The one year National Service is supposed to be the time you give back to your country, though for what exactly you are never told. Still, it is a chore to get through with the numerous bureaucratic bottlenecks, terrible conditions of service (heh), and generally knowing you are working for a failing nation.

For service personnel in the upcoming 2015/2016 service year though, who start work on September 1, a new module has been added by the National Service Secretariat. A chunk of them, 1,000 to be exact; would be on traffic duty when the time for their service commences.

The chosen personnel are currently undergoing an intensive two week training programme at the Ghana Police Training School in Accra. They are expected to work with a senior officer, directing traffic whilst also engaging in sensitising and educating the public about traffic management and road safety issues.

600 of them would work in Accra, with the other 400 posted to Kumasi.

The programme is apparently meant to ease the huge traffic problem in the country.