Ghanaians must be commended for displaying a rare show of patriotism when some persons posted a video of a truck transporting railway tracks to an unknown destination.
Ordinarily, the truck could have just moved on with no eyebrows raised.
Coming on the heels of reports about incessant thefts of railway tracks and sleepers by unscrupulous persons, it was refreshing to witness the concerns by worried Ghanaians about the suspected anomaly.
Although the Ministry of Railways Development Chief Director, Desmond Boateng, explained later in reaction that the transportation of the railway tracks was authorised, he was nonetheless grateful to his compatriots for the concern.
While we implore our compatriots to continue to be on the lookout for stolen state properties, we expect that the leadership of agencies when they are alerted to such anomalies would act swiftly as the Railways Development Ministry did, and subsequently explained the subject so convincingly.
We are concerned about the challenges being encountered by the Railways Development Ministry – incessant thefts of railway tracks including the new standard gauge ones.
We had cause to editorialise about this unsavoury development when some thieves were caught in the act of cutting the tracks at a location near Konongo.
If we can somewhat tolerate the thefts of the non-operational narrow gauge tracks, not so the standard which define our migration to the modern railway system.
The thefts have gone on since the inception of the laudable project of railway resuscitation and development in the country after a long period of hibernation.
In one of our earlier commentaries, we demanded of community leaders including traditional authorities in places where railway development is ongoing to support the law enforcement agencies in stemming the tide of thievery of state property as represented by the railway tracks narrow and standard. We maintain this position and demand community involvement in the protection of not only railway tracks but state properties wherever they may be.
We are aware that some thieves were caught in the act but nothing has been heard about the outcome of the cases. The deterrence that we expect from such cases would not come when punishments meted out to culprits are not made public or when culprits are left off the hook. Indeed there are sometimes suspicions, justifiable or otherwise, that the cases are not accorded the deserved seriousness by investigators, which is why they go cold and suspects left off the hook.
Railway development is capital intensive and we are at our wits end as to why no effective means of protecting the railway tracks is not in place. The huge quantities which have already been lost to the thieves are alarming.
We must do more to protect the railway tracks, especially the standard gauge lines which are being laid.
The thieves must be stopped from vandalising the railway infrastructure when the system is fully operational. The time to do so is now. We must descend upon them hard when they are caught.