By Kofi Akordor
IT is always a privilege to be offered an opportunity to serve the public in any capacity deemed fit. It even becomes more exciting and thrilling when you realise that a chance to make a contribution to something you are very passionate about is virtually falling on your lap.
We know road safety has assumed a major national concern for obvious reasons. Road accident figures and the number of human lives lost on a daily basis have drawn attention and concern from many individuals and organisations, including corporate institutions, which have demonstrated this in many ways, including the sponsorship of many road safety educational programmes.
This column has not been silent on this national menace and the near impotence of the major state institutions such as the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service, the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) and the transport unions to make an impact on the fight against recklessness on the roads.
We have also come to realise that commitment and due diligence are expected from the DVLA, which is tasked to ensure that only roadworthy vehicles are permitted on the roads.
The same organisation is to ensure that only persons who have undergone full training and been tested accordingly are licensed to drive vehicles in the country.
The MTTU, on the other hand, is expected to enforce road traffic regulations to the letter to ensure that motorists conduct themselves properly on the roads, as per motor traffic regulations, and also ensure that vehicles plying the roads meet all the standards prescribed by law.
Between these two institutions, there are bound to be lapses, due either to administrative or institutional deficiencies such as poor logistics, which is one of our major problems, or the human factor, such as corrupt practices which all contribute to infringe upon road safety in the country.
This makes the work of the NRSC more difficult, as it must continue to spread and sustain its crusade on road safety in a vigorous and regular manner. In other words, packaging the right information for effective public education using the most appropriate communication channels constitute a major battle against the carnage on the roads.
I believe this might have informed the authorities to wisely decide that the media should be a key partner in the activities of the NRSC, so that apart from the professional inputs of the media in the design and implementation of public education programmes, the voice of the commission will be made louder and clearer on all platforms throughout the country.
Under the circumstances, it can be inferred that the institutional representation of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) on the board of the NRSC cannot be said to be a luxury nor an act of charity but a purposeful national necessity because we do not know of any other effective way reaching the public with education material apart from through the mass media.
Unfortunately, almost three years into the tenure of the current board of the NRSC, whether it is because of the usual bureaucracy and red-tapeism or one of those administrative lapses associated with our public service system, the GJA representative has not been sworn in to perform his statutory role on the board.
Some time in 2009, this writer was informed by the President of the GJA that he (the writer) had been nominated to represent the GJA on the NRSC board, and that to facilitate the nomination he had to submit a curriculum vitae (CV).
This was done, and according to the GJA President, the CV was forwarded to the appropriate quarters through the general secretary of the GJA.
After more than six months of waiting without any response, the GJA Secretariat was informed, during enquiries, that the first letter forwarding my name and accompanying documents might have been misdirected to the wrong place so a fresh one should be forwarded to the Ministry of Transport. That was delivered personally by this writer.
After another long wait, the GJA made another attempt — the third one — to find out what was still obstructing its nominee from representing the association on the NRSC board. Once again, no one could tell where the problem was and so another process had to be initiated. This time, this writer was given an e-mail address to forward his resume. Only God knows what it takes to serve on the NRSC board.
It has been three months since and no response has been received as to whether the latest submission has reached the appropriate quarters or, as was the case in the past, it got lost during transmission.
Even though this is not entirely strange to me, knowing how we approach important national affairs, this experience has left a sour taste in my mouth. What should have taken a few days, or even a week or two, is in the third year and there seems to be no solution in sight.
The executives of the GJA expect me to give periodic briefings on my performance on the NRSC board and each time I tell them I am still waiting for a letter confirming my membership of the board.
A successful road safety campaign hinges on a powerful and sustainable media participation. But, here we are, there has been no GJA representative on the NRSC board since 2009, not because as a professional body we did not try.
One would have thought that it would be somebody’s responsibility to make sure that the NRSC functions at full strength. In other words, all the institutions that were chosen for strategic reasons to be represented on the NRSC board would be seen to be actively participating in the affairs of the commission and collectively achieving the set objectives whose ultimate aim is to ensure sanity on the roads.
Some of us are playing and will continue to play our little roles outside the NRSC in the direction of road safety. But if institutional representation on the NRSC board is not a farce but a serious national proposition, then somebody or some people somewhere have pulled a fast one on the GJA. They have made mockery of the calls on the media to be active partners in the pursuit of the better Ghana agenda, since, in this case, from all indications they have denied the media our legitimate place on the NRSC and in effect reduced our input into road safety matters in the country.
I wish readers a peaceful and accident-free Christmas and a prosperous New Year in a advance.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Our God or their God?
By Kofi Akordor
Sometimes I am tempted to ask whether the God that we worship so much with noise is the same God that created our brothers with white skin. Do not blame me. We are so different; not for the better. Events in history and our circumstances lead me into that temptation.
Imagine a white-skinned man who out of sheer adventure came to our part of the earth. Friendly as we are, we carried this man in a hammock while some of our own people walked barefooted hacking the path through the forest for this white man until we got to the river banks where some of our people were already farming and others were fishing.
Many years later, we told as a fact that the white man who was the burden of our grandfathers was called Mungo Park and that he came from his country to come and discover us and the river we led him to. Many years after independence, we continue to have such silly questions as: “Who discovered the source of River Niger?” in our text books and our learned professors do not find any wrong with that twist of history.
Having planted this seed of inferiority complex in us, our brothers with the white skin embarked one of the greatest damages and humiliations any group of people could suffer. That was the slave trade. That saw the massive haulage of human cargo across the Atlantic to the Americas to work on farm plantations.
The evangelisation which followed stripped us of whatever was left of our natural heritage. We were told we did not know God and the word PAGAN was crafted for our use only. New names were given to us since our local names were satanic and could not be found in the books of our creator. We have since lived in the shadows of others.
So while Arabs, Chinese, Indians, Koreans and Europeans have their religions, we blacks have to fall on that of others before we can see the face of God. Whether we have succeeded or not is a different matter. But if poverty, disease, ignorance and hunger is the prize for worshipping the God they came to preach to us about, then we will say we have had enough.
Slavery and colonialism are things of the past but it seems the scars will not vanish. We continue to nurse the wounds of the past and cannot think our ways forward. As we continue to celebrate our independence, most public projects are at a standstill or have not commenced because we are waiting for a Chinese loan. In other words, without any external intervention, our life is meaningless. Why should it be so?
The great Bob Marley said it; that in the midst of abundance, the fool will still be hungry. Our case is like someone who is standing by a river bank and is still complaining of thirst. And are we not thirsty as a nation even though we have large water bodies that flow watefully into the sea? As you read this, Tema, our industrial city and parts of Accra, the national capita,l are without water because of repair works at Kpong, where the bulk of water supply comes from. Why we should rely on one major supply point of this vital comodity is itself an enigma. So ours is not because we do not have water. We are not capable of bringing the water that is available in abundance to our homes and industries. Bob Marley was right. That is why I want to know whether something went wrong during creation or whether we do not have a direct link to our creator?
Why is it that there is poverty and misery everywhere the black person finds himself? Those of us on the mother continent are not doing well with all the resources at our disposal. Those in the Diaspora, in places like Haiti, are not faring any better.
South Africa is the light on the continent obviously because of its white population. Cote d’Ivoire, until the recent political turmoil, was moving at a fast pace because of a strong French presence. Kenya is also not doing badly because it has a large Asian population which is made of serious business people. That tells a story about ourselves as people with a black skin.
Malaysia and Brazil are major cocoa producers but are not net exporters of cocoa beans. They have moved more than two steps forward by processing a larger part of their cocoa beans for value addition.
Two months ago, we celebrated the production of a million tonnes of raw cocoa beans. Meanwhile, most of the cocoa products in the supermarkets and being peddled by street vendors come from Malaysia or from the factories of the food giants such as Kraft and Nestle. Cocoa products are still a delicacy to a population which continues to hear the wonderful things cocoa has done and is still doing for this country.
Gold digging is now the craze and it appears what we call ‘galamsey’ has come to stay. The people have seen their mineral wealth going to build empires elsewhere and will not sit down again to wallow in poverty. So they will go anywhere there is gold.
We have enough resources to divert attention from gold if we can spare a few moments to think. Look at the vast Volta Lake. Tourism alone can take a lot of our young men and women off the streets if we can put that God-given resource to productive use. Any other country like Switzerland would have utilised this vast lake for money-generation and job-creation. We are still searching for solution to our unemployment and poverty problems with idle talks.
The cocoa industry can employ a lot of people if we can take the excitement from the exportation of raw cocoa beans. The aluminium industry is another major area of massive employment, apart from spearheading the country’s industrial effort.
We do not need to destroy our forests in the name of exporting timber only to turn round to import plastic furniture from outside. There are many things we can do for ourselves if our political discourse will be progressive.
Unfortunately that is not the case now. Our political debates are vile, acrimonious and vindictive. We do not care to boast the use of any means to gain or retain power. Patriots who have the interest of the country at heart cannot talk the way most of our political activists are doing. The objective can only lead to one thing — to loot and plunder.
If it is true that God made man in his own image, we have to shed that beggar image and regain our self-worthiness. We have everything to build a healthy and prosperous nation. Today we are being coerced to embrace homosexuality for aid. Obama and David Cameron will not tell that to the Chinese because they have through their own hard work crossed that barrier and are now they are in the position to call the tune.
We have more than enough to do the same or even better. Let us agree that there is nothing like foreign aid and gird our loins for our own survival. So if I question the formula for creation, I do so because in the midst of abundance, we are still hungry and still begging.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Sometimes I am tempted to ask whether the God that we worship so much with noise is the same God that created our brothers with white skin. Do not blame me. We are so different; not for the better. Events in history and our circumstances lead me into that temptation.
Imagine a white-skinned man who out of sheer adventure came to our part of the earth. Friendly as we are, we carried this man in a hammock while some of our own people walked barefooted hacking the path through the forest for this white man until we got to the river banks where some of our people were already farming and others were fishing.
Many years later, we told as a fact that the white man who was the burden of our grandfathers was called Mungo Park and that he came from his country to come and discover us and the river we led him to. Many years after independence, we continue to have such silly questions as: “Who discovered the source of River Niger?” in our text books and our learned professors do not find any wrong with that twist of history.
Having planted this seed of inferiority complex in us, our brothers with the white skin embarked one of the greatest damages and humiliations any group of people could suffer. That was the slave trade. That saw the massive haulage of human cargo across the Atlantic to the Americas to work on farm plantations.
The evangelisation which followed stripped us of whatever was left of our natural heritage. We were told we did not know God and the word PAGAN was crafted for our use only. New names were given to us since our local names were satanic and could not be found in the books of our creator. We have since lived in the shadows of others.
So while Arabs, Chinese, Indians, Koreans and Europeans have their religions, we blacks have to fall on that of others before we can see the face of God. Whether we have succeeded or not is a different matter. But if poverty, disease, ignorance and hunger is the prize for worshipping the God they came to preach to us about, then we will say we have had enough.
Slavery and colonialism are things of the past but it seems the scars will not vanish. We continue to nurse the wounds of the past and cannot think our ways forward. As we continue to celebrate our independence, most public projects are at a standstill or have not commenced because we are waiting for a Chinese loan. In other words, without any external intervention, our life is meaningless. Why should it be so?
The great Bob Marley said it; that in the midst of abundance, the fool will still be hungry. Our case is like someone who is standing by a river bank and is still complaining of thirst. And are we not thirsty as a nation even though we have large water bodies that flow watefully into the sea? As you read this, Tema, our industrial city and parts of Accra, the national capita,l are without water because of repair works at Kpong, where the bulk of water supply comes from. Why we should rely on one major supply point of this vital comodity is itself an enigma. So ours is not because we do not have water. We are not capable of bringing the water that is available in abundance to our homes and industries. Bob Marley was right. That is why I want to know whether something went wrong during creation or whether we do not have a direct link to our creator?
Why is it that there is poverty and misery everywhere the black person finds himself? Those of us on the mother continent are not doing well with all the resources at our disposal. Those in the Diaspora, in places like Haiti, are not faring any better.
South Africa is the light on the continent obviously because of its white population. Cote d’Ivoire, until the recent political turmoil, was moving at a fast pace because of a strong French presence. Kenya is also not doing badly because it has a large Asian population which is made of serious business people. That tells a story about ourselves as people with a black skin.
Malaysia and Brazil are major cocoa producers but are not net exporters of cocoa beans. They have moved more than two steps forward by processing a larger part of their cocoa beans for value addition.
Two months ago, we celebrated the production of a million tonnes of raw cocoa beans. Meanwhile, most of the cocoa products in the supermarkets and being peddled by street vendors come from Malaysia or from the factories of the food giants such as Kraft and Nestle. Cocoa products are still a delicacy to a population which continues to hear the wonderful things cocoa has done and is still doing for this country.
Gold digging is now the craze and it appears what we call ‘galamsey’ has come to stay. The people have seen their mineral wealth going to build empires elsewhere and will not sit down again to wallow in poverty. So they will go anywhere there is gold.
We have enough resources to divert attention from gold if we can spare a few moments to think. Look at the vast Volta Lake. Tourism alone can take a lot of our young men and women off the streets if we can put that God-given resource to productive use. Any other country like Switzerland would have utilised this vast lake for money-generation and job-creation. We are still searching for solution to our unemployment and poverty problems with idle talks.
The cocoa industry can employ a lot of people if we can take the excitement from the exportation of raw cocoa beans. The aluminium industry is another major area of massive employment, apart from spearheading the country’s industrial effort.
We do not need to destroy our forests in the name of exporting timber only to turn round to import plastic furniture from outside. There are many things we can do for ourselves if our political discourse will be progressive.
Unfortunately that is not the case now. Our political debates are vile, acrimonious and vindictive. We do not care to boast the use of any means to gain or retain power. Patriots who have the interest of the country at heart cannot talk the way most of our political activists are doing. The objective can only lead to one thing — to loot and plunder.
If it is true that God made man in his own image, we have to shed that beggar image and regain our self-worthiness. We have everything to build a healthy and prosperous nation. Today we are being coerced to embrace homosexuality for aid. Obama and David Cameron will not tell that to the Chinese because they have through their own hard work crossed that barrier and are now they are in the position to call the tune.
We have more than enough to do the same or even better. Let us agree that there is nothing like foreign aid and gird our loins for our own survival. So if I question the formula for creation, I do so because in the midst of abundance, we are still hungry and still begging.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Thursday, December 8, 2011
The fate of our landfills
By Kofi Akordor
The recent floods that hit Accra, the nation’s capital, following hours of torrential downpour woefully exposed Accra’s vulnerability as a result of inadequate waste disposal facilities, if we can seriously say there exists any. It became clear after the heavy rains that most of the accumulated water could not find their way through the drains to finally end probably in the sea, because the drains where they existed have been taken over by waste material of various descriptions.
This, apart from the human factor, which is our poor habit of indiscriminate waste disposal, is also the consequence of lack of modern facilities for solid waste treatment and disposal.
The disposal of solid waste has always been an intractable problem throughout Ghana. In the last few years, this problem has assumed increased prominence especially in urban areas mostly owing to the fact that officialdom, as well as the general public, is gradually awakening to the health and environmental threats that looms ahead if we fail to get our act together and tackle the problem as a matter of urgency.
Ghana, just like other developing countries, has been practising land filling as result of the country’s inability to invest huge sums of capital in modern waste treatment systems and machinery as seen in most developed economies. Landfills in Ghana are primarily open dumps and abandoned old quarry pits without proper leachate or gas recovery systems. These may be located in ecological or hydrologically sensitive areas.
