Who cares? Lawmakers and implementers saying??

In a letter I sighted and publications I have read, Special TV License Court has been set up to prosecute defaulters of the TV License ACT starting January 4th, 2018 across all ten regions of Ghana. Quite a laudable idea. After all, it will increase the flow of cash into government coffers. I know the very definition of government so I agree “you and me” will get money when people pay their TV license.

I know the law initially made in 1966 has been amended in 1991 and I am yet to see if the poor were exempted from being punished for using a TV set because he/she could not pay for the cost of the license. Most people in the elderly ages benefit from their wards who purchase the TV sets to furnish the room of their parents. The buyer could for the first time before buying the set get the license but the annual renewal will be the responsibility of the old man who may even struggle to eat. I know the inspectors will definitely get some of these older people especially in some deprived areas of the country jailed for not renewing their license.

We have hurriedly set up a court for defaulters of Tv license while people are running around in broad daylight without masks with huge sums of national revenue in between their legs. We value the Ghc 36.00 compared to the millions of our hard earned currency dissipated extravagantly by people we have put at the helm of affairs. I love my country.

Another interesting twist is that, since the user always ends up suffering, the authority does not even care if their measures to help you comply with the laws are working as expected. From last year when the authority advertised one can pay his/her Tv license via mobile money, I tried several times and was never successful. I hope the CJ reviewed the means they have availed for people to honour their part of the responsibility as the law requires? I leave in Baniantwe in the Brong Ahafo Region. A distant place that will take me not less than three and half hours to reach the regional capital. How easy the authority is making for me to pay the license is not necessary? If that was, why is the court available to prosecute only defaulters? How can they equally be held accountable if they don’t also do their part of the requirement? I have even forgotten. There are none of such responsibilities to the authority. Hmmmm.

I have always had a problem with the call for seat belts in rickety vehicles to make them road worthy. We are quick to implement the parts of our laws that target largely the poor than those parts that will affect the affluents in our society. What an animal farm practice?

Why are we comfortable in our offices seeking seat belts be fixed in a “trotro” from Kaneshie to Accra when the authorities responsible for road markings don’t care which road signs are off or need to be replaced or re-done? Very much interested in getting roadworthy vehicles that will ply on unworthy roads? I travelled on the Kumasi-Assin Fosu-Cape Coast-Takoradi road and you will get furious at implementers advocating for you to make your care roadworthy while they turn a blind eye to the very things that are killing road users. I don’t think we are serious as a nation (View is mine).

It is my desire that the lawmakers and the implementers of the laws they make as well as any other custodian of the law should be held accountable equally to get their bit done and done perfectly. We are tired of always targetting the “have-some” leaving the rich and affluent in society.