Pro bono, the Justice System and in-between

I recently volunteered at a legal outreach program organized by The Justice Foundation (JF). The foundation provides free legal services to needy persons and engages in educational campaigns and public interest litigation among others.

a child takes his morning shower in the market place where we set up

This particular event targeted free legal consultation at the people of La-Dadekotopon, a section of Accra (capital city of Ghana) which retains quite a bit of its native (some would say pre-modern) features though surrounded by fairly modern enterprises and situated along a major road that runs all the way from the port city of Tema, past the Fort Christiansborg Castle (the slave castle which used to be the seat of government) in Osu on the coast of the Atlantic, into what is known as old Accra. 

To get to the actual location of the event took some doing. Not quite 3 minutes off the road, I felt like I was driving through one big compound house; people crisscrossing from rooms on one side of the alley and making their way across the front of the vehicle right into other rooms on my other side!. Right in my path, was a middle aged woman busily fanning two big coal pots which carried large cauldrons bubbling with what looked like ... well I never really saw into the pots. 

Others just standing and chatting; looking at the tortoise-like approach of the vehicle with half interest and certainly little urge to move out of the way. It felt like the city was systematically and assuredly closing in on the indigenes whose defiant culture is deceptively clothed in modern garb of sorts - imported low cost clothing from foreign countries; cheap, second-hand gadgetry and high rise buildings on its borders. La- Manjaanor; it translates literally from the local dialect, “the market of the La township - that’s where I was headed. 

a local favorite, "banku" being prepared in the market

anxious moments before MCE arrived 

As tradition and courtesy would have it, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the locality was to open the event at 9am. Almost 2 hours late when he finally did show, the “honourable gentleman” did just that! Soon volunteers were grouped in clusters and receiving “clients” of different shades and colours. 

My group met an 80 year old woman first. She was being pestered at home by her young nephew who claimed she was a witch. Then came a young man who claimed he was badly injured (still showing physical scars and deformities) in an accident involving a vehicle belonging to a public institution 12 years back. Officials of the institution had promised him compensation which never came through. It was clear taking on the institution of uniformed men in a court action was not something he had even imagined. He saw the event as an opportunity for an intervention that would see him receive some compensation. Another emotionally distraught woman in her forties accompanied by her impatient younger brother believed she deserved a share of her father’s property and without articulating it, was seeking to challenge a will that had surfaced after the death of the father. Yet another middle aged woman claimed she was wrongly dismissed from her job in one of the major hotels in the metropolis and without opportunity to respond to her charges. And so it went, and similarly with other consulting groups. 

The event was very rewarding for me and the Justice Foundation must be commended for taking an important step in the bid to expand access to justice in Ghana. Beyond my thrill of firsthand experience of real people with real legal needs and expectations, the event rekindled my interest in access to justice generally. Having had initial anxieties about the community’s readiness to open up about their legal issues I was pleasantly surprised at the turnout and the interest and enthusiasm they showed in the program. I was also struck by how easily they shared their personal stories with us and wondered what the real motivation was. 

Could it be it was free; could it be they were more comfortable with a setting that offered a semblance of the traditional family gathering to resolve family squabbles where parties to a conflict have a voice of their own in the proceedings and can express themselves in their own language; or the fact that this was a non-confrontational consultation in the absence of the other parties to the matters raised, more like seeking legal advice before a decision to act one way or the other; was it the dread and frustration with agencies and officers within the justice system they alluded to that had kept some of them from pursuing their cases; maybe the lack of confidence exhibited by some who didn’t feel able to challenge anything;  ... or is it just ignorance,...of what? 

Ultimately, I guess the lessons from this event and how they could influence an improvement of the system of justice in operation remains the biggest achievement of the event.  More elsewhere.

Who Pays the Piper?