Over the years, Metropolitan, Municipal and District budgetary allocations for operation and maintenance of these landfills have been inadequate. This makes it difficult for operators who are charged with the maintenance of the facilities to meet the standards required for safeguarding public health and environmental quality raising crucial concerns about whether not landfills constitute a blessing or a curse to the people they are meant to serve.
Owing to the rapid rate at which urban population is increasing with a corresponding increase in waste generation, waste management operators in Ghana have had to move from one site to another in rapid succession in the last decade as these disposal sites have very short lifespan. These former dump sites include Apenkwa, Mallam, Oblogo 1 & 2, Kwashiebu, Kokroko, Mallam SCC and Sarbah.
The operation of these landfills have come with very daunting challenges which persist up till today as people who reside close to these fills and the general public have put up fierce resistance in an effort to protect their right to live in healthy and hazard-free environments.
A lot of research conducted on landfills and their implications on public health paint a very gloomy picture for this practice. Landfills are said to contain toxic groundwater contaminants, including nitrate, ammonia, solvents, PCBs, and heavy metals. Once these substances reach groundwater, the contamination can be very damaging, particularly if it reaches drinking water wells.
Many substances can make their way into drinking water. These include, but are by no means limited to, bacteria, dissolved salts, heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, and pesticides. Any number of health problems may therefore result in serious diseases, including leukemia. Contaminated groundwater can also cause contaminated air in surrounding homes, and this too poses a variety of health risks.
Surface water run-off from landfills can also be contaminated and very dangerous. Run-off can make its way into nearby bodies of water or on to private property and depending on the chemicals it contains, it can then cause harmful erosion. In instances of closed landfills that have been improperly capped, direct contact with the toxic waste can occur as well. Another major danger from landfills is that decomposing waste produces methane, an odourless gas. Upon making its way into nearby basements, methane can cause explosions. Even the regular unpleasant odours from landfills can pose problems by causing eye irritation or respiratory ailments.
Residents living in the environs of the Sarbah Landfill site near Weija have on countless occasions threatened to forcefully close down the dump sites which currently serves almost the whole of Accra as a result of experiencing some of the problems mentioned above. A resident who spoke to this reporter sent a distress call to the government to come to the rescue of the people in the area, since in his view the state of the dump sites threatens the very life of the people in the area.
“Whenever it rains, running water from the dump sites runs through many of our homes depositing a lot of garbage in the process and the stench that accompanies it cannot be described,” he explained, adding that “even our livestock and pets die when they drink from the gutters that have been contaminated by the dark-coloured water draining from the site”.
Similar complaints of health risks and threats of forceful closure have come from residents around the Abokobi Landfill site, the only site that serves the eastern part of Accra and even supports the main one at Oblogo. The aggrieved residents have severally complained that the site has exceeded its capacity but is still being used hence the compounded nature of problems being posed by the site.
When reached for his comments on the landfill situation in Ghana currently, the acting head of Zoomlion’s Landfill Unit, Mr Sackey Lyndon, confirmed that the two final disposal sites had virtually reached their maximum limits and urgently require closure. “As a matter of urgency, we must find alternative means of disposing of our waste in the months ahead because the Abokobi dump sites has exceeded its capacity and the site at Oblogo cannot go beyond December,” Mr Sackey said.
From all indications, something urgent needs to be done in respect of the final disposal of our waste as it is increasingly becoming cumbersome to find land at an acceptable location to be used as a final disposal site. Besides, we need to do all we can as a nation that claims a middle income status to discourage land filling considering the gamut of troubles that are associated with the practice. This is definitely where the much talked-about Accra Compost and Recycling Plant fits into the equation.
The last time the President of the republic, Prof. J. E. A. Mills, visited the facility nearly two months ago, refreshing news of the plant coming in to solve the nation’s waste disposal problems was everywhere in the air. The facility was then said to be about 80 per cent complete and was billed to begin operations before the end of the year although not much has been heard thereafter.
As time waits for no man, it is imperative that the government and its private sector partners act quickly to propel the plant into operation in the nearest possible time so that we will not only have a place to send our waste to but also derive substantial value from it.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
The recent floods that hit Accra, the nation’s capital, following hours of torrential downpour woefully exposed Accra’s vulnerability as a result of inadequate waste disposal facilities, if we can seriously say there exists any. It became clear after the heavy rains that most of the accumulated water could not find their way through the drains to finally end probably in the sea, because the drains where they existed have been taken over by waste material of various descriptions.
This, apart from the human factor, which is our poor habit of indiscriminate waste disposal, is also the consequence of lack of modern facilities for solid waste treatment and disposal.
The disposal of solid waste has always been an intractable problem throughout Ghana. In the last few years, this problem has assumed increased prominence especially in urban areas mostly owing to the fact that officialdom, as well as the general public, is gradually awakening to the health and environmental threats that looms ahead if we fail to get our act together and tackle the problem as a matter of urgency.
Ghana, just like other developing countries, has been practising land filling as result of the country’s inability to invest huge sums of capital in modern waste treatment systems and machinery as seen in most developed economies. Landfills in Ghana are primarily open dumps and abandoned old quarry pits without proper leachate or gas recovery systems. These may be located in ecological or hydrologically sensitive areas.
Over the years, Metropolitan, Municipal and District budgetary allocations for operation and maintenance of these landfills have been inadequate. This makes it difficult for operators who are charged with the maintenance of the facilities to meet the standards required for safeguarding public health and environmental quality raising crucial concerns about whether not landfills constitute a blessing or a curse to the people they are meant to serve.
Owing to the rapid rate at which urban population is increasing with a corresponding increase in waste generation, waste management operators in Ghana have had to move from one site to another in rapid succession in the last decade as these disposal sites have very short lifespan. These former dump sites include Apenkwa, Mallam, Oblogo 1 & 2, Kwashiebu, Kokroko, Mallam SCC and Sarbah.
The operation of these landfills have come with very daunting challenges which persist up till today as people who reside close to these fills and the general public have put up fierce resistance in an effort to protect their right to live in healthy and hazard-free environments.
A lot of research conducted on landfills and their implications on public health paint a very gloomy picture for this practice. Landfills are said to contain toxic groundwater contaminants, including nitrate, ammonia, solvents, PCBs, and heavy metals. Once these substances reach groundwater, the contamination can be very damaging, particularly if it reaches drinking water wells.
Many substances can make their way into drinking water. These include, but are by no means limited to, bacteria, dissolved salts, heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, and pesticides. Any number of health problems may therefore result in serious diseases, including leukemia. Contaminated groundwater can also cause contaminated air in surrounding homes, and this too poses a variety of health risks.
Surface water run-off from landfills can also be contaminated and very dangerous. Run-off can make its way into nearby bodies of water or on to private property and depending on the chemicals it contains, it can then cause harmful erosion. In instances of closed landfills that have been improperly capped, direct contact with the toxic waste can occur as well. Another major danger from landfills is that decomposing waste produces methane, an odourless gas. Upon making its way into nearby basements, methane can cause explosions. Even the regular unpleasant odours from landfills can pose problems by causing eye irritation or respiratory ailments.
Residents living in the environs of the Sarbah Landfill site near Weija have on countless occasions threatened to forcefully close down the dump sites which currently serves almost the whole of Accra as a result of experiencing some of the problems mentioned above. A resident who spoke to this reporter sent a distress call to the government to come to the rescue of the people in the area, since in his view the state of the dump sites threatens the very life of the people in the area.
“Whenever it rains, running water from the dump sites runs through many of our homes depositing a lot of garbage in the process and the stench that accompanies it cannot be described,” he explained, adding that “even our livestock and pets die when they drink from the gutters that have been contaminated by the dark-coloured water draining from the site”.
Similar complaints of health risks and threats of forceful closure have come from residents around the Abokobi Landfill site, the only site that serves the eastern part of Accra and even supports the main one at Oblogo. The aggrieved residents have severally complained that the site has exceeded its capacity but is still being used hence the compounded nature of problems being posed by the site.
When reached for his comments on the landfill situation in Ghana currently, the acting head of Zoomlion’s Landfill Unit, Mr Sackey Lyndon, confirmed that the two final disposal sites had virtually reached their maximum limits and urgently require closure. “As a matter of urgency, we must find alternative means of disposing of our waste in the months ahead because the Abokobi dump sites has exceeded its capacity and the site at Oblogo cannot go beyond December,” Mr Sackey said.
From all indications, something urgent needs to be done in respect of the final disposal of our waste as it is increasingly becoming cumbersome to find land at an acceptable location to be used as a final disposal site. Besides, we need to do all we can as a nation that claims a middle income status to discourage land filling considering the gamut of troubles that are associated with the practice. This is definitely where the much talked-about Accra Compost and Recycling Plant fits into the equation.
The last time the President of the republic, Prof. J. E. A. Mills, visited the facility nearly two months ago, refreshing news of the plant coming in to solve the nation’s waste disposal problems was everywhere in the air. The facility was then said to be about 80 per cent complete and was billed to begin operations before the end of the year although not much has been heard thereafter.
As time waits for no man, it is imperative that the government and its private sector partners act quickly to propel the plant into operation in the nearest possible time so that we will not only have a place to send our waste to but also derive substantial value from it.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Road safety
By Kofi Akordor
THE figures are staggering and for a country with barely one million registered vehicles, we need to sit up. According to the records of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), an average of six people die daily through road accidents. This makes road accidents one of the major causes of death in the country.
Just last Saturday, 26 people died on the spot when two vehicles, a Metro Mass Transit bus and a Benz passenger bus, collided at Pong-Tamale in the Northern Region. Many others were taken to hospital in critical condition so it will not be surprising if the death figure goes up.
A preliminary assessment indicated that the accident was caused by the recklessness of one of the drivers. That is the naked truth of our situation; the fact that most of the road accidents are caused through human error. This has been identified as speeding, wrong overtaking, driving under the influence of alcohol and sheer disregard for traffic regulations.
While it seems we all know the problem, the solution is still eluding us because those who are the targets of all road safety education – the drivers- are not interested.
If you remove the human factor, there are other factors such as broken-down vehicles which are left unattended to, the nature of the roads and the response to emergency situations which all contribute to casualty figures in the event of accidents.
It is agreed that the government has the primary responsibility to protect its citizens and road safety is not an exception. That is why more is expected from agencies such as the Ghana Police Service, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the National Road Safety Commission to ensure safety on our roads.
Ideally, one would have wished that the state is able to fully resource and adequately equip these agencies so that they can effectively deliver their mandate. Unfortunately, we are not in good times and so it is only fair that the state opens its doors to private participation in road safety.
Kits such as speed guns to check speeding on the highways and breath analysers to check the alcohol level of drivers are in limited supply if they are available at all. Moreover that police do not have towing vehicles to remove broken-down vehicles from the roads or ambulances to convey injured accident victims to medical facilities for treatment.
It is in the spirit of public-private partnership that the government is collaborating with a new company, Road Safety Management Services Limited (RSMSL). RSMSL is set to do all the things that the Motor Transport and Traffic Unit of the Ghana Police Service and other road safety agencies are supposed to do but are unable to do, for obvious reasons.
This is a wholly-owned Ghanaian company which specialises in road safety management through the use of electronic traffic, security and safety solutions to counter the threats of security and provide around-the-clock surveillance on the road.
Reliance on MTTU personnel to enforce road traffic regulations is not yielding the needed results and it is becoming increasingly clear that if we are to get some semblance of sanity on the roads, we need to move one step ahead. So RSMSL is of the belief that with the application of technology-driven systems in road traffic management, the rate at which road accidents occur on our roads can be reduced to the barest minimum.
On that basis, RSMSL is going to provide a broad array of road safety services on a build-operate-and-transfer basis under a public-private partnership scheme.
These include financing the supply, installation, operation and maintenance of a network of traffic cameras to check excessive speeding on the roads and apprehend offending motorists; financing the building, operation and maintenance of vehicle recovery and towing service on the highways for rapid removal and recovery of accident or broken-down vehicles on the road and financing and building of rest stops on all major roads in collaboration with the relevant metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies.
The idea is to check driver fatigue which is another major contributory factor to accidents, especially those involving haulage trucks. These rest stops will also provide other services including quick meals and refreshment in a very relaxed and friendly environment.
RSMSL will also acquire and operate ambulances to ensure the provision of a consistent and reliable ambulance services at vantage points on the country’s major roads. RSMSL is not only about road safety. It is also an enterprise which promises to offer avenues for employment.
The project is envisaged to provide an initial employment for about 1,000 Ghanaians: those who will man the communication centres along the major roads, the central collation and response centres in the various regional capitals, recovery truck drivers and mates, technicians and other ancillary workers.
On the drawing board, this is no doubt a major enterprise which when planted on the ground could bring a lot of improvement in road safety in the country. The smooth take off of these projects presents the country with opportunities for significant development and transfer of skills in technology applications to road safety and security management and we only hope that the project moves from the dream stage to full implementation.
The carnage on our roads is becoming a nightmare and any effort that would stem the tide must be encouraged and supported by every well-meaning Ghanaian and that is why RSMSL, I believe, needs a fertile soil on which to plant its vision and mission.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
THE figures are staggering and for a country with barely one million registered vehicles, we need to sit up. According to the records of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), an average of six people die daily through road accidents. This makes road accidents one of the major causes of death in the country.
Just last Saturday, 26 people died on the spot when two vehicles, a Metro Mass Transit bus and a Benz passenger bus, collided at Pong-Tamale in the Northern Region. Many others were taken to hospital in critical condition so it will not be surprising if the death figure goes up.
A preliminary assessment indicated that the accident was caused by the recklessness of one of the drivers. That is the naked truth of our situation; the fact that most of the road accidents are caused through human error. This has been identified as speeding, wrong overtaking, driving under the influence of alcohol and sheer disregard for traffic regulations.
While it seems we all know the problem, the solution is still eluding us because those who are the targets of all road safety education – the drivers- are not interested.
If you remove the human factor, there are other factors such as broken-down vehicles which are left unattended to, the nature of the roads and the response to emergency situations which all contribute to casualty figures in the event of accidents.
It is agreed that the government has the primary responsibility to protect its citizens and road safety is not an exception. That is why more is expected from agencies such as the Ghana Police Service, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the National Road Safety Commission to ensure safety on our roads.
Ideally, one would have wished that the state is able to fully resource and adequately equip these agencies so that they can effectively deliver their mandate. Unfortunately, we are not in good times and so it is only fair that the state opens its doors to private participation in road safety.
Kits such as speed guns to check speeding on the highways and breath analysers to check the alcohol level of drivers are in limited supply if they are available at all. Moreover that police do not have towing vehicles to remove broken-down vehicles from the roads or ambulances to convey injured accident victims to medical facilities for treatment.
It is in the spirit of public-private partnership that the government is collaborating with a new company, Road Safety Management Services Limited (RSMSL). RSMSL is set to do all the things that the Motor Transport and Traffic Unit of the Ghana Police Service and other road safety agencies are supposed to do but are unable to do, for obvious reasons.
This is a wholly-owned Ghanaian company which specialises in road safety management through the use of electronic traffic, security and safety solutions to counter the threats of security and provide around-the-clock surveillance on the road.
Reliance on MTTU personnel to enforce road traffic regulations is not yielding the needed results and it is becoming increasingly clear that if we are to get some semblance of sanity on the roads, we need to move one step ahead. So RSMSL is of the belief that with the application of technology-driven systems in road traffic management, the rate at which road accidents occur on our roads can be reduced to the barest minimum.
On that basis, RSMSL is going to provide a broad array of road safety services on a build-operate-and-transfer basis under a public-private partnership scheme.
