Flying on worn-out tyres

By Kofi Akordor
Alhaji Asuma Banda might have touched raw nerves when he suggested a few months ago that the government should ban the importation of second-hand vehicles as a way of minimising the carnage on the roads.
From where he is coming from — a business magnate who is well-resourced to acquire any model of vehicle he wishes — it is easy for him to come to the conclusion that banning second-hand vehicles from the roads will provide an answer to the accident menace.
There is no doubt that old vehicles contribute to road accidents. Anything old cannot perform at optimum level. Therefore, it should be expected that a very old vehicle will experience frequent breakdowns and sometimes accidents. But, in our circumstances, it has been established that, in majority of cases, accidents are the result of human failure.
These include speeding, wrong overtaking, disregard of other road users and driving under the influence of alcohol and illegal drugs. Driving has been taken for granted and so there are many people behind the steering wheel who have not gone through any proper training but still managed to possess valid driving licences because of our corrupt nature. All these contribute 80 per cent or more to accident cases.
This means that no matter how new a vehicle is, unless we remove or reduce the above factors, the situation will not see any significant improvement.
But the greatest challenge to Alhaji Banda’s prescription is that majority of vehicles in the country are second-hand.
In the past, it was easy for any senior officer in the public service to acquire a brand new vehicle. Today, things are different. Apart from a few people who, because of their status or job specification, are given brand new vehicles by their organisations, the rest of us must go to the junk market.
At the ministries, departments and agencies, only the chief directors and a few privileged directors have access to brand new vehicles. Other officers have to fight for themselves with their meagre salaries. That was how the second-hand car business became a lucrative one.
Most of the banks have put up packages, in collaboration with the auto companies, to help workers purchase their own vehicles, but salary levels are so low that majority of workers cannot access big loans to go in for brand new vehicles.
So, as Alhaji Banda and others who share in his opinion will realise, it is not the wish of any person to purchase a used or second-hand vehicle. It is the economic status of majority of Ghanaians, including top grade professionals such as medical officers, lecturers, architects, engineers and pharmacists, that forces them onto the second-hand market.
Things are not so easy even on the second-hand market. A fairly good vehicle which is less than 10 years old, depending on the model and year of manufacture, ranges between GH¢12,000 and GH¢25,000.
The high cost of second-hand vehicles has been attributed to the excessive tax regime being applied by the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). So a vehicle that may cost, say, US$2,000 (equivalent to GH¢3,000) may end up costing more than GH¢10,000 at the point of purchase.
Any attempt to ban the importation of used vehicles will mean that the vast majority of Ghanaians will be without their personal vehicles for private, commercial or industrial use. With the present very poor public transportation system, the situation could well be imagined.
What is even more humiliating to our dignity and dangerous to driving is the fact that about 75 per cent of tyres used by vehicles in Ghana are second-hand. This was the conclusion of a research conducted by the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC).
According to the figures, in 2005, 2006 and 2007, about 6.6 million tyres were imported into the country, out of which about 5.1 million were used ones. That translates into the fact that three in every four tyres sold in Ghana are second-hand. It means the country is virtually driving on tyres used or rejected in other countries.
The same research showed that some imported tyres were not roadworthy, as their service lives had already expired. Other tyres, labelled snow tyres, have found their way into a tropical environment like ours. It is, therefore, not surprising that the research came to the conclusion that a third of accidents could be attributed to second-hand tyres.
The Ghana Standards Board, according to its Head of Marketing and Public Relations, Mr Kofi Amponsah-Bediako, said there were no immediate plans to ban second-hand tyres until there was a review of government’s trade policy on the importation of second-hand tyres.
In February, the Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, called for a national debate on the importation of second-hand spare parts and tyres. The question is, where will the debate lead us? Second-hand goods are not a choice. No one wants anything second-hand. Even in marriage, every person would want to go in for somebody fresh.
We have been forced by our miserable circumstances to go second-hand in everything — from pants, towels, handkerchiefs, cutlery, plates, glasses, saucepans to electronic goods that have been declared waste in other countries.
Sometimes one may see a truck loaded with junk which under normal circumstances should head for the dumping site. In all probability, that truck may he heading for Abossey Okai from the Tema Port.
In the absence of a manufacturing industry, the second-hand goods business has become a major income-generation and job-creation avenue in the country. So any government will have to calculate the economic and social consequences before coming up with a policy to ban some of the used goods that have choked our markets.
Our poverty level is also a clear indication that no matter how hard we try, for a very long time to come we will have to endure the indignity of consuming what others have used and thrown away.
Maybe our oil and gas will change things later. But since we are not likely to end the importation of second-hand vehicles and worn-out tyres so soon, we just have to advise ourselves, especially the commercial drivers who get excited on the wheels, to go slow on the road.

fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com