Some things do not change in this country.  The rains shall fall in May, and June and even July.  That is out of our control.  It is an act of God and he decides how often and the intensity.  Who are we to question God? 

However, there is something man-made that is gradually becoming something that is also not changing and it is worrying.  A week ago the President initiated a national clean up campaign to address the issue of sanitation in the country, especially in Accra. 

Citizens enthusiastically got involved and engaged in cleaning their environment and other places but afterwards, the issue that is becoming a permanent feature resisting change, reared its ugly head again. 

The rubbish and the silt that were dug out of the drains, were heaped on the shoulders of the drains and left there.  Any little rain will render the whole effort futile because the rubbish and silt will be washed right back into the drains. 

This is what is not changing in the country and the various assemblies must ensure that this issue is dealt with and must become a thing of the past.

There is the need to engage the citizenry across board, in connection with mindset change, as far as sanitation is concerned.  At this juncture, I must acknowledge the thoughtful initiative of the current crop of Abenfo (i.e. students both present and past) of SUTESCO of Suhum, with support of the school administration for decorating the area under the overpass on the Accra Kumasi highway, near the school, with fascinating paintings.  This is an example worthy of emulation and makes me proud as one of the Abenfo. 

An example not worthy of emulation is an eyesore currently existing behind a cemetery along the Atta Mills link as you branch left, off the main Accra-Cape Coast road at Old barrier and head towards the beach through Aplaku, Bortianor, Oshiyie, Korobite through to Tuba and beyond. 

The drain along the walls of the cemetery also lying astride the road, is choked with silt and rubbish.  This has created a problem near the end of the cemetery wall just before you enter Bortianor. 

Water has accumulated at that point, creating potholes and also gradually creating a channel across the road, creating a nightmare for motorists using that route.  This route is the main link between parts of Kasoa and the Accra – Cape Coast road and whenever it rains and the Atala stretch of the road is blocked, that is the route most motorists from Kasoa uses.

It is also the route used by tourists going to the beaches along the sea of the towns stretching from Bortianor to Kokrobite and so it does not speak well of us, as a nation at all.

A few days ago, I had to pass through Tema Station, the place where a major clean up exercise was conducted just fews days ago and it was very shocking to see the level of wanton littering that had taken place. 

One begins to wonder if this whole exercise initiated by the President was worth it.  People just do not care and are not willing to change their attitude towards sanitation. 

We cannot continue like this and to win this battle against insanitary conditions in our environment, the NCCE must be resourced to embark on a serious educational drive.  The MMDCEs must also be held accountable for sanitation lapses in their administrative areas, by making sanitation part of their KPIs among other innovative policies.  This is one of the surest ways to overcome this sanitation challenge confronting us. God bless.

By Laud Kissi-Mensah

THESE days wives are very careful when recruiting house helps who are also called maids or maidservants.

In the past, such recruitment exercise took into consideration that a maid must be beautiful enough to brighten the home and to impress visitors with her charming smile and good shape. In a nutshell, the more beautiful the maid, the higher the status of the family.

Wives soon came to realise that the beautiful servants were causing too many problems for comfort. The beautiful maids with their swinging waists and provocative curves made their husbands restless. Susceptible husbands suffered from romantic jitters and could not sit still.

The men just could not help admiring the darling maids. Some just couldn’t keep their eyes off them and swallowed saliva in yearning.

In probably four out of five cases, husbands could not resist the devil’s temptation. It all happened when the wives travelled to a funeral or a crusade.

The longer the crusade, the better. 

Unwilling maids were influenced with money, threat of dismissal or “common raps” and they condescended to allow their masters taste the forbidden fruit. 

Some maids, in the process, overthrew their madams and announced their take-over in dawn broadcasts.

Appetite

Wives have become wiser in recent years and now recruit maids they think their husbands wouldn’t have appetite for. But in some cases, they have misfired. When a husband is a typical he-goat and looks like one, he goes after everything that wears a skirt. The shape and beauty do not really matter so long as a skirt is involved.

In any case, a beautiful maid is more likely to cause a domestic upheaval than a plain one, and wives note that point accordingly.

I think with the Children’s Bill, wives can rejoice. They can employ maids below 16 years (the age of consent) so that it would be illegal for their husbands to go sniffing after them. But with the Children’s Bill, there are too many problems inherent.

Today, some girls aged 14 look 17 because of their precocious development as a result of good nutrition or as a product of their peculiar physiological and anatomical make-up. And believe me, some of these young girls inflate their ages deliberately to make themselves marketable in today’s world of sugar daddies and love in exchange for money.

To worsen the problem, some parents do not know the ages of their kids. They just bring forth the laughingly naughty kids and keep no records. “I gave birth to Kwadwo 18 days after the fifth earth tremor hit Sikaman,” a confused father would say.

So Kwadwo or Abena or anybody for that matter can just look into the mirror, study her (or his) face carefully and decide that she must be 16, also because her buttocks resemble that of a 16 year old girl next block.

The law says that girls aged 16 can be courted and taken to bed so long as they consent to it. On the other hand, they cannot get married at 16. So, the law allows a young teenager to have sex and get pregnant at 16 but prevents her from getting married at that age. adzeei!

The law further embarrassed itself by saying that a girl of 16 can marry, after all, so long, as parents of both parties lend their consent to it. So what exactly is this law saying?

That although you are not supposed to get married in effect, parents can influence their 16 year olds to marry even when they are not physically deem it fit?  In effect, parents can influence their 16 and emotionally matured for it?

The law must be definitive. If it allows teenagers get pregnant at 16, then the marriage age to have sex should be at 16, meaning that they can legitimately automatically be 16 because ideally, it is only married people who are supposed to get pregnant and bring forth babies.

So if the marriageable age is legally 18, then the age of consent must be 18. Short and simple!! The present law implies that a girl who gets pregnant at 16 has to wait for two years to get married (if her parents do not sanction it). So by 18, the child is two years old with no legitimate father, and the father might have married an older girl and gone off.

Teenage prostitutes

Now, let’s forget about marriageable girls and concentrate on young teenagers who are getting addicted to alcohol. The beer bars allow in girls as young as 14 to sit down and drink anything from raw akpeteshie to large-sized Guinness, otherwise known as “odeeku.”

A girl of 16 can swallow four bottles of Guinness after laying foundation with three tots of gin. And she walks straight and steady. They are the sort of girls who are now fully enshrined in the trade of prostitution. 

And you know what? The old prostitutes are not happy with their intrusion. The young teenagers have all the equipment to attract higher bids – “bobby stands”, flexible waist, curves, beauty, style and hip. 

So they are taking the bread out of the mouths of the old gang. And the oldies are now using macho to get the youngsters off. In fact, they are beating them and organising men to rape them.

To counteract this, the young girls are heading for mallams to get protection. The battle is joined. Sikaman Palava is investigating.

This article was first published on Saturday August 8, 1998