Let’s be proactive in dealing with use of firecrackers

This weekend, many people around the world will join in the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ over two centuries ago and also welcome the new year with church services and other festivities.

One of the main features of the celebration of the season is the use of firecrackers of all sorts by celebrants to create joy and excitement. Although the sight of the colourful showers and sparkles from the fireworks in the sky is usually fun to behold, some categories of firecrackers have been found to be harmful, causing burns, fires and, in some cases, death when mishandled, since some of them can explode.

It is for this reason that some categories of firecrackers have been banned under the laws of Ghana.

Recently, the Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent of Police Cephas Arthur, told the Daily Graphic that the police administration had set up a taskforce to arrest persons who display or illegally use firecrackers during Christmas and New Year festivities.

He said the taskforce would enforce the law that bans categories of firecrackers from being imported, used and displayed. We recall that in 1999, Parliament passed a Legislative Instrument to back Executive Instrument (EI) 21 which prohibits the manufacture, possession or carriage of any explosives, including firecrackers.

The taskforce is also expected to ensure that the ban is adhered to by traders who display these firecrackers for sale and buyers who use them.

We note that most of the firecrackers that are banned are not manufactured in Ghana but imported by big-time businessmen, who in turn sell them to retailers. Our worry is that 17 years after the ban on importation of firecrackers not much appears to have been done to ensure that the products cease to enter the Ghanaian market.

Much as the Daily Graphic sees the approach of the police service as commendable, we are of the opinion that much more effort should have been made over the years to ensure that the products do not enter the country in the first place.

So, rather than wait till the festivities have begun and tonnes of these firecrackers have been imported, the police should be more proactive and coordinate with other security agencies at the port to ensure that the products do not enter the country in the first place.

This done, it would not be necessary to spend state resources on a taskforce every Christmas to attempt to enforce the law, since we believe that the absence of the product on the market would make such an exercise unnecessary.

Again, there should be more public education on the harmful effects of the use of firecrackers as experiences on the harm firecrackers have caused in the country and other jurisdictions can be used as good examples to get people to refrain from using them.

It is our expectation that the police will go about this duty in a manner that would result in a public that is better educated on the harmful effects of the use of firecrackers and for which reason they would not patronise the banned substances even when they are available.