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Close scrutiny reveals the following as the other causes of the visitation of phenomenal deaths on Ghanaians. They are, SMOKING. Many Ghanaians smoke all types of cigarettes. However, cigarette smoking is proven to cause cancer in both active and passive smokers, especially those noted for smoking excessively, over a period of time.
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A passive smoker is a non-smoker who inhales the nicotine same as the active smoker for the fact of being in the area or in the enclosed environment where people are smoking or puffing on cigarettes. They are even established to be the worse affected by the dangers inherent in smoking than the active smokers themselves.
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The oftentimes lukewarm attitudes by certain of our medical doctors and healthcare assistants to the health needs of the patients do contribute to the deaths among Ghanaians. Some of the doctors and the hospital nurses for a reason or the other do not give the patients the medical attention needed in their treatment. Nonchalance on their part does crop up where the patient is discovered to be incapable of footing the healthcare bill.
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Lorry accidents are noted to kill many Ghanaians every year. Most of our commercial and private lorry drivers are either not conversant with the Road Safety Regulations or they do not bother to respect the rules. They over-speed when driving. They overtake other cars where they have no clear visibility in front of them. They drive even when tired and are seen to be intermittently dozing off while behind the steering wheels. They also put their gears in high speed when other drivers are noticed in their car’s main or side mirrors to have engaged in overtaking them. That is madness.
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Such reckless attitudes by some of our callous and ignorant drivers lead to other cars heading into accidental head-on collisions with other on-coming cars or vehicles.
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Ghana drivers should learn to allow vehicles that are in the process of overtaking them on the roads do so safely even if the other driver is in the wrong. Once they learn this without always deciding to punish the driver in the wrong by teaching him or her bitter lesson, innocent lives could be saved. Always learn to consider the lives of the innocent passengers aboard the other vehicle/car without allowing your mind to be influenced by the mistake the driver is committing to strengthen your resolve to teach him and the passengers an unforgettable fatal lesson.
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What about the propensity at which, certain Ghanaians would like to obtain quick bucks? These callous individuals, resolutely determined to acquire easy wealth, resort to what in our local Ghanaian parlance is "Sikaduro?" We often hear of others killing their fellows, their own children, their nieces or nephews, for the acquisition of quick wealth – "sikaduro".
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I personally do not believe in "sikaduro" so those with an avid for quick buck (wealth) through such means must stop or be punished when caught. They waste other precious human lives for the satisfaction of their nonsensical fantasies.
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In conclusion, it will be better for Ghanaian smokers to cut back on their nicotine intake by reducing the number of cigarettes they smoke per day. They should try to stop smoking altogether to avoid falling victims to cancer, a deadly disease without any effective cure. Our doctors should please show more concern about the sick in emergency situations, whether or not the patient or casualty can afford the immediate payment for treatment administered to them. This is hard to swallow but they can manage.
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The government should try to sort out the mess it has created within the NHIS to make it more appealing and acceptable to doctors and hospitals. Our law enforcement agents, especially the police, should stop accepting bribes to rather enforce the compliance of the road safety regulations by drivers. This will help reduce the many deaths on our roads.
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Finally, the doers and seekers of "Sikaduro" must be sentenced to life imprisonment when caught if they had sacrificed a human life in their attempt to attain their devilish aim.
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I shall be back so stay tuned.
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Rockson Adofo