I heard an interesting story last week. Do you know that the Mayor of Accra spotted a man in his early twenties defecating under a bridge around the St. Mary's Secondary School at Korle Gonno? Shame unto whoever did that.

I am not done yet. The man who had stripped himself naked and squatting did a quick run with his manhood dangling between his thighs as the camera men zoomed their lenses on him. "Yeeeeee" that must have been very traumatizing! Hahahaaa!

And do you know the funny side of this? He left his pair of trousers, sandals, and panties under the bridge. Oh my gosh! This guy will surely scare and drive away children to sleep. How I wish I were the Mayor; I would have given this guy a chase, myself. The impudence of a dying cockroach!

How many of you have actually driven on the motorway between 5 and 8am or between 5pm and 7pm? As for this one you don't have to be told, you have to see it yourself "ganigani." I used to drive to Legon every morning and back to Tema later in the evening.

The scene down the right side of the road to Legon, Accra, or Achmota (and close to Ashiaman) is a spectacle. The first time I saw such a spectacle, I thought some people were organizing early morning and evening conferences.

Down the road are people lined up, defecating as if it's a district or government designated spot. What is cute about this is the way they line up. It is like a well-rehearsed Independence Day choreography and not even the presence of passers-by will deter them from answering the call of nature.

Eii, Ghana people are bold! "Pleaseooo", is it also true that the ecology of the Chemu Lagoon in Tema has been destroyed by human activity? Anyway, I will get back to these later The issue of corruption
Today, I will look at the issue of corruption

A friend of mine defined corruption as a situation in which government officials make money at the expense of the state. This is narrow isn't it? Everyday, people talk about corruption; the media talks about it, and now this subject matter has become very pervasive.

A friend of mine told me that he sent two laptop computers to Ghana to be used by his younger siblings, one of whom is at the University of Ghana and the other in a secondary school. He did not know he had to pay duties on the computers so when the items got to Ghana, one of his brothers got to the post office and a worker told him to pay one million and eight-hundred cedis (what a Ghanaian will call one point eight) to prevent the things from being sent to the appropriate authorities who would determine how much he should pay.

Obviously, he thought the authorities were going to charge more than he had to be pay. Also, when I got to Ghana last December for a visit, we got to the Kotoka International Airport only to be confronted with a long queue; a gentleman jumped the queue, walked to a desk and passed something to an official.

I saw it; it was money. (These scenarios flashed through my mind: How about that woman who forces the headmaster of a school to take some money because she wants admission for her ward? Have you thought of that man who gives to support the pastor because he wants to be made an elder? Let's consider that ten year-old girl who gives her teacher gifts just before the term ends?)

When the taker takes and the giver gives

Discussions about corruption, I will say, have been too narrow. Corruption is much more of a wholesale network that begins from the level of the child to that adult who occupies that big position, than the activities of a select few. A recent report released indicated that Ghanaians spend much more on paying bribes than they can show for at the end of the month.

So let's take it that all the Ministers and Parliamentarians, managers, headmasters etc., decide not to take bribes, will the phenomenon stop? I don't believe that corruption in government is just a perception; it is happening but it will be wrong if we limited that to only those who occupy positions.

Another question: What if we all decide not to give any bribes; would people take them? Bribery, for example is bi-directional; the taker takes when the giver gives. Of course, takers of bribes, for instance can decide to refuse them but why not vice versa?

One of the very difficult issues confronting all societies-developing and developed-is attitudes. Attitudes are not observable, they are ingrained practices that have developed overtime and it takes more than rhetoric to change them. In Ghana, people believe that even when students have excelled in their exams, parents have to oil the palms of some administrators before their children will find favor with school authorities.

Thus, even when you impress upon people that it is wrong you are seen as strange if not weird. How many times haven't passengers in "trotros" or other forms of public transport vilified other passengers when they decide to challenge outrageous and obnoxious transport fares charged by some unscrupulous drivers?

As a society we encourage wrong doing and blame others for what we are equally liable of. I have said time and again that most of the very people who lambaste government authorities will drain the country of all its resources given the chance to run the affairs of the country.

Could you imagine that someone goes to an office to pay bribe to an official but calls a radio station the next day to insult the very people they paid the bribe to?

Yes, there is corruption in government and I believe Mr. President should take steps to address them but I disagree that issues of corruption should be reported to the police. The system becomes complicated when that is the case and people will be deterred from doing that.

I also believe that we need a major change in our attitudes. We can decide to imprison all our Ministers for corrupt practices but corruption in our society will not end there. More so, all heads of institutions can decide to take actions by not taking bribes and not being involved in other corrupt practices but how about those at the level of the civil service?

During the brouhaha that led to Uncle Ben Koufie (GFA Chairman) leaving office, I did indicate that we could make Angel Gabriel the FA Boss but so long as the other members of the GFA remain, the system will not change. It is the system and the structures that have to change.

In my anecdotal introduction, it is obvious that while the AMA boss is fighting against filth in the Capital, other faceless individuals are making the process difficult and that is how corruption works.

Here is the deal. We can begin from the schools. Definitely not at the university level, by which time attitudes would have taken root. As a nation we can incorporate issues of corruption in the syllabi of children at the crèche level and this should be carried through the primary to the university levels.

Our syllabi for subject areas like religious and moral education have failed to address these concerns. We could also establish clubs at the junior and secondary levels to champion the fight against corruption. We will achieve nothing if we pay lip service to this canker. Let's all get involved.