Friday 5 June 2015

...Of floods, fire and brimstones.

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

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