By: Abubakari Kamil

Our National love affair with poor timing and the gross display of lack of competence and productivity among state owned establishment is increasingly getting pronounced. One state enterprise that clearly displays such an attribute is the State Transport Corporation, STC.

In the past, the Ghanaian populace were so overwhelmed with the services of STC to an extend that it was a kind of privilege to have traveled by STC. This was due to the exceptional services the enterprise rendered to its customers and no wonder some referred to it as the “Road Aero plane”. Perhaps the only problem commuters faced at that time was how long they spent to get to their destination which certainly was because of the nature of our roads.

Over the years however, our roads have improved and the standards of services rendered have rather been reversed much to the detriment of the Ghanaian traveler. Interestingly, commuters from the Northern part of the country are the most affected by this canker. This is so because, the worse amongst the buses are rather assigned to these areas and the effect can be anyone’s guess. Commuters therefore suffer from frequent breakdown of these buses and have to spend several additional hours in traveling.

Again, commuters report to the Bus Terminus only to depart several hours after the time of departure and it is therefore little wonder that commuters have become increasingly disillusioned about the prospects of STC. It is now a hidden secret that, porters extort money from commuters before loading their luggage. The few discipline ones who do not yield to the demand of these porters end up not having their luggage packed into the booth and the silence by management in this regard is too loud. These developments underscore the difficulty of entrenching sanity and discipline within the public sector.

There is no doubt that STC is manned by an array of intellectuals but what I fail to understand is the extend to which the management take the Ghanaian traveler for granted and behaviors like these seem to suggest STC and for that matter Ghanaians have no respect for the Rules of Engagement. Apart from the frequent change in the name of this enterprise, it is difficult to tell what transformation has happened since its inception. What the Ghanaian traveler is asking for is not the heavens but a more pragmatic approach by management towards addressing the tailbacks that militate against the enterprise.

The author is a former Student Leader, from the University for Development Studies, Nyankpala Campus. He is now a Community Development Officer of the Opportunities Industrializations Centers International, OICI, Tamale. Email: kingkmal@yahoo.com. Cell: +233-244-068660