A toll road on Afienya-Akosombo road

 I believe it wasn’t too long ago when road tolls in Ghana skyrocketed as part of on-going general tax adjustments. I was particularly unimpressed with the usual flurry of citizen’s objections to tax hikes because in my estimation, an increase from 5p to 50p after a 20 year lull, probably more, was nothing to cry about. Never mind that unlike others I hardly use toll roads. Anyways that standpoint changed somewhat when I dared to drive out of town and outside my 5km radius during the just ended Christmas break. Simply put its daylight robbery to toll certain roads and it doesn’t matter if the state needs my money.

 

toll "booth" at Afienya

Clearly traditional sources of road financing like the consolidated fund gave way long ago. Simply was inadequate. Ghana’s Road Fund Act lists its sources as,  a) International and Transit Fees; b) Vehicle Registration and Road Use Fees (which contributes more than 80% of the fund; c) Petrol and diesel levy and d) Road and Bridge tolls. Recently the Minister of Roads and Transport suggested inclusion of a tax on Liquefied Petroleum Gas.

In the early 2000s during the HIPC days (the rather challenging Highly Indebted Poor Countries label) also came the build and operate concept. With this approach to road financing, the financier (private business, bilateral donors and the Bretton Woods Institutions who inspired the cost recovery principle) recovered funds used or lent to the state for building or repairing a road from tolls collected on that road. Thus many roads acquired “toll road” status. Before then road or bridge tolls were known only in relation to 2 of Nkrumah’s legacies: the Tema-Accra Motorway and the Adomi Bridge on the Volta Lake, both built soon after independence.   And the rationale is obvious - gratification, cost recovery, maintenance. Suffice it to say, the facilities had been built, well built so there was justification for cost recovery on the investment and maintenance for our continued gratification. No qualms about that. Needless to say my recent experience is in complete variance with the gratification-cost recovery-maintenance triangle.  

Adomi Bridge near Akosombo

Now I am not against road tolls. Heck just so I could collect “priceless” receipts and smiles from the always and I mean ALWAYS pleasant toll collectors, I used to want to pay so much more; my generosity often a threat to my dad’s coin box. It must have been something other than customer service though because; the booths don’t have smiling takers anymore. What is more likely the case is that the toll collectors thought I was adorable! I mean how could a chirpy 3 or 4 year old standing on the supple thighs of mommy or the maid (car seats for kids were not yet invented), held in check by firm hands (which were as good if not better seat belts at the time) and handing out daddy’s coins not be adorable? Snap the happy thoughts!

Did I say already that I don’t mind paying tolls? I did and I meant it. However I don’t want to pay tolls on broken roads that give me no joy driving on them. Perhaps we should take a cue from both the South African and Nigerian experiences. The former revamped their roads and yet faced citizen rebellion against payment of road tolls; the latter did nothing to revamp or build the roads before instituting tolls and citizens rightly and forcefully refuse to be ripped off!  What do you say? We take the State’s approach to tolling in the South African example and the citizens’ response from the Nigerian example and voila! Life sure is that simple. Better still copy the ingenuity of the Europeans and “let the foreigners pay”!

 

toll booth on Dodowa road

How (not) to use the Library

It's 3.30pm on Friday

Being hard pressed for study time in recent times I figured I could catch up on the reading I need to do for school by spending a couple of hours in the school library before classes begin.  It’s a relatively small room that cannot take more than 25 people at a time but it’s our library nonetheless- at least for now. Anytime I make it to the library, having made off from work earlier than is expected I hope to do an hour and a half at least of effective reading and research. Surprisingly this has proved to be a challenge.

Mobile phones of other library users go off repeatedly with no attempt by the owners to hold back the conversations that ensue while other people prattle away as if they are sitting in their living rooms. Aaaaah, a phone just went off! I cannot see the person on the phone but I hear him tell the other person on the line he’s in the library. Maybe this time he’ll step out to take the call since he seems conscious of his environment. Eerm, it doesn’t happen. The girl at the desk next from me just picked up her mobile phone too and your guess is as good as mine. 

