I have not been inspired to write
for your reading pleasure or torture thereof in a while because the system I speak
to, seem so resilient and fortified by its unrepentant folks but I am compelled
on this black day in the history of Ghana to pass a few comments.
This morning while observing my
usual meditation, I was inspired from the words of the Legendary Robert Nesta
Marley’s “Many more will have to suffer, many more will have to die” to pen to
whom it may concern that the death toll we recorded last Wednesday night into
the wee hours of Thursday as a result of the torrential downpour in our nation,
Ghana, may just be a precursor to what is to come. My view!
I was so livid when I managed to
wake up somewhere in the countryside to the macabre images that were splashed
all over, thanks to social media and I knew shit has hit the fan which made me
somewhat indifferent to all the telltales that were being churned out by any
social media account holder. May their souls rest in perfect peace.
I hardly know what really the
cause was, but I don’t want to believe that we are an ungrateful lot who pray
for the rains to come only to turn around to accurse God for the mayhem that
visits with our requests. I also think what happened at Circle was avoidable
but for a few greedy folks who wanted to line their pockets at the expense of
the nation and rightfully so if you quantify the loss and I will outline why I feel
so strongly about my conviction.
Even though our attitude as a
people underlies all the factors that contribute to these bizarre happenings
anytime the rain sets in, I would first attribute it to leadership crisis. Our
leaders have woefully failed us by by-standing while the laws, regulations and
by-laws lie fallow on their dusty shelves. They hardly enforce the law because the
buck stops nowhere. No one to ascertain that the right things are done and
rarely are people held accountable; our bane.
The second factor is
over-monetization of the system, such that, we have thrown our values to the
dogs. By all means, do anything to make money even if it’s despicable and
inhumane because it is the only way to be glorified in our society. If you are
very observant, you would realize that Fuel filling stations have sprung and
are springing in every nook and cranny in our settlements and even in the big
cities which is not the way to go. I am of the view that we need more fuel to
power the nation but I beg to differ on the proliferation of fuel stations even
though I stand to be corrected.
Growing up in my area, Chantan,
near New Achimota, I had one bitter experience which makes me bemoan the powers
that be. The only football park where all the community members come together
to recreate was sold to ONE PERSON TO MAKE MONEY. He turned the place into a
filling station, which eventually allowed the devil to set in to find jobs for
those who found themselves idle. Today, some of them are languishing in jail
for peddling in one drug usage or the other, petty thievery and what have you.
Thirdly, the Permit issuing
authorities should bow down their heads in shame for selling every small
opening in our areas of settlements to be transformed into gas and petrol filling
stations which are highly inflammable. How many times are these setups going to
explode too destroy lives and properties before we take drastic measures that
these setups cannot be situated at places where people inhabit? Sadly, the truth
is the community members cannot be careful at all times so it behooves the authorities
to sit up and do something good that will outlast them for once. The laws
should be enforced somehow because we do not want to wake up to these gruesome
happenings. They are daunting on our national psyche and scary to say the
least.
I have seen many buildings marked
‘STOP WORK, PRODUCE PERMIT BY AMA’ that have seen the light of day after a few
visits to the office. What changed to warrant the approval of such buildings to
be built?
Fourthly, our civic institutions
must sit up to educate the people as mandated by the very powers that
established them. They should educate the people that demolishing structures
that are situated on waterways or on roads does not mean that they cannot live
in Accra if that is what they want by all means necessary. It only means, they
should relocate for the greater good of all. It only means that we are gate-keeping
for the generations to come. It only means that we are poised on doing what is
right. It only means that we want to commit to something greater than
ourselves.
Fifthly, the government must pass
a law to ban fuel filling stations to desist from allowing people to park their
cars at their premises. That way, when mayhem visits against all odds, only a
few casualties will be recorded which we can contain as a nation. Just as
people are admonished to have a verandahs before acquiring monkeys, people
buying cars should consider where to park them to avoid being adjoining explosives
when fire and flood decides to inflame.
Sadly, I have been tossing the sixth
point in my mind for a long time without an answer even before this tragedy erupted
and I guess it’s time to be radical in our approach. To use the bottom-up
approach, I would like to know what is the use of Assembly men and women in our
society? When I was growing up, I recall Assembly heads organizing communal labor
which brings together every member in the community every one Saturday in a
month where gutters were desilted, streets and corners were swept and kept squeaky
clean, so what happened?
Truth of the matter is, Ghana has most
of her priorities misplaced; in that, we have to wait for a massive sum of 200
people to die and many more displaced and livelihoods shelved, for those who lost breadwinners through the raging inferno to expend Gh¢60million, and as though
that is not enough, to declare three days of productivity to mourning their
departed souls. And then what?
How much more are we going to
dole out to the dead should a disaster of such magnitude happen again and how
many more days is the state going to declare when we could prevent all these
self-afflicted catastrophes that are far-fetched from natural disasters?
It is even unfortunate when these
so-called experts are arrayed on our TVs and radios to tell us what could have
been done. Where were they when these politically incorrect structures were
being erected all over the place and the least said about the print and the
electronic media who are supposed to hold fort for the ordinary man, the
better. The rhetoric is helping no one, somebody should crack the whip and rein
us into line since a little force and brute can get things right.
Writer tweets @vilejah