These include financing the supply, installation, operation and maintenance of a network of traffic cameras to check excessive speeding on the roads and apprehend offending motorists; financing the building, operation and maintenance of vehicle recovery and towing service on the highways for rapid removal and recovery of accident or broken-down vehicles on the road and financing and building of rest stops on all major roads in collaboration with the relevant metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies.
The idea is to check driver fatigue which is another major contributory factor to accidents, especially those involving haulage trucks. These rest stops will also provide other services including quick meals and refreshment in a very relaxed and friendly environment.
RSMSL will also acquire and operate ambulances to ensure the provision of a consistent and reliable ambulance services at vantage points on the country’s major roads. RSMSL is not only about road safety. It is also an enterprise which promises to offer avenues for employment.
The project is envisaged to provide an initial employment for about 1,000 Ghanaians: those who will man the communication centres along the major roads, the central collation and response centres in the various regional capitals, recovery truck drivers and mates, technicians and other ancillary workers.
On the drawing board, this is no doubt a major enterprise which when planted on the ground could bring a lot of improvement in road safety in the country. The smooth take off of these projects presents the country with opportunities for significant development and transfer of skills in technology applications to road safety and security management and we only hope that the project moves from the dream stage to full implementation.
The carnage on our roads is becoming a nightmare and any effort that would stem the tide must be encouraged and supported by every well-meaning Ghanaian and that is why RSMSL, I believe, needs a fertile soil on which to plant its vision and mission.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Undisciplined men in uniform
By Kofi Akordor
Discipline is the pivot of every military institution, ours not an exception. In truth, our military is held in high esteem because of the tradition of discipline it has been able to inculcate in its members, from the junior ranks to the top officer corps.
There was a time when indiscipline and lawlessness set in. Those were the days of the revolution when some disgruntled soldiers with military might and political power took the law into their own hands. Those days, thankfully, are gone and our soldiers have retraced their steps to their original mandate of protecting the territorial integrity of the country.
However, we may be moving in the wrong alley if certain dangerous traits being exhibited by some soldiers are not nipped in the bud to restore the image of the military.
Incidentally, any time some soldiers want to go to town to put on display their animalistic instincts, they do so against the police, who are under mandate to keep the peace and maintain law and order. Surprisingly, the police suffer military brutality not for personal reasons but for performing their official functions.
I have ever mentioned in this column a dangerous trend that should be curbed with all seriousness and decisively if we are not to undermine the authority of the police and create a leeway for undisciplined soldiers, in the name of group solidarity, to attack policemen on duty.
Readers may recall that on Friday, June 4, 2010 and Saturday, June 5, 2010, a group of soldiers from the Fourth Garrison went on rampage and brutalised more than a dozen policemen at various duty posts in the Kumasi metropolis, leaving three of them unconscious.
The crime of the police was that they had stopped for questioning a man who was riding an unregistered motorbike without a helmet. The rider was later identified as a soldier. We know our laws frown upon riding an unregistered motorbike and it is equally an offence to ride a motorbike without a helmet. So the police could not be faltered for doing what they did.
The soldier, we were told, drove away in anger and threatened to bring more of his colleagues to teach the policemen a bitter lesson. True to his threats, a military vehicle packed with soldiers returned to the duty post of the policemen and brutally assaulted the policemen, tearing their uniforms in the process.
The soldiers, like sharks that have smelled blood, went on the rampage, attacking every policeman/woman on sight. For two days the soldiers turned Kumasi into a huge battlefield and the police their foes and they deployed all sorts of dangerous weapons, including hammers, and left their victims unconscious.
Before the June incident, on May 20, 2010 a group of soldiers had attacked officials of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) at Suame for arresting their driver who was driving without a valid driving licence and a log book. Then, on May 22, 2010, a soldier went berserk when he was cautioned for driving carelessly and dangerously at Asokwa, a suburb of Kumasi.
These incidents were widely reported in the media but no criminal charges were preferred against those recalcitrant soldiers. The impression given to Ghanaians was that the police and the military were like brothers and so one could misbehave against the other without criminal sanction.
Since the Military High Command and the Police Administration chose to treat those dangerous acts like a family matter, they happened again, this time in Ho when a police corporal went under attack from some soldiers of the 66 Artillery Regiment who were returning from a military exercise.
Incidents like that should not be tolerated in any way and those soldiers who fell foul of the law should not be treated like heroes.
The soldiers are now emboldened, knowing that they could visit town and attack policemen without any criminal sanction. And so they did it again in Tamale last Friday. This time eight soldiers are alleged to have attacked three policemen and a community protection assistant of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) who were doing their work directing traffic.
Two of the police officials were women. Indeed, these cannot be gallant soldiers of our proud Ghana Armed Forces who have decided to exhibit their fighting skills on poor policewomen.
According to the story, the soldiers were avenging an attack on a colleague a few days earlier. Discipline should be the hallmark of both the police and the military and it is becoming a dangerous disease for our soldiers to be slugging it out with the police in public view.
The Ghana Armed Forces is a reputable institution that must jealously guard its image and reputation. It is an institution of disciplined officers and men who have served with distinction in different parts of the world.
It will, therefore, be unfortunate if such rowdy conduct is tolerated or condoned in the name of making peace. Our Police Service may not be the best but it is what we can call our own and it is imperative that we accord it and its members our fullest respect and support.
Our soldiers cannot operate outside our laws. The laws are explicit and we cannot afford room for concessions. We rather expect soldiers to be partners in law enforcement and the last to break the law. The Tamale incident should be investigated and those found culpable made to face the penalties prescribed by law.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Discipline is the pivot of every military institution, ours not an exception. In truth, our military is held in high esteem because of the tradition of discipline it has been able to inculcate in its members, from the junior ranks to the top officer corps.
There was a time when indiscipline and lawlessness set in. Those were the days of the revolution when some disgruntled soldiers with military might and political power took the law into their own hands. Those days, thankfully, are gone and our soldiers have retraced their steps to their original mandate of protecting the territorial integrity of the country.
However, we may be moving in the wrong alley if certain dangerous traits being exhibited by some soldiers are not nipped in the bud to restore the image of the military.
Incidentally, any time some soldiers want to go to town to put on display their animalistic instincts, they do so against the police, who are under mandate to keep the peace and maintain law and order. Surprisingly, the police suffer military brutality not for personal reasons but for performing their official functions.
I have ever mentioned in this column a dangerous trend that should be curbed with all seriousness and decisively if we are not to undermine the authority of the police and create a leeway for undisciplined soldiers, in the name of group solidarity, to attack policemen on duty.
Readers may recall that on Friday, June 4, 2010 and Saturday, June 5, 2010, a group of soldiers from the Fourth Garrison went on rampage and brutalised more than a dozen policemen at various duty posts in the Kumasi metropolis, leaving three of them unconscious.
The crime of the police was that they had stopped for questioning a man who was riding an unregistered motorbike without a helmet. The rider was later identified as a soldier. We know our laws frown upon riding an unregistered motorbike and it is equally an offence to ride a motorbike without a helmet. So the police could not be faltered for doing what they did.
The soldier, we were told, drove away in anger and threatened to bring more of his colleagues to teach the policemen a bitter lesson. True to his threats, a military vehicle packed with soldiers returned to the duty post of the policemen and brutally assaulted the policemen, tearing their uniforms in the process.
The soldiers, like sharks that have smelled blood, went on the rampage, attacking every policeman/woman on sight. For two days the soldiers turned Kumasi into a huge battlefield and the police their foes and they deployed all sorts of dangerous weapons, including hammers, and left their victims unconscious.
Before the June incident, on May 20, 2010 a group of soldiers had attacked officials of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) at Suame for arresting their driver who was driving without a valid driving licence and a log book. Then, on May 22, 2010, a soldier went berserk when he was cautioned for driving carelessly and dangerously at Asokwa, a suburb of Kumasi.
These incidents were widely reported in the media but no criminal charges were preferred against those recalcitrant soldiers. The impression given to Ghanaians was that the police and the military were like brothers and so one could misbehave against the other without criminal sanction.
Since the Military High Command and the Police Administration chose to treat those dangerous acts like a family matter, they happened again, this time in Ho when a police corporal went under attack from some soldiers of the 66 Artillery Regiment who were returning from a military exercise.
Incidents like that should not be tolerated in any way and those soldiers who fell foul of the law should not be treated like heroes.
The soldiers are now emboldened, knowing that they could visit town and attack policemen without any criminal sanction. And so they did it again in Tamale last Friday. This time eight soldiers are alleged to have attacked three policemen and a community protection assistant of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) who were doing their work directing traffic.
Two of the police officials were women. Indeed, these cannot be gallant soldiers of our proud Ghana Armed Forces who have decided to exhibit their fighting skills on poor policewomen.
According to the story, the soldiers were avenging an attack on a colleague a few days earlier. Discipline should be the hallmark of both the police and the military and it is becoming a dangerous disease for our soldiers to be slugging it out with the police in public view.
The Ghana Armed Forces is a reputable institution that must jealously guard its image and reputation. It is an institution of disciplined officers and men who have served with distinction in different parts of the world.
It will, therefore, be unfortunate if such rowdy conduct is tolerated or condoned in the name of making peace. Our Police Service may not be the best but it is what we can call our own and it is imperative that we accord it and its members our fullest respect and support.
Our soldiers cannot operate outside our laws. The laws are explicit and we cannot afford room for concessions. We rather expect soldiers to be partners in law enforcement and the last to break the law. The Tamale incident should be investigated and those found culpable made to face the penalties prescribed by law.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Counting the chicks before they are hatched
By Kofi Akordor
Sod-cutting ceremonies are great events that are very much anticipated by those directly affected. They are occasions which mark the beginning of the realisation of a much-cherished and long-awaited dream. It may be a chapel project by a religious body, a new classroom block for children who have suffered from the vagaries of weather as a result of learning under trees or unsafe sheds.
The bigger the project and the larger the beneficiary population, the higher the excitement. For instance, sod-cutting for the commencement of a road project for a community will be a great day. It signals bringing to a close years of trekking on bush paths before reaching the marketing centres, or if there was one, it means an improved road which will make the people to travel more comfortably and save vehicle owners the arduous task of changing vehicle parts every now and then.
Sod-cuttings became bigger events when politicians realised that they could fit into their propaganda machinery and sustain the support base of their parties or governments. So, if in the past sod-cuttings were mere rituals to signal the commencement of projects, in recent times especially after the return to constitutional multiparty democracy, the events have assumed a different posture, a strong mechanism to prove how caring, effective, sensitive and alive a government is to the plight of the people.
The ceremonies can be very simple or elaborate, covering every type of project including the simple ones such as village toilets, classrooms, markets, office buildings to big ones like medical complexes, housing estates, roads and now universities.
The stakes become higher and the anticipation bigger if the officiating officer happens to be the President of the Republic.
Ideally, and which is usually the case, a lot of ground work is done before the sod-cutting. There are occasions when actually work was ongoing and the sod-cutting becomes a mere public ceremony. Other times too, there will be visible signs of activity in the form of equipment on site.
Strangely, some of the projects never get started. Others get started with a lot of fanfare but are never completed. Going by the number of sods that have been cut for new projects since our return to constitutional rule in 1993, this country should have moved beyond a new middle income country to a young developed country brimming with beautiful roads, well-developed medical facilities and an educational infrastructure that will be the envy of other countries.
Unfortunately, next to the wild promises politicians make on campaign platforms, sod-cutting has become another tool of deceit to keep the electorate hoodwinked and kept in perpetual hope of a better tomorrow.
It is becoming clear that sod-cuttings as events are losing their vim and instead of giving us hope are making us dejected. The habit of going into frenzy and cutting sods or inaugurating uncompleted projects should end because what our political leaders are missing to realise is that they are not making things better for themselves or for the country.
Many people are prepared to accept the truth than to feel fooled. If you make a campaign promise and the reality on the ground makes it difficult it is better to admit so and suffer a few flacks from your political opponents than lose the confidence of the majority of the population.
In 2008, we saw what has become election gimmicks when former President J. A. Kufuor embarked on a frenzied sod-cutting spree, awarding contracts left and right and inaugurating half-completed projects. It did not work. You may say the die was cast. It was evidently clear that Ghanaians can endure many things but are not impressed by those gimmicks.
A recent instance is the ceremony to announce the start of a project especially major ones like the STX Housing Project and the University of Health and Allied Sciences for the Volta Region and the University of Energy and Renewable Natural Resources in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region.
If it did not work yesterday, there is no reason why it will work today. That is why the Mills Administration should look into the past and know how to manage its affairs today for a better tomorrow.
These are projects that the government, I want to believe, is seriously and genuinely committed to and determined to pursue to their logical conclusion. Unfortunately, we were not ready when the impression was created that everything was ready.
Under the circumstances we have created a credibility gap which is becoming difficult to fill. We may think this is just a political game, but that should not be case. Such things undermine our development agenda, since they have the tendency to disrupt the pace of development projects.
If we want to make it just like those countries that are on a firm path of development, then we must be consistent in the way we handle our development goals. Right now, there are a lot of projects that have been abandoned in various stages of construction. Some of these projects date back to the days of Dr Kwame Nkrumah. An example of that era are the silos that have been abandoned after his overthrow while we still grapple with the problem of storage of farm produce.
Some of us are saddened by the neglect of the housing projects started in the Kufuor Administration while the one promised by this government are yet to get a single foundation laid. So what will be the fate of say, STX, if it should ever be started and not completed before the exit of President Mills? Will it become another wasteful national venture while millions of Ghanaians do not have a place they can call home?
As a nation, we should stop the joke and be serious. A lot of us are not impressed at all at the pace of our development. We have saturated the air with empty talk while problems are begging for solution. Our politics is maturing if even slowly and sooner than later, many Ghanaians will begin to make fair and objective analysis of political issues bordering on our national development and survival devoid of emotions.
The fact that we have switched from one political party to another in 2000 and 2008 is a testimony of the fact that party propagandists may have their say, but the electorate will have their way at the crucial hour. Let us, therefore, slow down the talk and do the walk. Let us not count the chickens before they are hatched. Shall we not then concentrate on what we have achieved rather than promises which may remain nothing but day dreams?
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Sod-cutting ceremonies are great events that are very much anticipated by those directly affected. They are occasions which mark the beginning of the realisation of a much-cherished and long-awaited dream. It may be a chapel project by a religious body, a new classroom block for children who have suffered from the vagaries of weather as a result of learning under trees or unsafe sheds.
The bigger the project and the larger the beneficiary population, the higher the excitement. For instance, sod-cutting for the commencement of a road project for a community will be a great day. It signals bringing to a close years of trekking on bush paths before reaching the marketing centres, or if there was one, it means an improved road which will make the people to travel more comfortably and save vehicle owners the arduous task of changing vehicle parts every now and then.
Sod-cuttings became bigger events when politicians realised that they could fit into their propaganda machinery and sustain the support base of their parties or governments. So, if in the past sod-cuttings were mere rituals to signal the commencement of projects, in recent times especially after the return to constitutional multiparty democracy, the events have assumed a different posture, a strong mechanism to prove how caring, effective, sensitive and alive a government is to the plight of the people.
The ceremonies can be very simple or elaborate, covering every type of project including the simple ones such as village toilets, classrooms, markets, office buildings to big ones like medical complexes, housing estates, roads and now universities.
The stakes become higher and the anticipation bigger if the officiating officer happens to be the President of the Republic.
Ideally, and which is usually the case, a lot of ground work is done before the sod-cutting. There are occasions when actually work was ongoing and the sod-cutting becomes a mere public ceremony. Other times too, there will be visible signs of activity in the form of equipment on site.
