When the dead come passing fast

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By Kofi Akordor
In the past, the sound of the loud sirens signaled the approach of the Head of State or the President of the Republic. In those days just as it is still today, the motorcade will zoom past at a top speed as if the President and his aides were being chased by Death. It is an occasion for the dispatch riders to put their skills on full display.
The difference is that today, things have changed considerably. The wailing of the sirens may mean many things. The monopoly the President enjoyed as the only person to be escorted under police sirens has faded into history.
About a month ago on a Saturday morning, I heard the usual noisy siren of an approaching police dispatch rider. The President was out of the country so I concluded that the Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, who steps in effectively was on his way to an official function. I do not to whether to say I was surprised or disappointed.. But when the motor rider came into view, he was escorting a corpse in a motor hearse, being driven whether to the cemetery, the mortuary or any other place I could not tell. Why a corpse should be driven with such fanfare to the disadvantage of the living is unimaginable!
There is now a lucrative business in corpse transportation. A lot of old and abandoned ambulances have been brought into the country which carry the wrong impression that there are plenty ambulances in the system. The truth is they are motor hearses in disguise. Their main business is to transport bodies to the mortuary and then to the deceased’s hometown for final funeral rites.
It would have been nobody’s business to worry about special vans carrying corpses around town but for the presidential motorcade manner this is down. With horns blurring, headlights switched on and video camera men perched perilously on vehicles taking live shots of the cortege.
The irony is that while a sick person may lose his life because there was no ambulance to convey him to a medical facility at the critical hour when he needed it, in death, there will be a procession while his lifeless body lies in a decorated ambulance.
Taxi drivers who have a lot of tricks up their sleeves also have their own way of disturbing the peace and create their own path in heavy traffic. All they do is to get someone feigning sickness then the blurring begins. I am yet to see the police stopping any such taxi driver and finding out who was actually sick and needed urgent medical attention.
The police administration has always issued threatening statements warning the public against the misuse of sirens. Unfortunately, these have become empty threats further compounding the heavy volume of indiscipline eating deep into our national life. And the last thing we expect was to see a police dispatch rider escorting a corpse to whichever destination.
Ever since private security companies started operating in the country, some of them have moved from guarding residential and business facilities to conveying large sums of money in their bullion vans on behalf of clients. Motorists, however, do not know which vans are empty or fully laden with cash at a particular time. One thing is, however, certain. Out of the blue, these vans will surface at full speed, headlights on and giving other motorists no option but to scamper for space on the shoulders of on already choked and narrow roads.
The phenomenon gained some notoriety during the approach and early days of the redenomination exercise when the Bank of Ghana and the commercial banks had to move large sums of money to their various branches. Money, we all concede, is the blood of every economy. But the way, money, like corpses have attained so much importance that we are ready to kill or endanger the lives of human beings in reverence to them beats our imagination. No wonder, the dead and money have become dominant objects which cherish so much in our national life. People are ready to spend any amount of money lavishly on the dead while many also prepared to do anything from drug trafficking to murder to get money.
Any way we still have people who want to live up to their responsibilities as good citizens. The story that some car washing bay attendants on Saturday, July 21, 2007 tipped off the police about a car with blood stains needs commendation. Combating crime is a social responsibility which should be embraced by all. It is, therefore, important we all, especially those whose work could easily bring them into contact with criminals link up with the police whenever something does not look normal.
The police will also do well to keep their sources confidential and act swiftly on information relayed to them. A healthy and cordial relationship between the police and members of the public is a potent avenue to fight the menace of crime in the country.