less than 50 penalty units or terms of imprisonment of four months or more. Both punishments could also be imposed.
THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
The Environmental Protection Agency is mandated by Act 490 of 1994 to carry out informative, enforcement and regulatory functions. The agency is to collaborate with Local Assemblies, other state and non- state actors to embark on systematic programmes of formal and non- formal education in order to create awareness of the importance of the field to economic and social life.
To ensure that the levels, intensity and quality of noise in the environment are controlled, the Agency serves notice and warnings on persons or organisations in breach of relevant laws and regulations. Ignoring the notices and warnings could result in arrests and prosecutions. The sector minister may even authorise the use of force to exact compliance.
The Agency has further leverage on noise disturbance through the issuing of permits for the siting within residential areas of facilities like factories, businesses, schools, houses of worship, drinking bars, night clubs and entertainment venues in such manner that residents will not be disturbed or inconvenienced by their activities.
Of particular importance is meeting the requirements of the Environmental Permit Assessment Regulations, 1999 (L I 1652). Environmental Assessment reports must be obtained before Environmental Permits are issued. The conditions are stringent and permits are renewable yearly, subject to due observance of the conditions in the course of the preceding year.
On the ground, the processes are often not followed through with the result that our residential areas have become cauldrons of noise making. Presumably the Agency is hampered by the human and logistical constraints it has always complained about. It has become normal for set- ups which do not have the requisite permits from the Environmental Protection Agency to continue to operate in the communities.
This is one institution with sound appreciation of the effects of unbridled noise making on life and recently it had to warn Ghanaians about the negative effect of excessive noise making on student performance. The due performance of its role would greatly enhance the prospects of quietude in our communities.
MEASUREMENT OF NOISE
It appears that the greatest hindrance to the handling of noise- related cases by both the Police and the Environmental Health and Sanitation Departments of the Assemblies is the introduction of Guidelines for Measuring the Ambient Noise Levels by the Environmental Protection Agency. The impression is that every noise- related complaint requires measurement and since the Agency itself does not have adequate stock of the measuring devices for its field offices, there can be no prosecution of persons who commit noise- related offences.
The reality is that some noise related offences like lack of Environmental Permits where required, absence of operational permits issued by Assemblies before commencing business or not having the written permission of an Assembly before embarking on a public activity which involves noise making between 8pm and 6am, do not require the measurement of noise. So would arresting without warrant any person engaging in noise disturbance on premises so as to disturb neighbours. A real paralysis of enforcement would result if the law is to be construed this way.
If the Police and the Environmental Health and Sanitation Departments of the Assemblies believe noise measurement is absolutely necessary in particular circumstances, they should approach the Environmental Protection Agency which has the statutory duty to compile the Environmental Reports they require to facilitate successful prosecution.
The Agency is forthcoming even in civil cases like the epoch- making suit involving two Haatso-based churches. Here, the learned judge relied upon the report of the Environmental Protection Agency to make a finding that the noise level the two churches made “was excessive and violated the regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency.”
A take away from the decision in that case was the award of damages against the Assembly for recklessly violating the rights of the plaintiffs by granting permission to the churches to operate in a residential area without regard to the interests of the residents.
The Daily Graphic had hoped that “the judgement will not only serve as a reference point for such cases in future but also empower citizens to use the courts to address issues of noise- making.” Recourse to the courts is, however, not necessary when it is the duty of statutory institutions to provide such services at no further expense to the tax- payer.
We all know that at the root of our development problems is our reluctance to enforce laws and regulations which have been painstakingly crafted and enacted after much exertion and considerable financial expense. We tend to admire advanced societies when the only difference between us is our varying approaches to governance.
The tragedy of our underdevelopment remains the abhorrent attitude of public officials who totally abnegate their responsibilities and their administrative and political supervisors who also fail to ensure such officials are punished for non-performance.
Now that some degree of attention is being paid to its Siamese twin, sanitation, it is the expectation that our political and administrative authorities would offer determined leadership to seriously address a phenomenon which is imperceptibly contributing to conditions like cardio- thoracic diseases, diabetes, aborted foetuses, neurosis and hearing loss.
The author is the former Director General
of Ghana Prisons Service
By William K. Asiedu
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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