The requisition for the Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah to spell out why chorkor, a community in the Accra Metropolis is still in filth, has been chided by the Accra Mayor as ‘over flogging ‘.
The Accra Mayor bluntly disclosed that “chorkor for instance, admittedly, we have challenges in chorkor, but we are looking at the whole of Accra. So, don’t restrict the discussion to chorkor,” he remarked.
This comes on the back of President Akufo-Addo’s vision to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa by the end of his term in 2020.
Fast-forward to September 2020, chorkor have not experienced the impact of the President’s promise to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa.
According to the Accra Mayor, the declaration of making Accra the cleanest city in Africa by the President was a call to awaken the senses of Ghanaians about sanitation, therefore has not failed in making Accra the cleanest city in Africa. He reiterated that the statement made by the President was not a joke.
Buttressing his claim, he stated that judgements should not be made in a rush because, the 4-year term of the New Patriotic Party is not completed, though the administration has two months left in office before the December 7 polls.
He iterated that the media should rather report on the successes of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly. “As you move around the city all the time and you claim that on the highways, you can see heaps of refuse and mountains of refuse, you have stopped reporting it because, there is nothing to show again, and these are facts you should report on.
“We came to see over 40 heaps or mountains of refuse in Accra. Today, we have managed to clear more than 35 of it. I will say that, there are one or two which are left; there is one in front of the ICGC (International Central Gospel Church), behind the onion sellers which has been there for over 20 to 25 years. We are still working towards it to use the garage to make sure we clear it. But there used to be a mountain of refuse at Okponglo just opposite the University of Ghana. Now, the place is turned into a flower garden and people are selling flowers over there.”
He further disclosed that, though the problem of sanitation has not been fully eradicated, the Accra Metropolis’ interventions has helped reduce the burden of insanitation.
According to face to face, the youth of chorkor have decided to distil gutters and drains in the community by themselves, but have not commenced work because they have not been provided with requisite tools to commence the project.
Reacting to the issue, Mr. Nii Adjei Sowah intimated that, “the first person that you interviewed, is the campaign manager for Oko Vanderpuije. You went and interviewed politically aligned people and they have made commentaries just to make us look bad,” he stated
Addressing opening defecation in Accra, he iterated that, people who have been caught engaging in the dreadful activity, have been arrested and prosecuted. But, in providing a permanent solution to the problem, the Accra Metropolis has provided communities with toilet and about 30,000 household toilets which he stated is “unprecedented”.
He further disclosed that, under the jurisdictions of the Ministry of Sanitation, the Greater Accra Sustainable Sanitation Development Project GASSLIP has also provided additional toilets for households.
According to the Accra Mayor, indiscipline is the primary cause of congestion in Ghana. “The central business district, is an informal market. So, when you come into the central business district which is largely an informal market, the trading activities there cannot be compared to going to the Accra Mall or West Hills Mall. It is largely informal. It requires walking and the rest. In terms of places to park, people don’t want to park and walk to go and buy anything. They want to take their car to where the shop is or to go and buy tomato. It is never done anywhere in the world.”
In disputing the relegalization of ‘Okada’, the Accra Mayor intimated that, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), globally, traffic accidents are the eighth leading cause of death. In Ghana, the National Roads Safety Authority reported that from 2016 to 2017 motorcycle deaths increased from 21 percent to 28 percent. “That tells you the number of people that die on the road,” he added.
He stressed that the enactment of the L.I 2180 road traffic regularization 2012, that prohibits the use of motorcycle for commercial purposes was enacted because of the safety surrounding issues such as ‘okada’ will pose when legalized.
Though there are arguments that the legalization of ‘okada’ will provide employment, which he believes is good for the country, the Accra Mayor cannot asserts the fact that it is one of the leading causes of road accident deaths in Ghana.
He suggests that, policy makers should be mindful of the issues surrounding ‘okada’ and should not be addressed to suit any political ambition.
