Features
Response of our local assembly leaders is unacceptable
I took my almost 86 year old mom, to see the Doctor as part of the processes for her normal checkups last Monday.
It has been raining for some time now in Accra and a section of the main road from Kasoa to Budumburam had been closed off to traffic and so back streets are the only way, one can go to certain areas close to Budumburam with a vehicle.
Instead of the local assembly ensuring that these alternative routes are made motorable, they have not done anything meaningful about them.
Usually, as is the standard practice in road construction, it is the duty of the contractor to make alternative routes available to motorists when the need for diversion occurs.
The local assembly authority also has a responsibility to ensure that such diversions are done taking into account the safety and health of the people travelling on those streets or roads as well as the communities through which the streets passes through, especially in terms of dust suppression.
Portions along the alternative streets from my mom’s place to an area close to Kasoa where one can join the main Kasoa- Cape Coast Highway, had flooded and sedans could hardly pass through.
My mom was so afraid that the vehicle that was bringing her to Kasoa, could be involved in an accident such that she lost appetite and could not continue to eat her food. Exactly a week earlier I also had a similar frustrating experience when travelling to the Western Region.
It took us two hours to cover a short distance between an area called Fan Ice to just a little beyond Budumburam. All what was required was for the use of rocky material to fill a portion of the diverted road to enable traffic to flow smoothly but this was not done.
On our return journey to Accra, nothing has still been done about it and we spent two hours again to cover that same short distance and one begins to wonder why the local authority leaders should be paid their monthly salaries.
Yesterday, there was a news item about the traffic that had built up along a stretch of Accra Kumadi highway between Sapeiman and Toman.
Apparently the stretch was so deplorable that perhaps it was worse than what I encountered on the Accra –Cape Coast road.
The road engineer whose duty it is to ensure the right thing is done by the contractor, apparently failed to do his job. In a country where people charged with responsibility by the state, fail to do their job and are not held accountable, this is one of the results we are going to experience, on a frequent basis.
There is a certain culture of someone else should do it and it is not helping our national developmental effort.
We have this tendency for let us leave it to go. Instead of citizens taking on people on authority to help correct things, everybody is afraid to tackle the problem, due to fear and as long as this attitude remains, people in authority will continue to act with impunity.
If there is no threat of shame or embarrassment or loss of job, nothing will happen. One of the issues I have decided to take the local assemblies on, is the proliferation of shops along streets without any thought for pedestrian walk ways.
Pedestrians are always compelled to walk close to speeding vehicles because there are no pavements for them to use.
What will be painful is seeing something that you know is wrong but deciding not to do anything about it and you become a victim of the problem, or someone close to you becomes a victim of it.
Let us begin to be citizens and not spectators as President Bush once said and reiterated by President Akufo-Addo. God bless.
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
THE typical itinerant salesman in Sikaman is a herbalist. He is normally a slim macho with the capacity to perambulate the expanse of area covering the triangle of Accra-Tema-Ashiaman. In short, he can walk a total of 60 miles a day, marketing a product that cures every disease, including poverty. 
The door-to-door herbal pharmacist advertises his product by word of mouth. He has nothing to do with the Food and Drugs Board (FDB). After all, his concoctions do not feature on FM stations.
Those herbalists who cannot walk to propagate the herbal gospel, liaise with drivers of mass transportation and their mates. They are, therefore, given the chance to sell their products on Benz buses that ply the routes.
Normally, the herbalist starts his sales message with a prayer and Bible study. He asks the passengers to bow down their heads in supplication to God the father, the son, the Holy Spirit.
When a herbalist asks the passengers to close their eyes and bow their heads, Moslems on board naturally feel offended. They feel that the herbalist has no right to assume that every passenger is a Christian. They think such an assumption is an affront to Islam.
So a Moslem on board will raise the hand for a point of order. He’ll remind the herbalist that it would be in his own interest to mind his language.
“Be careful the way you address people in a public place. Not every person here is a Christian,” he’d state assertively.
