I return to my campaign for safe driving by sharing the law on road traffic offences. Christmas approaches and sadly, just too many people are doomed to needless deaths and injury on our highways.

But most of the accidents are avoidable because 90 per cent is attributable to human error. The distraction by the handset and other hand-held communication devices are contributing a great deal to the carnage.

I have read and heard about those dangerous purposeless campaigns once again – free this, free that. You get on these campaigns only because someone has been arrested to face court over acts and actions, leading to criminal investigations and possible prosecutions. It is dangerous to our individual and collective security and serves no purpose if it is not that their rights have been violated or that there is a threatened violation of their rights.

I had been gathering material to write about the injustice causing needless pain and suffering to law students until a typical bad attitude of civil servants got me sad and to change course. A poor pensioner who could have lived a little longer died in circumstances I can’t but believe was avoidable. I will get to that shortly.

I spent much of the week helping the RTI Commission with its weeklong activities to mark the UN international day for universal access to information. The Commission, which by its first ruling sent a signal it was going to uphold peoples’ right to information, now has its first office, in Accra.

Today, two issues get my attention. I have reason to believe citizens may not be as interested in fighting corruption regardless of the noise we make denouncing it in the media. I observe also that people who love side-chicks may not want them at their funeral.

Ghana’s Constitution, the supreme law of the land, forbids discriminatory treatment on grounds including a person’s social standing. It reinforces this by its adoption of one of the major ideals of a democracy – the equality before the law principle. The truth is, this is how we build a happy, prosperous and enduring democratic society. If only a few privileged class of politicians, powerful, rich and influential enjoy the benefits of this democracy, it will not survive.