Above the law: 4x4, social status, traffic offences

Within this context, I once smiled so broadly when the police started arresting several 4x4s/SUVs that had breached traffic regulations.

At one moment one song by K.K. Kabobo spontaneously sprung to my mind, and I busted out singing. 

wainaa-boo-boo-pa
nkan nkan nnɔtɔ naabredu
naabredu nidzin naa nyedɛ
Onyame ahu wo
asɛm nyi a mekae
Onyame ahu wo ooo
ɛbɛte ara na wa-start ɔle-rap
a-wɔn a wɔhyehyɛ sum ase 
dze bɔne no wɔnhwɛ na 
wɔnsesa ansana atemmuda no
aba ae 
-wei-

When I started using 4x4, the lure of breaching the traffic regulations the same way was always present and strong when I was caught up in traffic congestion.

However, KK Kabobo’s song was an effective deterrence.

In criminology, we know that the best form of compliance with the law is voluntary compliance.

Therefore, citizens should strive to do the right thing, whether there is a police officer or not.

I have deliberately omitted the role of “okada” riders, taxi drivers, and tricycle operators from this discussion for another day.

In my next piece, I aim to explore more thoroughly how the behaviours of these key players on the road interact in complex ways to create a picture that gives us insight into the intricate nature of the various (discriminatory) relationships between the post-colonial African state and its diverse constituents. 

A clue to my next piece is this: some private cars of all models have begun competing with “trotro” and taxi drivers on the edges of the road, sometimes outmanoeuvring them.

They are thus responding to the shifting dynamics on the road and how the relationship between the state and different segments is subject to negotiations and renegotiations. 

While the “okada” riders, “trotro” drivers, taxi drivers, and the often-domineering tipper truck drivers may be regarded as belonging to the same vulnerable realm, they simultaneously inhabit different places within that realm and interact with the state and among themselves in varied ways.

The African road/state is indeed even more intricate than Peter Ekeh’s thesis of the two publics suggests.

Again, let me repeat for emphasis. Let us endeavour to do the right thing because it is right.

Otherwise, very soon, a police officer will arrest you(or me), and someone will sing loudly to [y]our hearing:  

wainaa-boo-boo-pa
nkan nkan nnɔtɔ naabredu
naabredu nidzin naa nyedɛ
Onyame ahu wo

The writer is with the Institute of Criminology, 
University of Cambridge. 
E-mail: Eas96@cam.ac.uk