Story: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Philadelphia
THERE have been various Metropolitan Chief Executives (MCEs) who have headed the Tamale, Accra , Kumasi, and the Twin-City of Sekondi/Takoradi metropolises since their creation at different times.
Their main headache and what mostly caused their exit was their quest to modernise the metropolises or cities to make them conform to international standards, an ambition that was always thwarted by the uncooperative behaviour of members of the public.
The Chief Executive of the Shama Ahanta East (SAEMA), Mr Philip Kwesi Nkrumah, and his counterparts in the Kumasi, Tamale and Accra have tried tirelessly to rid their metropolitan areas of filth as well as congestion on the streets but that has been fiercely resisted.
It was about 11:30 p.m. when a team of journalists from Ghana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania and Guinea left the hotel to visit the Ground Zero in Yew York City, where work was seriously going on for the construction of the new premises of the World Trade Centre.
The reporters were there until lunch time, and within a twinkle of an eye, an open space near the tribute centre was filled with people who had come out to eat lunch provided by food vendors who were there on time to sell.
Everybody at the open space had something to eat from disposable plastic cups and plates. I was keen to know how they were going to dispose of their waste after they had taken their lunch.
Each of them picked his or her plastic waste and into the bins provided for the sellers.
There, I said to myself if this were to be in Ghana, it would have been very interesting as the people would have left the waste there with impunity.
The story was not different on the streets of Washington, Maryland, Philadelphia, and other parts of the United States.
The system in the United States is working, the people know their rights, they know it is wrong to litter the streets; they know the importance of litter bins, which are provided at every street corner in the cities.
A long bus is being operated by one driver, no conductor, no security officer, the people know what to do, unlike here in Ghana where the Metro Mass Transit has countless people working on just one bus so that people will not cheat the system.
In the trains and the buses in various cities is just a simple notice: “No drinks, No smoking, No eating, No spitting or littering, No playing of radio or other instruments except connected to an earphone” and violation of this ordinance is punishable by fine or jail, but just try boarding any Metro Mass Transport bus and you would see that things are the opposite.
The story about Ghana in the international community is very interesting. I felt good when we toured the offices of the officials at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Government Accountability Office, Justice Department in Washington and New York, the World Bank and other state departments and non-governmental organisations. The people in those offices had a good impression about Ghana. They remarked that we had press freedom, good governance, growing democracy and political system, economic stability as well as a sustained fight against corruption.
But what they did not know is that the attitude of the people after 50 years is a drain on the development of the country.
In the early part of this year, Accra, Takoradi and Kumasi metropolises embarked on demolition and decongesting exercises, but they yielded no long lasting result.
Traders have returned to the Market Circle in Takoradi, the streets of Accra and Kumasi, the moves by their MCEs to ease all manner of congestion in our cities were fiercely resisted by hawkers of these metropolises.
At the Market Circle, the officials of the Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly were embarrassed as the politicians came to the rescue of the hawkers.
It is a basic fact and general knowledge that one cannot compare the level of development in Ghana or any African country to that in the United Stated of America, but it will do us a lot of good if we appreciate the need to change our attitude and beautify our communities, cities and towns.
When the streets of Accra were decongested, traders in the shops in the Metropole-Lane in Accra had more customers visiting their shops because people could move freely on the streets.
But today, the hawkers are back on the streets and do we have to always blame the politicians for not providing the needed change when we are not ready to accept the change?
It is said that as we expect others to be perfect, we should ask ourselves whether we are also perfect to match the kind of perfection we expect from others.
A lot of people desire to go to America or Europe to work but they fail to realise that those societies had been made attractive by people who appreciate the importance of litter bin and the need to dispose of waste at the appropriate place. If the attitude of Ghanaians does not change, we will continue to blame political office holders of inefficiency when they are not to be blamed.
After discussing the issue of filth and indiscipline with my colleagues from other parts of the continent, we all arrived at one answer — that it appeared the advocacy for the need for people to accept change and implement change has been left at the door of political leaders.
This is because many of the people are not enlightened, they do not know their rights. Therefore, to them they can only develop when they remind politicians that they have the power to vote them to power without knowing that they have a role to play.
Shopowners in various parts of New York visited by the team of African journalists had the quantity of goods their shops could take at a time so that the front of their shops were free of goods. However, here in the central business districts in the four metropolises in Ghana mentioned in this piece, it is directly the opposite.
It is common to see shopowners in Sekondi/Takoradi displaying their wares in front of their shops and only park them in the warehouses at the close work.
Why can’t we do the right thing for a moment? I believe the people at the helm of the AMA, SAEMA and KMA need to study the system in developed countries and institute the necessary changes. That should be supported by a change in the attitude of Ghanaians.
The Ministry of Information and National Orientation has a lot of work to do in that regard and should attend to it with some urgency, and educate the people, especially traders in the four metropolises, about the need to keep hawkers off the streets.
The hawkers need to be educated and their opinions sought; they need to be part of the solution to the problem. It should not be just a case of the AMA, SAEMA or KMA evoking the powers vested in them by pushing and destroying tables and kiosks around town.
Because the Metropolitan Assemblies use force as the only method to effect change, the people also intimidate them by telling the politicians that they have the power to vote them out of or retain them in office.
But that should not be the case; developed cities like Washington D.C., New York City, Philadelphia and Maryland in the US, and other cities in Europe and other parts the world have developed with the help of their peoples.
Until the people realise their role in transforming the society, we will not achieve any result. We must first work on the attitudes of the people by making sure they welcome and appreciate the change before we move into action.
Washington D.C. receives millions of tourists and that rakes in millions of dollars for the economy of the United States. We have so much to sell to the world, but without the right approach, we will be far from achieving results.
I do not think it is the duty of the metropolitan authorities to educate the people; it is the responsibility of the National Commission on Civic Education, Ministry of Information and National Orientation.
We should always remember that a weak man can not sit on his donkey while it is standing. He, therefore, waits until the donkey bend down and then he mounts it to show people that he can also ride on his donkey.
That means that if we want to create the kind of metropolis that we dream of, we must take a look at the approach we use.
We have some of the most finest journalists on the continents of Africa. They are very vocal and good with the pen. But they seem to have turned their focus on politics while development issues have been relegated to the background.
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