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
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
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
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