THE THOUGHTS ROOM

Wednesday morning on my way to work, a tipper truck driver rammed the back my sister’s car and broke the tail lights. We were of course angry but calm in handling the situation. The driver, who was coming from the main Legon road, in his attempt not to give a “trotro” driver space to join the main road from the overpass, ended up smashing our car and also denting the side of the car I was riding in. IGP, Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan The first line of action was to call the police. Although we were close to the Legon Police Station, we couldn’t leave the accident scene because the police would have to come to the scene to collect information on how the accident happened and mark the area. I picked my phone to make the call. But not sure of what to do after the police short code 191 gave me a busy tone, I went on to search for a police contact number on google. The first link which popped up was the police website, www.police.gov.gh/contactus . I scrolled down but couldn’t fin...

Sometime last year I had to apply for a Ghanaian passport to enable me make a trip abroad. It amazed my work colleagues when I said I was going to the Passport Office at Ridge to place my application. They were amazed because they had expected me, as a journalist, to have had one by then. The truth is I had tried but given up my chase for a passport in 2011 after a “goro boy” (a passport contractor) at the then Foreign Affairs Ministry near the Tema Station in Accra demanded GH¢50 from me to have my passport processed within a month. This was in spite of my buying an “express” application form at GH¢100 which promised or rather guaranteed that I got my passport in three weeks. I refused his offer. A friend took his word for it and had his passport in three months. I kept the form nonetheless and later when I tried submitting it, I was told I had to buy another form because it had expired. I was less perturbed about getting another form at GH¢100 again since time was running...