It should be clear to anyone that I am neither reading nor researching anything at this time. The guy is carrying on his very important conversation - “the link, the link” he says. “...yes three Ws. S, T, O, K, A, S dot com. Strike guest... guest, guest, yeah guest...g, u, e, s, t ... yeah commentary...no its not finished, stroke natural law...”. Unbelievable isn’t it? Asking people to shush is not working. I get “what’s with you?” kind off looks when I do. Is the library not one of the quietest places to be? Why do people who use the library feel the need to plug their ears while reading in the library?

Mercy! Here comes the woman who probably spends all day in the library. She is usually seated at one of the only 2 desktops in the library checking her mail on yahoo. Once every 5 minutes she fiddles with her phone; she calls out pleasantries across the room anytime someone she knows walks in and much of the time her head is thrown back over the chair and her eyes are closed. A mediation of sorts maybe. There’s no point prompting her that other users may be waiting to use the computer. 

I am either in the wrong place or my notion of a library changed since I last was in school- more than 10 years ago? ... OMG what’s that smell? Did that man just take off his shoes? ......Time to go!

The Lab “Knows” Your Status Even If You Don’t

The employment agency found the perfect candidate for me; an experienced housekeeper in her mid forties, sufficiently literate and cultured. A relative suggested that a medical examination was necessary to determine if the candidate was fit for the job and I readily agreed.  A few years back, my 19 year old house help gave me a fright when she had an epileptic attack so I figured it was a good idea.  Even so I had no particular parameters for the medical examination. My relative who is a health worker (a nurse by her own claims) indicated that such examinations were routine and offered to have it done at the health facility where she worked. The prospective employee and her agent had expected this and were more than agreeable.

Later when my relative nurse called in with feedback on the tests, she said the employee hopeful was “clean” on all the tests except the HIV AIDS test which was “inconclusive”. The employee hopeful however did not wait at the clinic for the results of whatever examination had been carried out on her so the nurse was somewhat disappointed because the doctor at the clinic had intended, as part of the routine, to send her off with a dose of counsel on account of her HIV AIDS status!   

To say I was mortified is perhaps an understatement. HIV AIDS testing had not crossed my mind; even if it could be argued to be a legitimate concern in the circumstances and the legal and psychological implications of testing without the informed consent of the “victim” was not lost on me. That I did not trouble myself with the details of the examination to be carried out on the employee hopeful was irresponsible but that’s neither the focus nor the troubling aspect of this confession.

HIV AIDS testing on unsuspecting victims I found are routine in many health facilities and health workers justify this modus operandi with the claim that they have to protect themselves.  Yep, by knowing your HIV status and heaven knows which others. But many health workers in both public and private facilities claim to work with limited or no resources including protective gear or insurance back-up so perhaps there is some rational basis to their claim. It seems though that not only health workers are taking steps to “protect” themselves; employers and increasingly those employing domestic help are equally concerned about the possible effect of the health status of their employees on the job, fellow workers, clients. To illustrate the need my relative tells the story of a house-help who unknowingly infected the 2-year old daughter of her employers through her daily practical lessons in teeth brushing with her own (the house-help’s) tooth-brush.

That said, when a person who has not knowingly and willingly submitted to HIV AIDS testing is obliged to receive news of the “fact” of their HIV status after the test is done surreptitiously; it is as unpardonable as it is dangerous. Yet this was only the wound to which the salt that follows was applied.

What would make an HIV AIDS test inconclusive? What did that mean anyway? I could not make sense of the explanation to the “inconclusive” HIV test provided by the clinic’s doctor via my relative- that the patient was probably only in the early stages of contracting the disease.  The real deal is this. There are HIV AIDS tests kits available these days that provide almost instant results; the RAPID or ELISA tests. The kit approach is quite like the pregnancy test available over the counter but in this case a certified laboratory technician, nurse, mid-wife etc carries out the test in a certified laboratory for purposes of quality control. This first anti-body testing has to be confirmed even if positive by a second and sometimes third test if the first two are discordant. As explained by a doctor, this time at the main teaching hospital, the so-called inconclusive test simply meant one of 3 things; the test kit used was expired or the kit was improperly stored and rendered ineffective or the technician at the clinic did a lousy job!