Of course, the herbalist will promptly ignore him, but would all the same “watch” his tongue. Who knows whether or not the Moslem brother is inspired by Quoranic zeal to defend the tenets of Islam to the hilt?
When he starts saying, “Wallahi!” and “Inshallah!” it could be the beginning of proclaiming Islam as supreme, a point which must be driven home with talibanic precision.
So the herbalist must tread carefully lest he steps on fire.
The herbalist could even add a measure of mirth to it all, by announcing that Christians on board today have very interesting company on the journey, but that should not detract from the business of the day.
The Moslem brother will weigh the words carefully and offer a wry smile.
He must be careful the occasion does not degenerate into the use of semantics and proverbial oration to deride his conviction that public utterances must be mindful of religious sensibilities. He has made his point very clear and expects that it is taken in good faith in the interest of a peaceful journey.
The herbalist will now open the New Testament and preach salvation, stating clearly that salvation can come only through Jesus Christ and NOBODY else.
The Moslem brother will now start twitching his moustache. The visible and almost revolutionary reflexes of his upper lip can be an indication that sentiments have begun superseding reason, and the outcome could well be tragic now shift uneasily in his seat.
The time has come for him to also express his right to the religion of his fore-bears. He’ll put his hand into his pocket and rise to his feet. The time has indeed come!
This article was first published on Saturday, September 9, 2006
When the cause of a particular problem like sickness, disease, sudden illness, a social issue etc. are not known, it stands to reason that resolving it becomes a huge challenge.
Citizens would understand the government when public announcements are made to the effect that government is trying to find a solution to the issue, even though it is taking a while for it to be resolved because citizens are rational beings.
On the other hand, if the solution to a particular issue is known to everybody but the government for whatever reason, is dragging its feet in resolving it, citizens become frustrated and begin to lose trust in their leaders.
One such issue is the heavy traffic along a section of the Kasoa – Odokor road. A short stretch of bad road between the traffic light at the Weija Government Hospital and the entrance to the entrance of the overhead that leads to the N1, is the cause of the problem but nothing is being done about it, day after day, week after week, month after month. Thus is clearly unacceptable.
Another issue that requires urgent attention is the lack of pavements along a lot of streets in parts of the various Municipal Assemblies. Exercise is a prerequisite for long life and healthy living and for those of us who it has become a way of life, this issue of people putting up structures right to the edge of the drains beside the roads, are making life difficult for us.
We are compelled to walk along the roads, putting our lives at serious risk. Pedestrians should never be compelled to compete with vehicles on our streets and roads. Roads and streets are made for vehicles and pavements are made for pedestrians. That is the norm. Any attempt to normalise a situation where pedestrians are mingling with vehicles is insanity.
It is the road regulations that makes it so and therefore district or municipal assemblies are to take responsibility and ensure that spaces for pavements are not encroached upon. Citizens have rights that must be protected by their leaders and making pavements available to pedestrians, is one of them.
When we hear of teachers having sex with students, it appears it is something recent. It is not a new phenomenon. It has been there since Adam. Perhaps this issue is getting much attention due to the proliferation of social media. It was an open secret in times past when Teachers were in relationships with female students and some married them immediately after completion of school.
Some teachers were also known to be having unholy interactions with female pupils but due to the times that these acts occurred, human rights issues and the awareness around it, allowed such unscrupulous teachers to get away with their crimes.
Now we are in a different era and so a Headmaster is now in hot waters. He is alleged to have raped about 19 female students and as usual, some officials tried to cover it up and are also in hot waters and their actions or inactions in the matter are under investigation.
Why the man has been allowed to roam freely without being arrested is simply mind boggling. It appears that the law applies differently, depending on who you are. This issue came to public attention sometime in August this year, yet the police had not arrested or invited this man for question regarding the rape allegation.
It has come out that he is a Constituency Secretary of the ruling party and the question in the public domain is that, is it because he is a political figure that is why he is still walking around without questioning? I believe in the rule of law so let us hold our breadth and let the proper thing be done.
The police must however be seen to be active in this matter. God bless.
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