Strangely, some of the projects never get started. Others get started with a lot of fanfare but are never completed. Going by the number of sods that have been cut for new projects since our return to constitutional rule in 1993, this country should have moved beyond a new middle income country to a young developed country brimming with beautiful roads, well-developed medical facilities and an educational infrastructure that will be the envy of other countries.
Unfortunately, next to the wild promises politicians make on campaign platforms, sod-cutting has become another tool of deceit to keep the electorate hoodwinked and kept in perpetual hope of a better tomorrow.
It is becoming clear that sod-cuttings as events are losing their vim and instead of giving us hope are making us dejected. The habit of going into frenzy and cutting sods or inaugurating uncompleted projects should end because what our political leaders are missing to realise is that they are not making things better for themselves or for the country.
Many people are prepared to accept the truth than to feel fooled. If you make a campaign promise and the reality on the ground makes it difficult it is better to admit so and suffer a few flacks from your political opponents than lose the confidence of the majority of the population.
In 2008, we saw what has become election gimmicks when former President J. A. Kufuor embarked on a frenzied sod-cutting spree, awarding contracts left and right and inaugurating half-completed projects. It did not work. You may say the die was cast. It was evidently clear that Ghanaians can endure many things but are not impressed by those gimmicks.
A recent instance is the ceremony to announce the start of a project especially major ones like the STX Housing Project and the University of Health and Allied Sciences for the Volta Region and the University of Energy and Renewable Natural Resources in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region.
If it did not work yesterday, there is no reason why it will work today. That is why the Mills Administration should look into the past and know how to manage its affairs today for a better tomorrow.
These are projects that the government, I want to believe, is seriously and genuinely committed to and determined to pursue to their logical conclusion. Unfortunately, we were not ready when the impression was created that everything was ready.
Under the circumstances we have created a credibility gap which is becoming difficult to fill. We may think this is just a political game, but that should not be case. Such things undermine our development agenda, since they have the tendency to disrupt the pace of development projects.
If we want to make it just like those countries that are on a firm path of development, then we must be consistent in the way we handle our development goals. Right now, there are a lot of projects that have been abandoned in various stages of construction. Some of these projects date back to the days of Dr Kwame Nkrumah. An example of that era are the silos that have been abandoned after his overthrow while we still grapple with the problem of storage of farm produce.
Some of us are saddened by the neglect of the housing projects started in the Kufuor Administration while the one promised by this government are yet to get a single foundation laid. So what will be the fate of say, STX, if it should ever be started and not completed before the exit of President Mills? Will it become another wasteful national venture while millions of Ghanaians do not have a place they can call home?
As a nation, we should stop the joke and be serious. A lot of us are not impressed at all at the pace of our development. We have saturated the air with empty talk while problems are begging for solution. Our politics is maturing if even slowly and sooner than later, many Ghanaians will begin to make fair and objective analysis of political issues bordering on our national development and survival devoid of emotions.
The fact that we have switched from one political party to another in 2000 and 2008 is a testimony of the fact that party propagandists may have their say, but the electorate will have their way at the crucial hour. Let us, therefore, slow down the talk and do the walk. Let us not count the chickens before they are hatched. Shall we not then concentrate on what we have achieved rather than promises which may remain nothing but day dreams?
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Tough, soothing words
By Kofi Akordor
President John Evans Atta Mills virtually brought the country together when he publicly declared that the country will not go down on its knees for aid with strings attached. That sent the adrenalin pumping through our veins with excitement.
That was when the British Prime Minister, Mr David Cameron, made a statement linking aid to gay rights. That pronouncement created the platform for the President to make the most emphatic statement on homosexuals and lesbians, a subject that has gained currency in recent times.
The British Prime Minister’s threat did not come as a surprise to some of us. Earlier in June this year, Mr Stephen O’Brien, the UK Minister in charge of Department of International Development, visited the country and issued a warning against anti-gay sentiments and the repercussions of cutting aid. That means the British position is clear on gay rights.
Some of us are not going to spend time talking about gay rights and how the Western world in the name of human rights have become desperate about it, to the extent that a country’s right to assistance is going to be measured according to how it treats homosexuals and lesbians.
Ghanaians would have applauded Cameron if he had ended by saying the British government will tie aid to transparency and accountability in public expenditure especially by politicians who have developed the appetite for squandering state resources and lining their pockets with what belongs to all.
Unfortunately the issue of gays is something that is not dear to the hearts of many Ghanaians. At least that is what it seems publicly, hence the unanimity in the condemnations of Cameron’s threat.
Some of us would wish that President Mills’s declaration that the country will not succumb to aid with strings attached will advance beyond the gay issue and apply to all other foreign assistance that come with lots of strings attached, some subtle, some direct.
Our worry is how we have become so addicted to foreign aid to the extent that without it, our life as a nation is not complete. We live in a global village and there is no way we can pursue any development agenda without one form of foreign assistance or another. And so far as it is the only option we cannot but go that way.
However, looking at our natural resources, it seems we have made too much fetish about foreign aid. Some of the things we call foreign assistance are nothing but peanuts which only make us subservient to other countries without necessarily contributing to our national development.
Many Ghanaians strongly believe that with the right leadership, we can generate enough from our own natural resources to make nonsense of the type of threats we are getting from the UK government.
Most of the countries we go to begging for assistance do not have a fraction of our resources. So the question is what is wrong with us? For a small country like Ghana with a lot of mineral resources, abundant fresh water and now oil and natural gas we should be the last to be blackmailed in the name of development assistance.
We may be clapping today because we have rebuffed David Cameron’s gay rights and development aid. We will be fooling ourselves into believing that the matter will end there. Very soon, the pressure will be coming not only from Britain, but from all the powerful Western countries and by extension, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other funding agencies.
Knowing our peculiar situation, how long are we going to keep the fight and resist the demands of our donors? The best resistance and the most assuring is to develop and sustain the spirit of self-reliance.
In that case, any foreign engagement will be mutual and not that of master/servant as is the case now. It can be done. China has proved it. In relative terms, we have more than China in terms of natural resources and, therefore, have no excuse to fail.
For David Cameron, we will realise if we are serious that he is a saviour who has jostled us from our slumber because sooner than later the pressures will descend on us like an avalanche and will crumble weakly like a dry leaf. Let us begin to think within and accept the fact that no amount of foreign aid will move us away from poverty and underdevelopment.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
President John Evans Atta Mills virtually brought the country together when he publicly declared that the country will not go down on its knees for aid with strings attached. That sent the adrenalin pumping through our veins with excitement.
That was when the British Prime Minister, Mr David Cameron, made a statement linking aid to gay rights. That pronouncement created the platform for the President to make the most emphatic statement on homosexuals and lesbians, a subject that has gained currency in recent times.
The British Prime Minister’s threat did not come as a surprise to some of us. Earlier in June this year, Mr Stephen O’Brien, the UK Minister in charge of Department of International Development, visited the country and issued a warning against anti-gay sentiments and the repercussions of cutting aid. That means the British position is clear on gay rights.
Some of us are not going to spend time talking about gay rights and how the Western world in the name of human rights have become desperate about it, to the extent that a country’s right to assistance is going to be measured according to how it treats homosexuals and lesbians.
Ghanaians would have applauded Cameron if he had ended by saying the British government will tie aid to transparency and accountability in public expenditure especially by politicians who have developed the appetite for squandering state resources and lining their pockets with what belongs to all.
Unfortunately the issue of gays is something that is not dear to the hearts of many Ghanaians. At least that is what it seems publicly, hence the unanimity in the condemnations of Cameron’s threat.
Some of us would wish that President Mills’s declaration that the country will not succumb to aid with strings attached will advance beyond the gay issue and apply to all other foreign assistance that come with lots of strings attached, some subtle, some direct.
Our worry is how we have become so addicted to foreign aid to the extent that without it, our life as a nation is not complete. We live in a global village and there is no way we can pursue any development agenda without one form of foreign assistance or another. And so far as it is the only option we cannot but go that way.
However, looking at our natural resources, it seems we have made too much fetish about foreign aid. Some of the things we call foreign assistance are nothing but peanuts which only make us subservient to other countries without necessarily contributing to our national development.
Many Ghanaians strongly believe that with the right leadership, we can generate enough from our own natural resources to make nonsense of the type of threats we are getting from the UK government.
Most of the countries we go to begging for assistance do not have a fraction of our resources. So the question is what is wrong with us? For a small country like Ghana with a lot of mineral resources, abundant fresh water and now oil and natural gas we should be the last to be blackmailed in the name of development assistance.
We may be clapping today because we have rebuffed David Cameron’s gay rights and development aid. We will be fooling ourselves into believing that the matter will end there. Very soon, the pressure will be coming not only from Britain, but from all the powerful Western countries and by extension, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other funding agencies.
Knowing our peculiar situation, how long are we going to keep the fight and resist the demands of our donors? The best resistance and the most assuring is to develop and sustain the spirit of self-reliance.
In that case, any foreign engagement will be mutual and not that of master/servant as is the case now. It can be done. China has proved it. In relative terms, we have more than China in terms of natural resources and, therefore, have no excuse to fail.
For David Cameron, we will realise if we are serious that he is a saviour who has jostled us from our slumber because sooner than later the pressures will descend on us like an avalanche and will crumble weakly like a dry leaf. Let us begin to think within and accept the fact that no amount of foreign aid will move us away from poverty and underdevelopment.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
The floating millennium city
By Kofi Akordor
We were getting submerged in that cacophony of noise of Accra becoming a millennium city until the rains of Tuesday, October 25, 2011, exposed the hollowness in that boisterous claim. After hours of heavy rainfall which went deep into the night the previous day, Ghanaians woke up on Wednesday to the unfortunate realisation that half of their national capital was floating on dirty, stinking flood waters.
Almost the whole of Accra West became a huge pond with a flotilla of containers, kiosks which served as shops and sleeping places. Floating on the flood waters were various household items including mattresses, trunks, chop-boxes, fridges, television sets and cooking utensils.
It was unbelievable but true that vehicles were overturned and drifting on the waters which also exhumed tonnes of refuse which lay buried under what were supposed to be the city’s drains.
The floods, apart from misery inflicted on individuals and corporate institutions, also seriously exposed the big slum Accra, our national capital, has become. Most of the places which the flood took a heavy toll on were clearly unplanned and lacked the necessary facilities to drain the rainwater.
Think of areas like Odawna, Alajo, Santa Maria, Sowutuom, then you can conjure a picture of containers placed everywhere, houses built in a haphazard manner and drains choked to the full with waste of all descriptions.
We all know the problem. We seem to know the solutions. What we lack is the capacity, the ability, the sincere determination and wherewithal to pursue a vigorous drainage development programme.
To begin with, our city drains are very small and shallow and, therefore, lack the capacity to take large volumes of water. Second, they are not covered and, therefore, are an attraction to careless and filthy people who throw rubbish in them.
Apart from these are the bigger problem of illegal structures that have sprung up everywhere, taking over watercourses, drains and marshy lands. It seems economic survival has overtaken all other survival instincts and, therefore, workshops, stores and markets have taken over every available space without any regard for building plans.
Over the years, our corrupt nature has taken strong possession of us, making it difficult for our state institutions to operate firmly and fairly. That is why unauthorised structures have survived even though we always see; “Stop Work, Produce Permit” boldly written on the walls of these structures.
The permits are never produced and the work never stopped. The city authorities and the Town and Country Planning Department have become impotent to exercise their mandate because of the lure of the envelop which their officials are unable to resist.
Our situation is not made better because of our brand of democracy which gives political twist to every action of the government. Since our departure from military dictatorship to multiparty democracy by virtue of the 1992 Constitutions, all governments have made some amount of effort to enforce building codes to no avail. You only need to bring down one or two buildings constructed at the wrong place or without permit, and the political vampires who want to capitalise on everything to make political gain condemn the action.
We have become so desperate for political power to have access to state resources that we do not know what is the common good to be pursued with common determination. Today, political parties want to remain in power or attain it at all costs and, therefore, find it difficult to enforce laws we have made ourselves to ensure sanity in the system.
Refuse collection and disposal has become a major problem for the country. Things have changed but we are still living in the past. What we termed waste management is actually refuse relocation. We collect from one place and dump it at another place. In other words, we attempt to save some citizens from filth and rather compound the condition of other citizens in another part of the city.
Waste recycling, which is big business elsewhere, is still remote to us and so we watch with helpless abandon while the capital city is being buried under tonnes and tonnes of garbage. From the photographs of the floods published, it was clear that choked gutters and drains played a big role in the floods.
Most major cities have made good use of the rivers flowing through them. Take the Thames in London, the Hudson in New York, the Potomac in Washington DC, the Seine in Paris. These rivers have been effectively used for water transportation, for harbours and for ecological balance.
Our Odaw which passes through Accra is a different story. It is dead and only brings death and destruction to city dwellers who find themselves close to its banks.
The floods are not only causing personal distress to individuals but are also doing damage to our investment ambitions. Graphic Road particularly suffered a lot and it was sad seeing big companies like Toyota Ghana Limited, Japan Motors, Azar Chemicals, Rana Motors and many others virtually submerged and products worth millions of Ghana cedis destroyed. This cannot be an invitation for other companies to come and do business here.
President John Evans Atta Mills responded the way others before him ritualistically did. First, to wade through the muddy, filthy flood waters to declare sympathy for victims and to make big promises to help victims recover from their shock and loss and then make a bigger promise to take all possible measures to prevent a recurrence of the disaster.
This year, we heard from the lips of the President that $500 million is being sourced to embark on major drainage works in Accra. We know, however, that all things being equal, the rains will come again, the floods will come and there will be another big promise to the people of Ghana. Talk, talk and talk, no action. That is a specialty no one can take away from us.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
We were getting submerged in that cacophony of noise of Accra becoming a millennium city until the rains of Tuesday, October 25, 2011, exposed the hollowness in that boisterous claim. After hours of heavy rainfall which went deep into the night the previous day, Ghanaians woke up on Wednesday to the unfortunate realisation that half of their national capital was floating on dirty, stinking flood waters.
Almost the whole of Accra West became a huge pond with a flotilla of containers, kiosks which served as shops and sleeping places. Floating on the flood waters were various household items including mattresses, trunks, chop-boxes, fridges, television sets and cooking utensils.
It was unbelievable but true that vehicles were overturned and drifting on the waters which also exhumed tonnes of refuse which lay buried under what were supposed to be the city’s drains.
The floods, apart from misery inflicted on individuals and corporate institutions, also seriously exposed the big slum Accra, our national capital, has become. Most of the places which the flood took a heavy toll on were clearly unplanned and lacked the necessary facilities to drain the rainwater.
Think of areas like Odawna, Alajo, Santa Maria, Sowutuom, then you can conjure a picture of containers placed everywhere, houses built in a haphazard manner and drains choked to the full with waste of all descriptions.
We all know the problem. We seem to know the solutions. What we lack is the capacity, the ability, the sincere determination and wherewithal to pursue a vigorous drainage development programme.
To begin with, our city drains are very small and shallow and, therefore, lack the capacity to take large volumes of water. Second, they are not covered and, therefore, are an attraction to careless and filthy people who throw rubbish in them.
Apart from these are the bigger problem of illegal structures that have sprung up everywhere, taking over watercourses, drains and marshy lands. It seems economic survival has overtaken all other survival instincts and, therefore, workshops, stores and markets have taken over every available space without any regard for building plans.
