Like their counterparts elsewhere around the world, immigration officers in Ghana are supposed to turn back travelers suspected of carrying questionable travel documents. Most of the time, however, suspicions about travelers who are turned back for this reason have proved to be completely groundless. The incident cited above is a good example. In this case, the traveler was not permitted to get on her flight ostensibly because the immigration officer from whom she had sought directions to her gate suspected her of traveling on a false passport. And what was the basis for the immigration officer's suspicion?
According to the traveler, the officer argued that, since her passport indicated that she had previously traveled through the airport, she should have been able to find the gate on her own, insinuating that her inability to do so meant that her passport might have been falsified. This harebrained argument implies that even a mere one-time passage through an airport (the traveler in question had used Kotoka only once before) should necessarily give a person perfect knowledge of the location of every installation or fixture in that particular airport complex. Not even airport employees can claim such familiarity with the airports where they work.
So the young lady -she was given the option of bribing her way through but she steadfastly refused -was prevented from leaving Ghana on schedule because immigration officers "suspected" her and decided to conduct an "investigation" into how she procured the documents with which she was traveling. Interestingly enough, the so- called investigation lasted for as long as it takes to drive from Kotoka airport to the British High Commission in Accra, where the poor traveler was dragged for verification of her visa to enter the UK. Consular officials at the High Commission promptly.
I confirmed that both her passport and her visa were genuine. The Ghanaian official in charge of the "investigation" only succeeded in making a complete fool of himself in the presence of British consular officers, who thought the whole exercise was totally unwarranted and a sheer waste of everybody's time, not to mention a waste of the Ghanaian taxpayers' money.
But while perfectly legitimate and law-abiding travelers, just to get them to pay bribes, are harassed and humiliated and prevented from getting on planes at Kotoka by immigration officers, criminal elements laden with drugs and other contrabands routinely make it through the immigration checkpoints at the same airport unimpeded. We know this because drug smugglers originating from Kotoka are frequently apprehended at European and US airports. The only way the criminals manage to ship both themselves and their toxic merchandise by air is through bribery of airport officials.
Inbound travelers also do encounter their fair share of problems with Kotoka' s corrupt officials, in their case mostly with customs officers. To get their luggage out, travelers, especially if they are carrying a lot of stuff, often must pay bribes. Those who refuse to "grease the palms" -the local terminology for bribery -of customs officers usually run the risk of being taxed out of their personal belongings and gifts. As with immigration, either you bribe your way through customs or you suffer the consequences for being a "wise guy."
Yet in discussing the issue of corruption, it would be unfair to single out immigration and customs officers at the airport for criticism. Corruption in Ghanaian society is very rampant. Like the hydra-headed evil that it is, corruption can be found everywhere: in the police stations, in the hospitals, in the government ministries, in the banks, in the palaces of local chiefs, in city halls, in the comer offices of supermarket and department store managers, even within the hallowed confines of academia. It's an epidemic of sorts, an epidemic that has plagued Ghana for as long as Ghana has been around as an independent nation. And it seems that this plague has a long course to run because the government isn't doing anything to curb it, and the general population largely appears resigned to it.
annual convention accepted to fund elementary schools and Hospitals in the Kwahu-Nteso communities in Ghana.
ongoing World Cup. Within a few minutes after the game, both the aged and the youth, including females occupied the streets to display their rare antics with motorbikes and cars.
It was a joyous moment, as people from all walks of life, including the aged, children, market women, traders, bankers, all joined in the jubilation, with both commercial and private vehicles tooting their horns, as some of the vehicles were draped in the national flag. Some fans were seen sitting on the bonnets of their vehicles, waving flags, while others held bottles of hard liquor.
There were also motorcycle acrobatic displays on the major streets of the Metropolis, while lorries, including foreign long distance vehicles plying the Tamale dual carriage road to Bolgatanga en rout Burkina-Faso and other Sahel countries displayed Ghana flags on their windscreens and tooted their horns in solidarity with the Black Stars. There were vehicular and human traffic jams at all the traffic lights in the Metropolis as fans sang the praises of the Stars in unison, an indication that football could unite the nation irrespective of political and ethnic links.
when Ghana won its independence from the British as the streets in and around Osu in Accra were taken over by revilers who let their emotions run wide after the senior national team, Black Stars beat the United States of America 2-1 to make it to the last 16 of the World Cup.