IT IS surrounded by communities like Bukom, Akanmajen, Aadenkpo, Jamestown, Swalaba, Mudor, Agbado/Okpongor-bu and Palladium. Together, they are part of the enclave called Ga Mashie.
The name Akoto Lante evokes nostalgic feelings in me because that was where I had the bulk of my primary education – St. Mary’s Anglican Primary School. During those formative years, I trekked from Okaishie to Akoto Lante on a daily basis to receive the foundational education that has brought me thus far.
Samaria is the ancient, historic, biblical name used for the central region of the Land of Israel, bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north – Wikipedia. People who hail from Samaria are called Samaritans just as someone from Ghana is Ghanaian.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. It is about a traveler (Jewish) who was stripped of clothing, beaten, and left half dead alongside the road. First, a Jewish priest and then a Levite came by, but both avoided the man. Finally, a Samaritan chanced on the traveler. Although Samaritans and Jews despised each other, this Samaritan helped the injured man. Hence, he was called the Good Samaritan.
Ghanaians and Nigerians consider each other as brothers and sisters. However, recent developments have strained the fraternal relationship a bit. That’s because the Nigerians are alleged to be involved in almost every crime in the country lately. Consequently, Nigerians are beginning to gain the status of ‘Jews’ in the eyes of their Ghanaian ‘siblings’.
I have come across Ghanaians, especially the youth, who have sworn to deal drastically with any Nigerians who mess up with them in anyway. Landlords have also vowed never to rent their accommodation to any Nigerian.
In this write up, I have decided to name the main character as Akoto Lante-Samaritan because, what he did for a Nigerian who was allegedly caught stealing a mobile phone in the area, is similar to what the biblical Samaritan did for the Jewish who was left helpless after being beaten for a crime, we were not told about.
The Akoto Lante-Samaritan
Like Bukom and the other aforementioned communities, any first time visitor to Akoto Lante would write the place off as not capable of producing any morally upright person.
The reason is that, the youth are typically illiterate or semi-literate and highly susceptible to various crimes, having been brought up in the slums.
But here is what you may not know. The famous Dag Heward Mills, has his antecedents from Agbado/Okpongor bu. Also, Hon. Nii Lante Vanderpuiye, the renowned broadcaster and incumbent Member of Parliament for the Odododiodoo Constituency, hails from the area. Not to mention, Barima Azumah ‘Zoomzoom’ Nelson, Braimah Kamoko (Bukom Banku), Ike Bazooka Quartey, and D.K. ‘Poison’ etc who have demonstrated that something good can come from Ga Mashie.
The latest to raise the flag of Akoto Lante high is the man I have christened Akoto Lante-Samaritan, whose voice is the only identity available for now, on a video that went viral in May. He is believed to be an opinion leader in the community.
But for him, the 22-year-old Nigerian, Aliu John, could have suffered instant justice for the theft which took place on Saturday, May 13. In a characteristic deep-voiced male Ga tone, the Akoto Lante–Samaritan could be heard telling his compatriots to stop beating the alleged phone thief.
Instead, he led them to take the stealer to the most filthily choked gutter in the area. Here is how Myjoyonline.Com reported the incident; “He was given protective boots and a shovel to aid him in undertaking the task. To prevent him from escaping, his waist was tied with a thick rope held at one end by a man all through the cleaning task.
Instead of handing him over to the police, the residents asked the young man to clean a dirty gutter in the locality, after which they served him four balls of banku with fish, a bottled water and a drink of his choice.
This issue caught my attention because first, it was news to me that a typical ‘Akoto Lantean’ will choose to be this nice to a thief. Alas, civilisation has evolved and my Akoto Lante compatriots have not been left behind. Forget about the fact that the Akoto Lante–Samaritan was a lone voice. Remember the fact that he got his people to do what for me, was the lesser of two evils – instant justice, to wit: illegally subjecting a suspect to punishment. They could have lynched him you know!
There is no doubt that what he led the mob to do amounted to taking the law into their own hands, but in an innovative way.
Is this commendable or condemnable? I will return to it presently.
The advocacy to decriminalise petty offences
What is intriguing though, is that the incident happened on Saturday. On Sunday, May 14, The Law on JoyNews channel discussed the need to decriminalise petty offences in Ghana.
Petty offences, according to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, are minor offences for which the punishment is prescribed by law to attract a warning, community service, a low-value fine, or a short term of imprisonment, often for failure to pay the fine. However, in Ghana, there is no law prescribing community service.
The host of The Law, Samson Lardy Anyenini, has since joined a group of lawyers and human rights advocates to champion the cause that would ensure that persons who commit minor offences are made to serve the community rather than being incarcerated.
Currently, these acts of omission and commission are considered minor offences; being a vagabond, idling, loitering, begging, failure to pay debts, being a common nuisance and disobedience to parents; causing a public nuisance, hawking and vending, urinating in public and washing clothes in public.
What this means is that if you engage in any of the above, you are fined. In lieu of payment of the fine, you go to jail.
On The Law show aforementioned, the Director of Programmes at the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, Edmund Foley, made a revealing statement, “As the economic circumstances become more and more difficult for the ordinary man, people are committing crimes not as social defiance, but simply because they are too poor to take care of themselves.”
For him, the way forward is “decriminalisation of certain offences, particularly those described as petty offences.”
For me, his suggestion is important because with the status quo, we imprison these persons and spend scarce state resources to feed them, not to mention the congestion in our prisons.
“Steal two tubers of yam and you are going to sit in prison. We need to ask ourselves as a nation why we should continue to spend that GH¢1.80 for three years on that person,” Mr. Foley quipped.
Instead, he recommended that “Get the person to go sweep and the street or go and plant the yam. Sort of get them to do something more productive than to incarcerate them and spend money on them in prison.”
When I heard Mr. Foley, I felt very sad. I soliloquised, “So all the people we have been paying at the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General’s Department have sat down all these years without realising the need to do what Mr. Foley has suggested. How?”
BY Eric Mensah-Ayettey
The writer works at Myjoyonline.com. He is also an author of two books whose contents share knowledge on how anyone desirous of writing like him can do so. Eric can be reached via email eric.mensah-ayettey@myjoyonline.com