Over the years, our corrupt nature has taken strong possession of us, making it difficult for our state institutions to operate firmly and fairly. That is why unauthorised structures have survived even though we always see; “Stop Work, Produce Permit” boldly written on the walls of these structures.
The permits are never produced and the work never stopped. The city authorities and the Town and Country Planning Department have become impotent to exercise their mandate because of the lure of the envelop which their officials are unable to resist.
Our situation is not made better because of our brand of democracy which gives political twist to every action of the government. Since our departure from military dictatorship to multiparty democracy by virtue of the 1992 Constitutions, all governments have made some amount of effort to enforce building codes to no avail. You only need to bring down one or two buildings constructed at the wrong place or without permit, and the political vampires who want to capitalise on everything to make political gain condemn the action.
We have become so desperate for political power to have access to state resources that we do not know what is the common good to be pursued with common determination. Today, political parties want to remain in power or attain it at all costs and, therefore, find it difficult to enforce laws we have made ourselves to ensure sanity in the system.
Refuse collection and disposal has become a major problem for the country. Things have changed but we are still living in the past. What we termed waste management is actually refuse relocation. We collect from one place and dump it at another place. In other words, we attempt to save some citizens from filth and rather compound the condition of other citizens in another part of the city.
Waste recycling, which is big business elsewhere, is still remote to us and so we watch with helpless abandon while the capital city is being buried under tonnes and tonnes of garbage. From the photographs of the floods published, it was clear that choked gutters and drains played a big role in the floods.
Most major cities have made good use of the rivers flowing through them. Take the Thames in London, the Hudson in New York, the Potomac in Washington DC, the Seine in Paris. These rivers have been effectively used for water transportation, for harbours and for ecological balance.
Our Odaw which passes through Accra is a different story. It is dead and only brings death and destruction to city dwellers who find themselves close to its banks.
The floods are not only causing personal distress to individuals but are also doing damage to our investment ambitions. Graphic Road particularly suffered a lot and it was sad seeing big companies like Toyota Ghana Limited, Japan Motors, Azar Chemicals, Rana Motors and many others virtually submerged and products worth millions of Ghana cedis destroyed. This cannot be an invitation for other companies to come and do business here.
President John Evans Atta Mills responded the way others before him ritualistically did. First, to wade through the muddy, filthy flood waters to declare sympathy for victims and to make big promises to help victims recover from their shock and loss and then make a bigger promise to take all possible measures to prevent a recurrence of the disaster.
This year, we heard from the lips of the President that $500 million is being sourced to embark on major drainage works in Accra. We know, however, that all things being equal, the rains will come again, the floods will come and there will be another big promise to the people of Ghana. Talk, talk and talk, no action. That is a specialty no one can take away from us.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Houses for ex-Presidents
By Kofi Akordor
I havebeen trying hard to find the justification for or the wisdom which informed the recommendation that former Presidents, among other things, should be lavished with two houses, one in Accra and another at any place of their choice.
Any time I see the squalor and deprivations surrounding us, I wonder whether those who made that recommendation were part of this country and its people or they were some people from somewhere who were entirely oblivious of conditions in this country.
I am equally baffled that former President John Agyekum Kufuor, after seeing the final work of the Mary Chinery-Hesse Committee before it was made public, did not see anything wrong with the recommendations.
Some of us will not be surprised if former President Kufuor made a personal input into the Chinery-Hesse Report because of the religious fervor he has been demanding its implementation to the letter.
The ex gratia of the so-called Article 71 office holders became a very big issue soon after the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of Professor John Evans Atta Mills came to power because of some of the outrageous recommendations contained in the Chinery-Hesse Report and which we were told was ratified by the then Parliament.
For a former President, the committee recommended that as part of the resettlement plan, he be given two houses, not ordinary ones, one in Accra and the other at a place of his choice. In addition, he should be given six fresh vehicles, one to be armoured, which should be replaced every four years.
Did we elect people who offered themselves for the presidency only for them to become a burden on us for their imperial lifestyles? Did they offer themselves because they thought they had a vision for this country, or they just want to improve their lot it even means collapsing the economy of this country?
The argument was bandied around that the resettlement plan was so designed so that our former presidents will live in dignity after retirement and, second, to ensure that while in office, they do not dip their hands into the national kitty for personal aggrandizement.
That is a hollow argument, anyway. Even though it is not a constitutional requirement, we do not expect someone who is squatting in somebody’s hall and chamber to be our president. Anyone with good ideas for this country should be able to show by personal success that he is capable of delivering in the wider national context.
Former President Kufuor proved it by using his personal house as presidential palace for the eight years that he was in office.We do not see how justifiable it will be to build two new mansions for each former President, because that is the only way to guarantee him/her a dignified retirement.
Very importantly, even in jurisdictions where there are tight controls to check graft among public office holders, officers including presidents do not go home wish such lavish entitlements. We are in Africa and we cannot pretend to be unaware of the fact that our anti-corruption laws have very marginal chances of success.
We cannot also run away from the fact that most of the politicians in this part of the world cannot claim to be making sacrifices since they are in the main, more desperately committed to their stomachs than the national interest. Any decision that seems to push these realities into the background will be unfair to the conscience of the people.
The Chinery-Hesse Committee defended its position by claiming the members toured various countries and studied retirement packages for other presidents before coming out with their recommendations. It did not mention the names of the countries visited nor make public the types of packages they had for their retired heads of state.
If their trips took them to African countries, then straightaway they have made a big mistake, since most African leaders do not leave office voluntarily, anyway, and if they are compelled to leave, they are very likely to make such outrageous demands, hiding behind such presidential committees as the one we also did here.
Just as we were beginning to forget the matter, hoping it is now history, the news of our two former presidents rejecting offers of houses made to them at the plush Trassaco Valley hit us with a bang. The two former leaders were not impressed with the offer.While former President Rawlings was not enthused because it was not a permanent abode, Mr Kufuor was not interested because, according to his spokesperson, he was not consulted and did not make any input into the acquisition and allocation.
Why should we get entangled in such a web which should not have been in the first place? Our former presidents, like all other public office holders and public servants, deserve good pension packages.
If those doing the calculations think the present monthly pension for former presidents is not adequate, they can enhance it and subject it to periodic reviews, as is done for other workers.
The issue of houses should be ruled out completely. That is where I agree with PresidentMills that houses should not feature in the retirement packages for former presidents. I, however, disagree with his recommendation that former presidents should be paid rent allowances for their accommodation. That is also a burden that the state cannot carry. Every president of the Republic should be able to retire and go to reside in his or her home.
The state can pay bulk cash on retirement and monthly pension as will be prescribed by the appropriate authorities. Beyond that, State Protocol should be able to cater for other needs, such as foreign travels, allocation of vehicles for personal and official use and all other services a former president deserves.
The agitation we are experiencing on the labour front these days is in part due to the lifestyles of politicians who seem to have stumbled upon some fortune overnight. Many workers are beginning to believe that the men and women who came begging them for their mandate to lead them are not telling them all the truth.
While they are being told every day that there is not much to go round, a lot of the young politicians have developed bloated cheeks in a matter of months. Sometimes it is not easy to hide newly acquired wealth. That is why some of the professionals have become very aggressive in their demands.
The last thing we should do to aggravate the situation is turn what is considered a sacrificial job into a business empire for people. We need to treat our past leaders fair and square, but that should make them like albatrosses hanging on our necks.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
I havebeen trying hard to find the justification for or the wisdom which informed the recommendation that former Presidents, among other things, should be lavished with two houses, one in Accra and another at any place of their choice.
Any time I see the squalor and deprivations surrounding us, I wonder whether those who made that recommendation were part of this country and its people or they were some people from somewhere who were entirely oblivious of conditions in this country.
I am equally baffled that former President John Agyekum Kufuor, after seeing the final work of the Mary Chinery-Hesse Committee before it was made public, did not see anything wrong with the recommendations.
Some of us will not be surprised if former President Kufuor made a personal input into the Chinery-Hesse Report because of the religious fervor he has been demanding its implementation to the letter.
The ex gratia of the so-called Article 71 office holders became a very big issue soon after the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of Professor John Evans Atta Mills came to power because of some of the outrageous recommendations contained in the Chinery-Hesse Report and which we were told was ratified by the then Parliament.
For a former President, the committee recommended that as part of the resettlement plan, he be given two houses, not ordinary ones, one in Accra and the other at a place of his choice. In addition, he should be given six fresh vehicles, one to be armoured, which should be replaced every four years.
Did we elect people who offered themselves for the presidency only for them to become a burden on us for their imperial lifestyles? Did they offer themselves because they thought they had a vision for this country, or they just want to improve their lot it even means collapsing the economy of this country?
The argument was bandied around that the resettlement plan was so designed so that our former presidents will live in dignity after retirement and, second, to ensure that while in office, they do not dip their hands into the national kitty for personal aggrandizement.
That is a hollow argument, anyway. Even though it is not a constitutional requirement, we do not expect someone who is squatting in somebody’s hall and chamber to be our president. Anyone with good ideas for this country should be able to show by personal success that he is capable of delivering in the wider national context.
Former President Kufuor proved it by using his personal house as presidential palace for the eight years that he was in office.We do not see how justifiable it will be to build two new mansions for each former President, because that is the only way to guarantee him/her a dignified retirement.
Very importantly, even in jurisdictions where there are tight controls to check graft among public office holders, officers including presidents do not go home wish such lavish entitlements. We are in Africa and we cannot pretend to be unaware of the fact that our anti-corruption laws have very marginal chances of success.
We cannot also run away from the fact that most of the politicians in this part of the world cannot claim to be making sacrifices since they are in the main, more desperately committed to their stomachs than the national interest. Any decision that seems to push these realities into the background will be unfair to the conscience of the people.
The Chinery-Hesse Committee defended its position by claiming the members toured various countries and studied retirement packages for other presidents before coming out with their recommendations. It did not mention the names of the countries visited nor make public the types of packages they had for their retired heads of state.
If their trips took them to African countries, then straightaway they have made a big mistake, since most African leaders do not leave office voluntarily, anyway, and if they are compelled to leave, they are very likely to make such outrageous demands, hiding behind such presidential committees as the one we also did here.
Just as we were beginning to forget the matter, hoping it is now history, the news of our two former presidents rejecting offers of houses made to them at the plush Trassaco Valley hit us with a bang. The two former leaders were not impressed with the offer.While former President Rawlings was not enthused because it was not a permanent abode, Mr Kufuor was not interested because, according to his spokesperson, he was not consulted and did not make any input into the acquisition and allocation.
Why should we get entangled in such a web which should not have been in the first place? Our former presidents, like all other public office holders and public servants, deserve good pension packages.
If those doing the calculations think the present monthly pension for former presidents is not adequate, they can enhance it and subject it to periodic reviews, as is done for other workers.
The issue of houses should be ruled out completely. That is where I agree with PresidentMills that houses should not feature in the retirement packages for former presidents. I, however, disagree with his recommendation that former presidents should be paid rent allowances for their accommodation. That is also a burden that the state cannot carry. Every president of the Republic should be able to retire and go to reside in his or her home.
The state can pay bulk cash on retirement and monthly pension as will be prescribed by the appropriate authorities. Beyond that, State Protocol should be able to cater for other needs, such as foreign travels, allocation of vehicles for personal and official use and all other services a former president deserves.
The agitation we are experiencing on the labour front these days is in part due to the lifestyles of politicians who seem to have stumbled upon some fortune overnight. Many workers are beginning to believe that the men and women who came begging them for their mandate to lead them are not telling them all the truth.
While they are being told every day that there is not much to go round, a lot of the young politicians have developed bloated cheeks in a matter of months. Sometimes it is not easy to hide newly acquired wealth. That is why some of the professionals have become very aggressive in their demands.
The last thing we should do to aggravate the situation is turn what is considered a sacrificial job into a business empire for people. We need to treat our past leaders fair and square, but that should make them like albatrosses hanging on our necks.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Blackmail
By Kofi Akordor
Imagine the frustration of a young medical officer who, after a hard day’s work, got home only to realise that he could not unwind watching his favourite television programme because electricity was off. Technicians of the energy company are at war with their employees over service conditions and have, therefore, withdrawn their services.
What about the mother who could not prepare the evening meal for the family because the taps would not flow simply because the water company workers were at loggerheads with their managers over better service conditions and would not work.
I once made a wrong calculation and paid dearly for it. I was to attend an interview and misjudged the flow of traffic. Before I could realise it, I was hard up with time and desperately started to flag every taxi passing with the intention to pick ‘dropping’. As it were, all taxis seemed to have different missions that morning and, therefore, ignored my signals. In the end, I lost the opportunity.
We all suffer anytime electricity power goes off, for the sake of those so-called maintenance schedules, load-shedding or because the transformer had suffered a mishap because of lightning or through the activities of thieves.
We know what happens when the tap does not flow for a day or two for whatever reason. Programmes are thrown out of gear and even at the workplace we lack concentration because our minds are on where to get the precious water for household use.
The stench from the toilets at home, the office and other public places keeps reminding us that a very important resource — water — is missing in our lives.
Until we are confronted with such deprivations, nobody bothers to give a split-second thought to workers of the power company or that of water.
As for taxi drivers, we only remember them as illiterate rogues who will not wash in the morning before jumping behind the steering wheel for the day’s work. Wait until you are suddenly taken sick in the night; then you will realize that taxi drivers are gods.
Such is life that no matter how small or insignificant others are, we are inter-dependent and the collapse of one unit, whether deliberate or by accident, disorganises our personal, official, commercial and industrial activities.
We do not spare a moment to think about the policeman (after all the police only take bribes) until a thief or an armed robber raids our homes or a careless driver rams into our vehicle. Then we are on all fours seeking police intervention. Can we imagine the chaos at our traffic intersections where our traffic lights never work without the presence of the police? That is why we should not trivialise the importance of anyone in society.
No matter how hard we may try, we still fall sick or fall victim to accidents. That is why doctors will continue to play a big role in our daily lives. It will, therefore, be suicidal for anybody to underestimate the importance of medical officers. In fact, even the services of the village medicine man are greatly revered and his opinions on health matters are taken with all seriousness.
Ours is a very dirty environment, especially Accra, Kumasi and other big towns, and, coupled with poor nutrition and bad lifestyles, we are always at the mercy of various diseases. So doctors, whether we like it or not, will be our regular companions.
I do not think I will be wrong if I venture to say that the majority of Ghanaians value and appreciate the work of doctors and other health workers and would wish that they get everything they demand. Anytime I visit the hospital and see the condition under which health workers operate, I know that even though it is their choice, they are making a lot of sacrifices that must be appreciated and fully rewarded.
Doctors, like all other workers, have every right to agitate for better service conditions and I believe members of the public will support their cause, knowing the role they are playing in our survival as individuals and as a nation. But, as stated earlier, in all scheme of things, we should not forget that we are in an interdependent world and no matter how we value ourselves, we should not ignore the roles others play in our lives.
Many considerations might have gone into drafting the labour laws of the country which outlawed strikes by certain categories of workers, including doctors and other health workers. Unfortunately, doctors have ignored this law and not even the pleas of President John Evans Atta Mills will turn their hearts.
Whether it takes a few days, weeks, months or even years, they will get their money one day. But lives lost are gone forever, even though, as Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful, the President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), declared, whether they the doctors worked or not, people would die anyway.
The doctors’ strike will eventually fall on the laps of some politicians who may want to make capital gain out of it, forgetting that the phenomenon has been with us for years.
In the past, strikes (call them industrial battles) were fought for two main reasons. First, to press home demands for better service conditions and two to settle political scores with the government in power.
