Coming Soon: "Underbelly:" or A Journey to Law Enforcement?

My maternal grandfather was an Inspector in the Ghana Police Service, but that's no reason why I want to go into law enforcement.

In fact, let me be frank: I DON'T want to become a police officer in any sense of the term, but I am increasingly interested in pursuing a career that would involve my passion of regional integration/peace and security/ and law enforcement.

This is no out-of-the-blue desire; it's been burning for as long as I can remember. If I had to write a Ph.D right now, it would be on criminology, or looking at the underbelly of society. I've always had a visceral desire to combat injustice--just not sure how I would do it.

A few days ago, my Facebook status read like this:

------------
"Just finished watching another rivetting and exciting episode of the hit Australian true crime drama ''Underbelly:The Golden Mile''[on Fox Africa]. This is what fighting police corruption should be abt: the police bringing undercover officers/wire-tapping/and no less than a Royal Commission which mandates everyone to appear to testify, or face imprisonment. This is WHAT political will can achieve. Kudos, Australia!!:-)"


Just by watching this series alone, I have developed a fairly basic research agenda, which I intend deepening:

• the role of EUROPOL in globalising European law enforcement
• law enforcement in (West) Africa, including the role of the West Africa Police Chiefs committee organisation (WAPCCO)
• The role of INTERPOL in globalising justice
• law enforcement & regional integration

My upcoming piece on "Underbelly" is not likely to be an exhaustive account of Ghanaian society's ills, but a more reflective account on how I might someday eventually end up in law enforcement, and how the integration of my passion of comparative global regional integration can help make my mind up.

These include why I think our Ghana Police Service should act more as a Ghana Police Force and do away with what I think is an outdated concept of the Inspector-General of Police(IGP) who is appointed; and how our Ghana Police Service should do away with the regionalised system and become a fully-fledged FBI-like police force.

How My Non-Political Tailor Made me Smile about Ghana

In our highly-politicised culture, I often forget to remind myself about the beauty of my country--we tend to let foreigners remind us instead--till I take a walk. Walking has always been cathartic--and this afternoon was no exception.

Deciding to walk to the tailor who fixes some of my clothes, I was surprised at what I would meet: him working his usual assiduous self in front of GTV (Ghana's national broadcaster), which was showing the incumbent President Professor John Evan Atta-Mills having bought his nomination forms to contest the general elections in 2012.

My tailor was aghast at what was going on -- that the wife of the founder of Ghana's ruling National Democratic Congress should decide to contest the incumbent President in next year's polls, and at a time when the incumbent President was clearly "doing well."

My tailor is 30years old, and describes himself as "a small boy", but who still knows that "the President is doing well." He confessed to me that though he comes from a region that is a quintessential and visceral supporter of the NDC party, his mother campaigned for the opposition (right-leaning) National Patriotic Party. He also confessed to liking Ghana's incumbent Vice-President John Mahama -- despite the fact that he is not the traditional NDC-supporter that everyone would expect him to be.

He added--much to my bemusement--that he may not vote for the current president, but he sees that he has been doing well, so what the wife of the founder is doing is "very wrong" and "disgraceful".

Apart from shattering any preconceptions that people from the Volta Region of Ghana wholely and fully support the NDC (something I never believed to be fully the case anyway), I was happy to hear this outrage from Wanda the tailor, who only went to reinforce the impression that Ghana may be over-politicised in much of what we do, but we certainly have discerning minds a lot of the time, too...

God bless Ghana. God bless Nkrumah! God bless Africa...

Is There Such a Thing as a "Ghanaian Distraction"?

I found myself the other day inquiring about driving lessons, and finally hitting an epiphany where it was disclosed that given that I had already passed the theory at the driving school I attended, all I had to do was go to the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority(DVLA) to do my written test one Wednesday. I've given myself one month to cram in all those road signs! In between that, though, I couldn't shake off the "driven to distraction" tag I've been banding around for the past couple of days.

Just seemed so apt.

Then I got my thinking cap on, and wondered whether in Ghana, there is any such thing as a quintessentially Ghanaian distraction?

The immediate ones come to mind:

1. the predominance of almost-the-most-widely-spoken-local language--Twi-speaking--over English-speaking radio by public transport drivers. I cannot for the life of me understand why they think everyone taking public transport can--or is willing to listen--to Twi after a hard day's work!!

2. the politicization and polarization of issues along political lines (usually it's the government vs the largest opposition party, or vice versa)

3. the lack of consistency of the Ghana Police in appearing on busy roads to divert traffic

I'd be happy to hear any distractions you may have!

Six Degrees of Separation: From Baako to Bensah

I have never met Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading GuideKweku Baako and don't think I might ever, especially now that he has seemingly abandoned his mother party the Convention People's Party. But there is an uncanny link between him and I: his father Kofi Baako was one-time Minister of Information in Nkrumah's government; my paternal grandfather E.K.Bensah was MP for Agona Swedru. I was surfing, as you do, when I came across an excerpt from a book in which my grandfather and Kweku Baako's father ostensibly freed some putative political prisoners.

Sometimes, am not quite sure what to do with a legacy like that. Politics is the last thing I want to do, but every couple of months, I gain greater insight into the period before the infamous CIA-sponsored coup, which took Nkrumah out of power and wonder about Ghana if Nkrumah had not been so violently cut off in his prime...

As the Week Draws to a Close in Accra:Back to Work, or Driven to a Happy Distraction

It's great to be Ghanaian,and it's certainly great tobe alive!

After being exposed once again to the plushness of the Central Region (Elmina Beach Resort) last December for an institutional retreat, I am fast realising this place is my home -- and I am loving it.

Contrasted sharply against many of my contemporaries, I have had it quite good. Exactly 26 years ago this month, my parents; my older brother, Samuel, and I would find ourselves in Brussels, Belgium to begin life as expatriates -- on the path of a priviledged life that would begin in an apartment in Woluwe Saint-Lambert -- and end in Belgian suburbia of Overijse-Maleizen, where tragedy would beget us with my maternal grandmother, and the untimely demise of my brother in 1991 after a 14-month coma.

When I was recruited in 2004 by my current employers from Belgium, it was nothing less of a God-send -- all expenses paid and obtaining confirmation for the position on no less than my 27th birthday! The turbulence I experienced following my helping of my former employers to move into the centre of Brussels was no mean feat! "Baptism of fire" comes to mind, big-style!

In all seriousness, I have been blessed--arriving in an election year in August 2004, and still alive to witness another one, which is replete with political activities: NPP has a flag-bearer under Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo; NDC has its ever-eternal Professor John Evans Atta-Mills; and interestingly, CPP elected theirs in December, with Dr.Paa Kwesi Nduom getting the nod to represent the party.

It is certainly going to be an interesting year.

Whilst I reflect over happenings of last year in both private and personal ways, as well as the positive developments going to take place, let me take this opportunity to wish all Ghanaians and fellow readers of this blog a STUPENDOUS New Year!

As you might see from the inset picture, depicting Stanbic Bank's sponsorship of some games associated with Ghana 2008, football is coming home!!!