Remember the Association of Recognised Professional Bodies (ARPB) and its battles against the Acheampong dictatorship. That umbrella body for various professionals, including doctors and lawyers, made it difficult for Acheampong to go ahead with his UNIGOV doctrine which was a form of a one-party state.
The ARPB also played a significant role in the return to civilian rule by the Supreme Military Council under General F.W.K. Akufo. Today, thanks to multi-party democracy, it will not be easy for any union or professional body to do political battle with a government, since membership of all bodies cuts across political parties.
So even though some political parties may want to capitalise on the genuine grievances of workers, at the end of the day, individual members of the same group will begin to advise themselves if they suspect an infiltration for diabolical purposes.
Medical doctors are part of us. They are our fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, friends and old school mates. Therefore, whatever affects them affects all of us. Their joy is our joy, just as their sorrow is our sorrow.
We would, therefore, wish that having registered their protest at the slow pace of their placement on the Single Spine Salary Structure and other matters, they will respect public sentiment and go back to work while the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and other relevant bodies dialogue with the GMA to thrash out all contentious issues.
Some of us do not know anything about single or any other spine. But even from afar, we can picture a mathematically complex assignment which will require a lot of patience and meticulous calculation. I do not think those who are already on the SSSS are fully satisfied with their lot and so it will be for a long time until things stabilise when the concept is mastered.
Doctors may hold the trump card today because we are all sick people and we are always at the risk of suffering from one form of health hazard or another. So we shall continue to beg the doctors to go back to work. But beyond their genuine grievances and appropriate demands, for them to continue to ignore our pleas could only amount to blackmailing a whole nation.
Dr Winful has boasted that no law or power will compel them to go back to work until they exact their pound of flesh. That is true. But there is one law that no one can run away from. That is Cause and Effect or the Law of Karma. You may call it the Universal Law and that one is a judgement that comes over us by our own doing. In simple terms, it says do unto others what you want others to do to you. I do not think our doctors would want to see their parents, relations and friends suffer undue pain and die eventually.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor,blogspot.com
Imagine the frustration of a young medical officer who, after a hard day’s work, got home only to realise that he could not unwind watching his favourite television programme because electricity was off. Technicians of the energy company are at war with their employees over service conditions and have, therefore, withdrawn their services.
What about the mother who could not prepare the evening meal for the family because the taps would not flow simply because the water company workers were at loggerheads with their managers over better service conditions and would not work.
I once made a wrong calculation and paid dearly for it. I was to attend an interview and misjudged the flow of traffic. Before I could realise it, I was hard up with time and desperately started to flag every taxi passing with the intention to pick ‘dropping’. As it were, all taxis seemed to have different missions that morning and, therefore, ignored my signals. In the end, I lost the opportunity.
We all suffer anytime electricity power goes off, for the sake of those so-called maintenance schedules, load-shedding or because the transformer had suffered a mishap because of lightning or through the activities of thieves.
We know what happens when the tap does not flow for a day or two for whatever reason. Programmes are thrown out of gear and even at the workplace we lack concentration because our minds are on where to get the precious water for household use.
The stench from the toilets at home, the office and other public places keeps reminding us that a very important resource — water — is missing in our lives.
Until we are confronted with such deprivations, nobody bothers to give a split-second thought to workers of the power company or that of water.
As for taxi drivers, we only remember them as illiterate rogues who will not wash in the morning before jumping behind the steering wheel for the day’s work. Wait until you are suddenly taken sick in the night; then you will realize that taxi drivers are gods.
Such is life that no matter how small or insignificant others are, we are inter-dependent and the collapse of one unit, whether deliberate or by accident, disorganises our personal, official, commercial and industrial activities.
We do not spare a moment to think about the policeman (after all the police only take bribes) until a thief or an armed robber raids our homes or a careless driver rams into our vehicle. Then we are on all fours seeking police intervention. Can we imagine the chaos at our traffic intersections where our traffic lights never work without the presence of the police? That is why we should not trivialise the importance of anyone in society.
No matter how hard we may try, we still fall sick or fall victim to accidents. That is why doctors will continue to play a big role in our daily lives. It will, therefore, be suicidal for anybody to underestimate the importance of medical officers. In fact, even the services of the village medicine man are greatly revered and his opinions on health matters are taken with all seriousness.
Ours is a very dirty environment, especially Accra, Kumasi and other big towns, and, coupled with poor nutrition and bad lifestyles, we are always at the mercy of various diseases. So doctors, whether we like it or not, will be our regular companions.
I do not think I will be wrong if I venture to say that the majority of Ghanaians value and appreciate the work of doctors and other health workers and would wish that they get everything they demand. Anytime I visit the hospital and see the condition under which health workers operate, I know that even though it is their choice, they are making a lot of sacrifices that must be appreciated and fully rewarded.
Doctors, like all other workers, have every right to agitate for better service conditions and I believe members of the public will support their cause, knowing the role they are playing in our survival as individuals and as a nation. But, as stated earlier, in all scheme of things, we should not forget that we are in an interdependent world and no matter how we value ourselves, we should not ignore the roles others play in our lives.
Many considerations might have gone into drafting the labour laws of the country which outlawed strikes by certain categories of workers, including doctors and other health workers. Unfortunately, doctors have ignored this law and not even the pleas of President John Evans Atta Mills will turn their hearts.
Whether it takes a few days, weeks, months or even years, they will get their money one day. But lives lost are gone forever, even though, as Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful, the President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), declared, whether they the doctors worked or not, people would die anyway.
The doctors’ strike will eventually fall on the laps of some politicians who may want to make capital gain out of it, forgetting that the phenomenon has been with us for years.
In the past, strikes (call them industrial battles) were fought for two main reasons. First, to press home demands for better service conditions and two to settle political scores with the government in power.
Remember the Association of Recognised Professional Bodies (ARPB) and its battles against the Acheampong dictatorship. That umbrella body for various professionals, including doctors and lawyers, made it difficult for Acheampong to go ahead with his UNIGOV doctrine which was a form of a one-party state.
The ARPB also played a significant role in the return to civilian rule by the Supreme Military Council under General F.W.K. Akufo. Today, thanks to multi-party democracy, it will not be easy for any union or professional body to do political battle with a government, since membership of all bodies cuts across political parties.
So even though some political parties may want to capitalise on the genuine grievances of workers, at the end of the day, individual members of the same group will begin to advise themselves if they suspect an infiltration for diabolical purposes.
Medical doctors are part of us. They are our fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, friends and old school mates. Therefore, whatever affects them affects all of us. Their joy is our joy, just as their sorrow is our sorrow.
We would, therefore, wish that having registered their protest at the slow pace of their placement on the Single Spine Salary Structure and other matters, they will respect public sentiment and go back to work while the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and other relevant bodies dialogue with the GMA to thrash out all contentious issues.
Some of us do not know anything about single or any other spine. But even from afar, we can picture a mathematically complex assignment which will require a lot of patience and meticulous calculation. I do not think those who are already on the SSSS are fully satisfied with their lot and so it will be for a long time until things stabilise when the concept is mastered.
Doctors may hold the trump card today because we are all sick people and we are always at the risk of suffering from one form of health hazard or another. So we shall continue to beg the doctors to go back to work. But beyond their genuine grievances and appropriate demands, for them to continue to ignore our pleas could only amount to blackmailing a whole nation.
Dr Winful has boasted that no law or power will compel them to go back to work until they exact their pound of flesh. That is true. But there is one law that no one can run away from. That is Cause and Effect or the Law of Karma. You may call it the Universal Law and that one is a judgement that comes over us by our own doing. In simple terms, it says do unto others what you want others to do to you. I do not think our doctors would want to see their parents, relations and friends suffer undue pain and die eventually.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor,blogspot.com
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Koliko Street
Read by LHA
By Kofi Akordor
THE middle-aged woman chose a strategic place on the dusty road serving as a street in a developing part of the town and pitched a makeshift structure to start her business of frying yam, cocoyam and plantain. The locals call it ‘Koliko’.
It did not take long before members of the community identified her as one of those who satisfied their food needs from the afternoon till late evening. Her shrill voice advertising her business would cut through the din of the area at periodic intervals.
Auntie Dede and her spot became important and permanent features on the landscape of the area. With time, it became normal for residents trying to describe the location of their houses to friends and relatives to use Auntie Dede’s Koliko Spot as reference point. It was a matter of telling them to look out for Auntie Dede’s Koliko Spot and then follow other directions.
Of course those who may be unlucky to follow that direction on a day Auntie Dede was not at post would have themselves to blame. Local tro-tro and taxi drivers could not fail to notice new developments. ?????Passengers would be asked whether they are going to Auntie Koliko, as the place became known, and so the street which now has lights and has been tarred.
So the endeavours of a middle-aged woman to raise money to fend for herself and her family has given a community a name and without any naming ceremony, that street gained permanent place on the map of the city as Koliko Street.
Today, there are many streets, junctions and landmarks in Accra, the capital city, and other major towns in the country that acquired their names in the same pattern as Koliko Street. It just takes somebody’s fancy and then a street, a community or even a whole town is named after a person, a drinking or eating spot.
This situation has become the naming culture in our cities and towns and the local authorities seem impotent in their attempts to ensure sanity in street-naming the country. In Accra in particular, the practice has become so pervasive that most streets, roads and communities have lost their official names.
For example, there was once a street in Accra called Cantonment Road. Somehow, some people with their strong taste and fascination for foreign things and names reasoned that since the activities on the Cantonment Road are similar to those of another street in London, it was only desirable that we name ours after the one in London. That was how Cantonment Road in Osu, became Oxford Street without ceremony.
It has been many years now since that unofficial name change but the city authorities have not made any efforts to clear the air. So, while on the map of Accra, there will be nothing as Oxford Street, on the ground, there is nothing as Cantonment Road.
In some jurisdictions, names of places, especially in cities and major towns do not just spring up. They are thought of and chosen carefully because names have their historical and national significance.
Many people will open their mouths wide and ask whether there is any place in Ghana called Kokoedzor. They will, however, tell you they know or have heard of a place in Accra called Mandela. The original name of Mandela is actually Kokoedzor and those who have land documents prepared for them with regard to that area will attest to this.
Today, many communities in the Accra and Tema metropolises have developed fanciful names that are quite different from their original names. They are too numerous to mention but a few are Middle East and Lebanon near Tema, where the early soldiers who returned from peace-keeping duties in the Middle East acquired plots of land for their housing projects.
We are all too familiar with Rawlings Park, the Boom Junction and HIPIC Junction which are not official names but have become more or less official names of those places. But should we continue giving names to places in our national capital and other major towns like this?
Our city authorities and other agencies such as the Department of Town and Country Planning have a responsibility to ensure that we do not leave the naming process in the hands of a few individuals and groups.
The world is shrinking fast and one of the advantages of this phenomenon, especially with the introduction of the GPRS is to make location identification easier. We will be cut off from this explosion of technological advancement if we continue to name our streets in a haphazard manner.
Auntie Dede only started to fry Koliko to earn a living but she has entered the history books as an ordinary woman who has given a street a name. Welcome to Koliko Street.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
By Kofi Akordor
THE middle-aged woman chose a strategic place on the dusty road serving as a street in a developing part of the town and pitched a makeshift structure to start her business of frying yam, cocoyam and plantain. The locals call it ‘Koliko’.
It did not take long before members of the community identified her as one of those who satisfied their food needs from the afternoon till late evening. Her shrill voice advertising her business would cut through the din of the area at periodic intervals.
Auntie Dede and her spot became important and permanent features on the landscape of the area. With time, it became normal for residents trying to describe the location of their houses to friends and relatives to use Auntie Dede’s Koliko Spot as reference point. It was a matter of telling them to look out for Auntie Dede’s Koliko Spot and then follow other directions.
Of course those who may be unlucky to follow that direction on a day Auntie Dede was not at post would have themselves to blame. Local tro-tro and taxi drivers could not fail to notice new developments. ?????Passengers would be asked whether they are going to Auntie Koliko, as the place became known, and so the street which now has lights and has been tarred.
So the endeavours of a middle-aged woman to raise money to fend for herself and her family has given a community a name and without any naming ceremony, that street gained permanent place on the map of the city as Koliko Street.
Today, there are many streets, junctions and landmarks in Accra, the capital city, and other major towns in the country that acquired their names in the same pattern as Koliko Street. It just takes somebody’s fancy and then a street, a community or even a whole town is named after a person, a drinking or eating spot.
This situation has become the naming culture in our cities and towns and the local authorities seem impotent in their attempts to ensure sanity in street-naming the country. In Accra in particular, the practice has become so pervasive that most streets, roads and communities have lost their official names.
For example, there was once a street in Accra called Cantonment Road. Somehow, some people with their strong taste and fascination for foreign things and names reasoned that since the activities on the Cantonment Road are similar to those of another street in London, it was only desirable that we name ours after the one in London. That was how Cantonment Road in Osu, became Oxford Street without ceremony.
It has been many years now since that unofficial name change but the city authorities have not made any efforts to clear the air. So, while on the map of Accra, there will be nothing as Oxford Street, on the ground, there is nothing as Cantonment Road.
In some jurisdictions, names of places, especially in cities and major towns do not just spring up. They are thought of and chosen carefully because names have their historical and national significance.
Many people will open their mouths wide and ask whether there is any place in Ghana called Kokoedzor. They will, however, tell you they know or have heard of a place in Accra called Mandela. The original name of Mandela is actually Kokoedzor and those who have land documents prepared for them with regard to that area will attest to this.
Today, many communities in the Accra and Tema metropolises have developed fanciful names that are quite different from their original names. They are too numerous to mention but a few are Middle East and Lebanon near Tema, where the early soldiers who returned from peace-keeping duties in the Middle East acquired plots of land for their housing projects.
We are all too familiar with Rawlings Park, the Boom Junction and HIPIC Junction which are not official names but have become more or less official names of those places. But should we continue giving names to places in our national capital and other major towns like this?
Our city authorities and other agencies such as the Department of Town and Country Planning have a responsibility to ensure that we do not leave the naming process in the hands of a few individuals and groups.
The world is shrinking fast and one of the advantages of this phenomenon, especially with the introduction of the GPRS is to make location identification easier. We will be cut off from this explosion of technological advancement if we continue to name our streets in a haphazard manner.
Auntie Dede only started to fry Koliko to earn a living but she has entered the history books as an ordinary woman who has given a street a name. Welcome to Koliko Street.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Big dreams
By Kofi Akordor
I HAVE been wondering whether God has not been generous enough to give our leaders that magic power for dreaming. I know that every person in the subconscious state is supposed to experience dreams even though a friend told me once that he does not dream while asleep.
Sometimes too we indulge ourselves in daydreaming in our conscious state. This is when our imagination takes into the realm of fantasy as we dream about the most beautiful or the best of things which under normal circumstances are far beyond our reach.
Of course there are a few people who go beyond daydreaming and put certain plans on the ground which finally transform ordinary dreams into a vision which sustains their ambition and propels them towards attaining their ambitions.
I am particularly talking about the type of dreams which challenge people and nations into the future and drive them towards greater heights. I believe this is the type of the dream which spurred the former Soviet Union to put the first human into outer space in the person of Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, a cosmonaut whose Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961.
The Soviet Union̢۪s arch-Cold War rival, the United States of America, took up the challenge and decided to do what was beyond human capability at the time. In 1963, President John F. Kenney of the US challenged space scientists of his country to go higher and land man on the Moon before the end of the decade.
President Kennedy did not live to witness it, but true to his vision, the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), beat the deadline, by putting the first human beings on the Moon when the Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Buzz Aldrin, while the third astronaut, Michael Collins, orbited above.
Individuals, corporate institutions and nations which have made it big, flew on the wings of great men and women who dreamt big and transformed such into visions which led them on the path of success and fame.
The late Chairman Mao Zedong of China challenged his countrymen and women to choose between proving their critics, who claimed they are poor and primitive, right, or defy the odds and prove them wrong.
The Chinese chose the latter option and today, China has become the biggest economic attraction of the world to the amazement of the cynics. Other countries on other continents especially south-east Asia, where the group dubbed the Asian Tigers are doing marvelous things.Â
We all know the miracle stories of Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, India and even Vietnam, which just emerged from years of war. They have all left Africa alone to carry the tag of Third World because they are in a different world of their own.
Do we have such dreamers in our national leadership? Let me illustrate my disappointment with what happened on the Accra-Aflao road last Saturday. An institution, Central University, was holding its matriculation ceremony on the campus around Dahwenya and for almost the whole day every activity came to a virtual standstill.
Traffic on a road which is supposed to link two countries and beyond became so jammed amid utter confusion that movement in both directions was severely disrupted. Some chose to blame the school for the problem. But are we justified to come to that conclusion?
Apart from Central University, many prime residential, commercial and industrial establishments have sprung up along this major road without any corresponding elevation of the standard of the road. What happened last Saturday, happened the same time last year when the same university was holding its matriculation or graduation ceremony and it will happen again next year.
Traffic on that road will increase tremendously when people move into those residential buildings which include the affordable housing project initiated by the Kufuor government which has stalled. We are waiting the day when nobody could move to work, when we are all trapped in unnecessary traffic then we will begin panic measures which will only compound matters.
The Accra-Aflao road should by now be elevated to international standards. In other words, it should have been an expressway passing through no town. If that had been done, nobody will be wrongly accusing Central University for the calamity travellers went through last weekend and which we will be going through for many years to come.
Just as the Americans set a target to reach the Moon within a decade and actually got there, can we seriously say that we have set ourselves as a nation any target to be somewhere in the next five, 10, 15, 20 or 50 years? For example, do we have any target to move beyond major producers of raw cocoa beans and become a major exporter of processed cocoa?
By now it should have been possible for someone working in Accra to close from work and pick an express train to Tamale, Bolgatanga or Wa and get to his/her destination in a matter of a few hours to spend the weekend with his/her family in those cities and return to Accra Sunday evening or Monday morning to resume work.
Even the old railways inherited from the colonial masters could not be maintained let alone new ones being added. Our road network is so bad that travelling in the country is a nightmare. The few good roads have become death traps because of careless and reckless driving.
We have failed to project into the future, our population growth and our educational needs. The result is what we are witnessing today when even BECE graduates cannot access admission to senior high schools.
We have not been able to draw up long-term programmes to facilitate the processing of our agricultural produce over the years. That is why the agriculture sector has not seen any progressive development all these years.
We can hardly point out with any boldness, any sector of national development that has seen progressive improvement over the years. Everything we do is on ad hoc basis which does not augur well for any meaningful development.
Journeying between Accra our capital city and Tema, the nation̢۪s major port city, a distance of less than 30 kilometres, can on a very bad day, become nerve-wracking. We may have a thousand and one excuses, but others in our league at independence have proved that everything is possible if that missing link, the visionary leadership, is available.
We may be satisfied with and impressed by little mercies and indulge in self-praise at every opportunity for very little and insignificant things. We may spend the greater part of the time talking and insulting ourselves instead of thinking and acting. But the rest of the dynamic world will not be waiting for us and will, therefore, not be interested to hear that at 54 and in this 21st century, we still have our children studying under trees, when the world knows that we have more natural wealth than those we down on our knees begging them for assistance.
In the same way, they will not be enthused to hear that feeding a few schoolchildren or giving free school uniforms to a few children constitute a big national achievement. They have long passed those stages with serious-minded, focused and visionary leadership and judicious use of national resources.
What perhaps will interest them is the fact that we have an efficient and reliable transportation system to facilitate good business. They will be happy to hear that we have reliable and uninterrupted power and water supply system that can sustain their industries if they so decide to invest in the country.
They will be happy to hear that bottlenecks and redtapeism have been removed or reduced to the barest minimum in government working machinery to reduce the frustrations investors and even the local people go through in their daily transactions with public officials.
They will want to see a clean capital city where all traffic lights are working and filth and chaos that have engulfed us now are done away with.
They may even applaud us, if not necessarily pleased to hear that we have advanced from producers or raw materials to a giant industrial nation making good use of the abundant resources God has generously given to us.
It is time we also begin to dream big. It is time we transform those big dreams into real achievements to be part of the international world. It is time we stop making mockery of ourselves by getting excited at ordinary things we see as national achievements.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
I HAVE been wondering whether God has not been generous enough to give our leaders that magic power for dreaming. I know that every person in the subconscious state is supposed to experience dreams even though a friend told me once that he does not dream while asleep.
Sometimes too we indulge ourselves in daydreaming in our conscious state. This is when our imagination takes into the realm of fantasy as we dream about the most beautiful or the best of things which under normal circumstances are far beyond our reach.
Of course there are a few people who go beyond daydreaming and put certain plans on the ground which finally transform ordinary dreams into a vision which sustains their ambition and propels them towards attaining their ambitions.
I am particularly talking about the type of dreams which challenge people and nations into the future and drive them towards greater heights. I believe this is the type of the dream which spurred the former Soviet Union to put the first human into outer space in the person of Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, a cosmonaut whose Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961.
The Soviet Union̢۪s arch-Cold War rival, the United States of America, took up the challenge and decided to do what was beyond human capability at the time. In 1963, President John F. Kenney of the US challenged space scientists of his country to go higher and land man on the Moon before the end of the decade.
President Kennedy did not live to witness it, but true to his vision, the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), beat the deadline, by putting the first human beings on the Moon when the Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Buzz Aldrin, while the third astronaut, Michael Collins, orbited above.
Individuals, corporate institutions and nations which have made it big, flew on the wings of great men and women who dreamt big and transformed such into visions which led them on the path of success and fame.
The late Chairman Mao Zedong of China challenged his countrymen and women to choose between proving their critics, who claimed they are poor and primitive, right, or defy the odds and prove them wrong.
The Chinese chose the latter option and today, China has become the biggest economic attraction of the world to the amazement of the cynics. Other countries on other continents especially south-east Asia, where the group dubbed the Asian Tigers are doing marvelous things.Â
We all know the miracle stories of Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, India and even Vietnam, which just emerged from years of war. They have all left Africa alone to carry the tag of Third World because they are in a different world of their own.
Do we have such dreamers in our national leadership? Let me illustrate my disappointment with what happened on the Accra-Aflao road last Saturday. An institution, Central University, was holding its matriculation ceremony on the campus around Dahwenya and for almost the whole day every activity came to a virtual standstill.
Traffic on a road which is supposed to link two countries and beyond became so jammed amid utter confusion that movement in both directions was severely disrupted. Some chose to blame the school for the problem. But are we justified to come to that conclusion?
Apart from Central University, many prime residential, commercial and industrial establishments have sprung up along this major road without any corresponding elevation of the standard of the road. What happened last Saturday, happened the same time last year when the same university was holding its matriculation or graduation ceremony and it will happen again next year.
Traffic on that road will increase tremendously when people move into those residential buildings which include the affordable housing project initiated by the Kufuor government which has stalled. We are waiting the day when nobody could move to work, when we are all trapped in unnecessary traffic then we will begin panic measures which will only compound matters.
The Accra-Aflao road should by now be elevated to international standards. In other words, it should have been an expressway passing through no town. If that had been done, nobody will be wrongly accusing Central University for the calamity travellers went through last weekend and which we will be going through for many years to come.
Just as the Americans set a target to reach the Moon within a decade and actually got there, can we seriously say that we have set ourselves as a nation any target to be somewhere in the next five, 10, 15, 20 or 50 years? For example, do we have any target to move beyond major producers of raw cocoa beans and become a major exporter of processed cocoa?
By now it should have been possible for someone working in Accra to close from work and pick an express train to Tamale, Bolgatanga or Wa and get to his/her destination in a matter of a few hours to spend the weekend with his/her family in those cities and return to Accra Sunday evening or Monday morning to resume work.
Even the old railways inherited from the colonial masters could not be maintained let alone new ones being added. Our road network is so bad that travelling in the country is a nightmare. The few good roads have become death traps because of careless and reckless driving.
We have failed to project into the future, our population growth and our educational needs. The result is what we are witnessing today when even BECE graduates cannot access admission to senior high schools.
We have not been able to draw up long-term programmes to facilitate the processing of our agricultural produce over the years. That is why the agriculture sector has not seen any progressive development all these years.
We can hardly point out with any boldness, any sector of national development that has seen progressive improvement over the years. Everything we do is on ad hoc basis which does not augur well for any meaningful development.
Journeying between Accra our capital city and Tema, the nation̢۪s major port city, a distance of less than 30 kilometres, can on a very bad day, become nerve-wracking. We may have a thousand and one excuses, but others in our league at independence have proved that everything is possible if that missing link, the visionary leadership, is available.
We may be satisfied with and impressed by little mercies and indulge in self-praise at every opportunity for very little and insignificant things. We may spend the greater part of the time talking and insulting ourselves instead of thinking and acting. But the rest of the dynamic world will not be waiting for us and will, therefore, not be interested to hear that at 54 and in this 21st century, we still have our children studying under trees, when the world knows that we have more natural wealth than those we down on our knees begging them for assistance.
In the same way, they will not be enthused to hear that feeding a few schoolchildren or giving free school uniforms to a few children constitute a big national achievement. They have long passed those stages with serious-minded, focused and visionary leadership and judicious use of national resources.
What perhaps will interest them is the fact that we have an efficient and reliable transportation system to facilitate good business. They will be happy to hear that we have reliable and uninterrupted power and water supply system that can sustain their industries if they so decide to invest in the country.
They will be happy to hear that bottlenecks and redtapeism have been removed or reduced to the barest minimum in government working machinery to reduce the frustrations investors and even the local people go through in their daily transactions with public officials.
They will want to see a clean capital city where all traffic lights are working and filth and chaos that have engulfed us now are done away with.
They may even applaud us, if not necessarily pleased to hear that we have advanced from producers or raw materials to a giant industrial nation making good use of the abundant resources God has generously given to us.
It is time we also begin to dream big. It is time we transform those big dreams into real achievements to be part of the international world. It is time we stop making mockery of ourselves by getting excited at ordinary things we see as national achievements.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Brother Awuni, don't give up the fight
By John K. Essel. Kumasi.
Pix Mr Ibrahim Adam (middle) Chairman of Board of Agriculture Development Bank, interacting with some Executive members of the Ghana Society of Agricultural Engineers after the opening ceremony a the Fifth National Conference of the Agricultural Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi in the Ashanti region.
With them include Mr E. Buckson (right) Executive Secretary of Ghana Institute of Engineering, and Mr D. Lamptey, (left) President of Society.
THE two day conference under a theme “Agricultural Engineering for Commercial Food Production and Environmental Sustainability in Ghana, was aimed at finding the solution to improve upon agriculture development in the country.
Speaking at the opening session, Mr Ibrahim Adam, stated that agric engineering have a major role to pray for the designing modern of agricultural equipment and tools to improve upon agricultural production in the country and stressed need to sustain agricultural production by ensure quality production and marketing.
He said the country has expertises and called for closer collaboration with policy makers to ensure the agriculture development in the country.
He said the doors of the Agriculture Development Bank (ADB) are open for any group of people or individuals for the development of the agriculture industry.
Prof W. O. Ellis, Vice Chancellor of (KNUST) said agriculture was the backbone of the country’s economy and therefore stressed the need to adopt modern technology to attract the youth in the agriculture production in the country.
He called for adoption of commercial farms by intensifying research and training to move the development of agriculture forwards.
He said the university has intensified its policies to produce quality products to meet the national demand to enhance national socio-economic development.
Mr D. Lamptey, President of the Society, called for the need for the increase of Agric students as well as Agricultural Engineers to produce simple equipment for the food production in the country. By John K. Essel. Kumasi.
Pix Mr Ibrahim Adam (middle) Chairman of Board of Agriculture Development Bank, interacting with some Executive members of the Ghana Society of Agricultural Engineers after the opening ceremony a the Fifth National Conference of the Agricultural Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi in the Ashanti region.
With them include Mr E. Buckson (right) Executive Secretary of Ghana Institute of Engineering, and Mr D. Lamptey, (left) President of Society.
THE two day conference under a theme “Agricultural Engineering for Commercial Food Production and Environmental Sustainability in Ghana, was aimed at finding the solution to improve upon agriculture development in the country.
Speaking at the opening session, Mr Ibrahim Adam, stated that agric engineering have a major role to pray for the designing modern of agricultural equipment and tools to improve upon agricultural production in the country and stressed need to sustain agricultural production by ensure quality production and marketing.
He said the country has expertises and called for closer collaboration with policy makers to ensure the agriculture development in the country.
He said the doors of the Agriculture Development Bank (ADB) are open for any group of people or individuals for the development of the agriculture industry.
Prof W. O. Ellis, Vice Chancellor of (KNUST) said agriculture was the backbone of the country’s economy and therefore stressed the need to adopt modern technology to attract the youth in the agriculture production in the country.
He called for adoption of commercial farms by intensifying research and training to move the development of agriculture forwards.
He said the university has intensified its policies to produce quality products to meet the national demand to enhance national socio-economic development.
Mr D. Lamptey, President of the Society, called for the need for the increase of Agric students as well as Agricultural Engineers to produce simple equipment for the food production in the country.
By Kofi Akordor
While the rest of us stayed in line crawling agonisingly in heavy traffic, a different breed of superior beings drive past very fast on the shoulders of the road which have become their expressways. Pedestrians and other motorists dare not drop their guard, otherwise they will be crushed to death.
Hawkers, shop owners and roadside workshops have always been at the mercy of these rampaging, lawless and arrogant drivers of commercial vehicles who have turned the city roads into a jungle where their animalistic instincts are in full display.
Theirs is a world where law and order does not exist and who have taken the police for granted. Those who could no longer endure the menace, in their attempt to escape the wrath of these arrogant, wicked and dangerous drivers, try to put impediments on their path by blocking portions of the road with old tyres, stones, cement blocks and metal bars. But they are not deterred. They will meander past these obstacles with greater venom and create bigger problems than they usually do.
Precious lives have been lost, among them schoolchildren and street hawkers, the sick and the old. Properties too have been destroyed. Still the menace is there, smoothened by occasional assurances of deterrent action by the law enforcement agencies.
Some of us heaved a heavy sigh of relief when a new Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service in the person of a brother and a colleague communication scientist, Assistant Commissioner of Police Awuni Angwubutoge, was named.
Some of us rejoiced because we know our man very well and we know if there is someone who can confront these hooligans with success, it must be Awuni. He is not just outspoken and down-to-earth, he also acts his words.
He is the type whose approach to duty can even be met with hostility from members of his own establishment because of their forthrightness and determination to succeed where others have given up and thrown up their arms in frustrating despair.
He belongs to that class of people who work with zeal and are ready to sacrifice for the work if it even means challenging the status quo.
True to his character, ACP Awuni, on taking over as the Commander of the MTTU, pledged to bring sanity on the roads and put a stop to the free reign of those commercial drivers using the shoulders of the roads as expressways.
Almost a year into his administration, it appears ACP Awuni is against a tough and very steep uphill task. The illegal expressways created by the commercial drivers are as busy as ever and the drivers themselves are operating with greater impunity than before. One of them, according to newspaper reports, even recently had the nerves to attack the MTTU commander himself.
If our city roads are unsafe, travelling on our highways has become more or less like a journey of no return. Relatives and friends who accompany their loved ones to the lorry stations may be waving them a final farewell without knowing it.
The carnage on the roads has assumed alarming proportions and there seems to be no solutions in sight. The statistics is quite revealing and alarming. According to MTTU records, in the first six months of this year alone, 6,449 accident cases involving 9,222 vehicles were recorded. For the period (January-June, 2011), 1,081 lives were lost while 6,209 others got injured. The figure shows a marginal increase over last year’s.
At the heart of road accidents in the country is the human factor. A common observation which has been documented and widely accepted by experts and ordinary people is traffic indiscipline exhibited by many of the drivers on the road.
Most of the drivers, as a result of inadequate training and poor educational backgrounds, know or pay very little attention to traffic regulations. There is also open display of irresponsible behaviour partly due to bad character and other influences such as alcohol and illicit drugs.
These transform into speeding, wrong overtaking and other careless manouvrings which pose danger to all other road users.
It is not that we do not have enough laws to check human behaviour on the roads. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) of the Ministry of Transport begins the process of bringing sanity on our roads and promoting law and order by examining and licensing vehicles as being roadworthy.
It also examines those who apply for driving and give them certification as qualified both mentally and physically to drive vehicles of various specifications.
Any slip on the part of DVLA, whether deliberately or by default, means we are at risk.
The MTTU is to ensure that all vehicles on the roads have certification from the DVLA as being roadworthy. It also ensures that all persons driving vehicles possess valid driving licences.
The MTTU has a bigger responsibility to right the wrongs allowed into the system by the DVLA. This means even though a person may possess a driving licence, it is the duty of the MTTU personnel to satisfy themselves that the so-called driver is actually qualified and driving according to the motor regulations.
They must also make assure that vehicles plying the roads are truly roadworthy and not only possessing road worthy certificates. They must also process for prosecution drivers who infringe the law.
The presence of MTTU personnel is in itself a guarantee of safety on the roads since they become the watchdogs and an inspiration for the rest of us.
This means the physical presence of the MTTU personnel must be seen and felt at all times on all our roads both in the cities, towns and on the highways.
The unit must have vehicles to move personnel round at all times. It must have vehicles patrolling the roads and streets at all times. It must have towing vehicles to clear the roads of breakdown and accident vehicles and ambulances to convey the injured to hospitals when there is an accident.
It should also have hearses for those who could not survive accidents.
How is the MTTU faring in our circumstances? Seriously the MTTU, like other wings of the Ghana Police Service, is hampered by inadequate resources, both in terms of human resource and logistics. Out of a total police strength of 20,000, MTTU personnel account for only 8.89 per cent.
The number is woefully inadequate and leaves the personnel thinly spread on the ground. The problem is further compounded when divisional, district and unit points are left unmanned, because the men have been withdrawn for other more important assignments.
As stated earlier, the MTTU is heavily constrained by inadequate logistics. This is a unit which should be highly mobile but unfortunately lacks all manner of vehicles. Special and important operations are, therefore, abandoned mid-way because the old and weak vehicles break down and cannot successfully execute the day’s assignment.
MTTU personnel who are to police the roads very often have to rely on the generosity of private or commercial drivers, thereby compromising them in the effective discharge of statutory duties. A few days ago, I saw a police vehicle being towed by a private truck. So what happens when a truck breaks down and abandoned in the middle of the road? Any wonder that broken-down vehicles left in the middle of the road continue to be a major cause of accidents on the highways?
Apart from these inadequacies, the MTTU lacks any effective command structure. The MTTU Commander sounds a huge title but operationally has very little to command. Beyond Accra Central, the title loses its meaning because he lacks authority in Greater Accra, let alone the rest of the country.
Operationally, MTTU personnel outside Accra are under the command of the various Regional Commanders. In effect, the national MTTU lacks the operational capacity to operate in the regions outside the Accra Central Business District.
The situation does not provide any opportunity to prepare strategic enforcement plan for the major highways where a high proportion of serious accidents occurs.
One could now appreciate why ACP Awuni’s pledge to bring sanity on the roads seems to be yielding little results.
The MTTU, as a human institution, has its fair share of human frailty, no matter how hard they try. It has its deviants, fifth columnists and those with purely mercenary motives and so on. One should expect miracles even if the unit has its full complement of staff and equipment. But still the difference would have been clear.
This is an institution that so much is expected from yet very little is given. It could be admitted that even with the limited resources, the unit could have performed better. But very often when you are overwhelmingly weighed down by problems, the little goodness in you gets diluted by evil things. It is, therefore, not surprising that of all the units of the Ghana Police Service, it is the MTTU that is castigated most.
While demanding that the few bad ones straighten their ways, shall we also demand that the unit is revamped and well-equipped ? Under the present circumstances, the burden is too much. That is why Brother Awuni and his team are losing the battle against irresponsible and careless driving on the roads and highways.
Just pointing accusing fingers at them will not solve our problem neither will it end the carnage on the roads. If we really value our lives, then we must demand a better equipped MTTU with a well-trained personnel to do the policing to our satisfaction.
All the same, Brother, do not give up. I still want you to use your limited resources to do something about those crazy drivers who are tormenting us on the Spintex Road and elsewhere with their brand of driving skills.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Pix Mr Ibrahim Adam (middle) Chairman of Board of Agriculture Development Bank, interacting with some Executive members of the Ghana Society of Agricultural Engineers after the opening ceremony a the Fifth National Conference of the Agricultural Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi in the Ashanti region.
With them include Mr E. Buckson (right) Executive Secretary of Ghana Institute of Engineering, and Mr D. Lamptey, (left) President of Society.
THE two day conference under a theme “Agricultural Engineering for Commercial Food Production and Environmental Sustainability in Ghana, was aimed at finding the solution to improve upon agriculture development in the country.
Speaking at the opening session, Mr Ibrahim Adam, stated that agric engineering have a major role to pray for the designing modern of agricultural equipment and tools to improve upon agricultural production in the country and stressed need to sustain agricultural production by ensure quality production and marketing.
He said the country has expertises and called for closer collaboration with policy makers to ensure the agriculture development in the country.
He said the doors of the Agriculture Development Bank (ADB) are open for any group of people or individuals for the development of the agriculture industry.
Prof W. O. Ellis, Vice Chancellor of (KNUST) said agriculture was the backbone of the country’s economy and therefore stressed the need to adopt modern technology to attract the youth in the agriculture production in the country.
He called for adoption of commercial farms by intensifying research and training to move the development of agriculture forwards.
He said the university has intensified its policies to produce quality products to meet the national demand to enhance national socio-economic development.
Mr D. Lamptey, President of the Society, called for the need for the increase of Agric students as well as Agricultural Engineers to produce simple equipment for the food production in the country. By John K. Essel. Kumasi.
Pix Mr Ibrahim Adam (middle) Chairman of Board of Agriculture Development Bank, interacting with some Executive members of the Ghana Society of Agricultural Engineers after the opening ceremony a the Fifth National Conference of the Agricultural Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi in the Ashanti region.
With them include Mr E. Buckson (right) Executive Secretary of Ghana Institute of Engineering, and Mr D. Lamptey, (left) President of Society.
THE two day conference under a theme “Agricultural Engineering for Commercial Food Production and Environmental Sustainability in Ghana, was aimed at finding the solution to improve upon agriculture development in the country.
Speaking at the opening session, Mr Ibrahim Adam, stated that agric engineering have a major role to pray for the designing modern of agricultural equipment and tools to improve upon agricultural production in the country and stressed need to sustain agricultural production by ensure quality production and marketing.
He said the country has expertises and called for closer collaboration with policy makers to ensure the agriculture development in the country.
He said the doors of the Agriculture Development Bank (ADB) are open for any group of people or individuals for the development of the agriculture industry.
Prof W. O. Ellis, Vice Chancellor of (KNUST) said agriculture was the backbone of the country’s economy and therefore stressed the need to adopt modern technology to attract the youth in the agriculture production in the country.
He called for adoption of commercial farms by intensifying research and training to move the development of agriculture forwards.
He said the university has intensified its policies to produce quality products to meet the national demand to enhance national socio-economic development.
Mr D. Lamptey, President of the Society, called for the need for the increase of Agric students as well as Agricultural Engineers to produce simple equipment for the food production in the country.
By Kofi Akordor
While the rest of us stayed in line crawling agonisingly in heavy traffic, a different breed of superior beings drive past very fast on the shoulders of the road which have become their expressways. Pedestrians and other motorists dare not drop their guard, otherwise they will be crushed to death.
Hawkers, shop owners and roadside workshops have always been at the mercy of these rampaging, lawless and arrogant drivers of commercial vehicles who have turned the city roads into a jungle where their animalistic instincts are in full display.
Theirs is a world where law and order does not exist and who have taken the police for granted. Those who could no longer endure the menace, in their attempt to escape the wrath of these arrogant, wicked and dangerous drivers, try to put impediments on their path by blocking portions of the road with old tyres, stones, cement blocks and metal bars. But they are not deterred. They will meander past these obstacles with greater venom and create bigger problems than they usually do.
Precious lives have been lost, among them schoolchildren and street hawkers, the sick and the old. Properties too have been destroyed. Still the menace is there, smoothened by occasional assurances of deterrent action by the law enforcement agencies.
Some of us heaved a heavy sigh of relief when a new Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service in the person of a brother and a colleague communication scientist, Assistant Commissioner of Police Awuni Angwubutoge, was named.
Some of us rejoiced because we know our man very well and we know if there is someone who can confront these hooligans with success, it must be Awuni. He is not just outspoken and down-to-earth, he also acts his words.
He is the type whose approach to duty can even be met with hostility from members of his own establishment because of their forthrightness and determination to succeed where others have given up and thrown up their arms in frustrating despair.
He belongs to that class of people who work with zeal and are ready to sacrifice for the work if it even means challenging the status quo.
True to his character, ACP Awuni, on taking over as the Commander of the MTTU, pledged to bring sanity on the roads and put a stop to the free reign of those commercial drivers using the shoulders of the roads as expressways.
Almost a year into his administration, it appears ACP Awuni is against a tough and very steep uphill task. The illegal expressways created by the commercial drivers are as busy as ever and the drivers themselves are operating with greater impunity than before. One of them, according to newspaper reports, even recently had the nerves to attack the MTTU commander himself.
If our city roads are unsafe, travelling on our highways has become more or less like a journey of no return. Relatives and friends who accompany their loved ones to the lorry stations may be waving them a final farewell without knowing it.
The carnage on the roads has assumed alarming proportions and there seems to be no solutions in sight. The statistics is quite revealing and alarming. According to MTTU records, in the first six months of this year alone, 6,449 accident cases involving 9,222 vehicles were recorded. For the period (January-June, 2011), 1,081 lives were lost while 6,209 others got injured. The figure shows a marginal increase over last year’s.
At the heart of road accidents in the country is the human factor. A common observation which has been documented and widely accepted by experts and ordinary people is traffic indiscipline exhibited by many of the drivers on the road.
Most of the drivers, as a result of inadequate training and poor educational backgrounds, know or pay very little attention to traffic regulations. There is also open display of irresponsible behaviour partly due to bad character and other influences such as alcohol and illicit drugs.
These transform into speeding, wrong overtaking and other careless manouvrings which pose danger to all other road users.
It is not that we do not have enough laws to check human behaviour on the roads. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) of the Ministry of Transport begins the process of bringing sanity on our roads and promoting law and order by examining and licensing vehicles as being roadworthy.
It also examines those who apply for driving and give them certification as qualified both mentally and physically to drive vehicles of various specifications.
Any slip on the part of DVLA, whether deliberately or by default, means we are at risk.
The MTTU is to ensure that all vehicles on the roads have certification from the DVLA as being roadworthy. It also ensures that all persons driving vehicles possess valid driving licences.
The MTTU has a bigger responsibility to right the wrongs allowed into the system by the DVLA. This means even though a person may possess a driving licence, it is the duty of the MTTU personnel to satisfy themselves that the so-called driver is actually qualified and driving according to the motor regulations.
They must also make assure that vehicles plying the roads are truly roadworthy and not only possessing road worthy certificates. They must also process for prosecution drivers who infringe the law.
The presence of MTTU personnel is in itself a guarantee of safety on the roads since they become the watchdogs and an inspiration for the rest of us.
This means the physical presence of the MTTU personnel must be seen and felt at all times on all our roads both in the cities, towns and on the highways.
The unit must have vehicles to move personnel round at all times. It must have vehicles patrolling the roads and streets at all times. It must have towing vehicles to clear the roads of breakdown and accident vehicles and ambulances to convey the injured to hospitals when there is an accident.
It should also have hearses for those who could not survive accidents.
How is the MTTU faring in our circumstances? Seriously the MTTU, like other wings of the Ghana Police Service, is hampered by inadequate resources, both in terms of human resource and logistics. Out of a total police strength of 20,000, MTTU personnel account for only 8.89 per cent.
The number is woefully inadequate and leaves the personnel thinly spread on the ground. The problem is further compounded when divisional, district and unit points are left unmanned, because the men have been withdrawn for other more important assignments.
As stated earlier, the MTTU is heavily constrained by inadequate logistics. This is a unit which should be highly mobile but unfortunately lacks all manner of vehicles. Special and important operations are, therefore, abandoned mid-way because the old and weak vehicles break down and cannot successfully execute the day’s assignment.
MTTU personnel who are to police the roads very often have to rely on the generosity of private or commercial drivers, thereby compromising them in the effective discharge of statutory duties. A few days ago, I saw a police vehicle being towed by a private truck. So what happens when a truck breaks down and abandoned in the middle of the road? Any wonder that broken-down vehicles left in the middle of the road continue to be a major cause of accidents on the highways?
Apart from these inadequacies, the MTTU lacks any effective command structure. The MTTU Commander sounds a huge title but operationally has very little to command. Beyond Accra Central, the title loses its meaning because he lacks authority in Greater Accra, let alone the rest of the country.
Operationally, MTTU personnel outside Accra are under the command of the various Regional Commanders. In effect, the national MTTU lacks the operational capacity to operate in the regions outside the Accra Central Business District.
The situation does not provide any opportunity to prepare strategic enforcement plan for the major highways where a high proportion of serious accidents occurs.
One could now appreciate why ACP Awuni’s pledge to bring sanity on the roads seems to be yielding little results.
The MTTU, as a human institution, has its fair share of human frailty, no matter how hard they try. It has its deviants, fifth columnists and those with purely mercenary motives and so on. One should expect miracles even if the unit has its full complement of staff and equipment. But still the difference would have been clear.
This is an institution that so much is expected from yet very little is given. It could be admitted that even with the limited resources, the unit could have performed better. But very often when you are overwhelmingly weighed down by problems, the little goodness in you gets diluted by evil things. It is, therefore, not surprising that of all the units of the Ghana Police Service, it is the MTTU that is castigated most.
While demanding that the few bad ones straighten their ways, shall we also demand that the unit is revamped and well-equipped ? Under the present circumstances, the burden is too much. That is why Brother Awuni and his team are losing the battle against irresponsible and careless driving on the roads and highways.
Just pointing accusing fingers at them will not solve our problem neither will it end the carnage on the roads. If we really value our lives, then we must demand a better equipped MTTU with a well-trained personnel to do the policing to our satisfaction.
All the same, Brother, do not give up. I still want you to use your limited resources to do something about those crazy drivers who are tormenting us on the Spintex Road and elsewhere with their brand of driving skills.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
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