It is quite easy to notice that the blueprint with which this country’s development stands is currently non-existent. This is evident in the fact that our contemporary political leaders and technocrats have neglected basic systems which could help ensure viable and sustainable development in this country without any fear of future relapse.
The reality could be that our leaders have consistently been inconsistent and dishonest with Ghanaians.
I boarded a commercial vehicle from the Kwame Nkrumah Circle to the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) some few days ago to buy airline tickets for a cousin of mine who was traveling to Europe. Barely two minutes of the journey, had the rain started coming down as though someone had offended the skies. Of course we are in the rainy season so such heavy down pours are not out of place.
However, the impact of such heavy rains become manifest when the flash floods begin to expose the country’s level of infrastructure development (or the lack of it). Even the slightest sign of showers of rain tend to peel off the gloss on our so-called infrastructure.
We experienced this when, upon reaching the traffic lights on the Liberation Road at the intersection of the Opeibea House and the Silver Star Towers, we were stuck in a pool of floodwater and virtually all the vehicles on that stretch of a supposedly first-class inner-city highway had to stop or use the pavement because the main road was flooded.
Torrential rains and flooding have been in the news around the world over the past few days as they have ravaged and paralyzed many parts of Central Europe, the worst in over 500 years. And these are countries with highly sophisticated underground sewerage systems and dikes built decades ago to withstand the ravages of such flooding.
The same cannot be said about Ghana. Literally the entire national capital and its surrounding areas become flooded with the slightest drizzle. So, to say that I felt scandalized by the situation I witnessed and experienced on the road to the airport on that fateful wet morning could be too charitable at best; but for the purposes of mass media ethics, it may fit the context.
The expansion of the Liberation Road from the 37 Military Hospital to the then Akuafo Circle (now converted into a cloverleaf Tetteh Quarshie Interchange), through the KIA City into a six-lane motorway was conceived in the mid-1990s to handle both the huge vehicular traffic and solve the perennial flooding around that area.
Ironically, the reverse has been the outcome. Apart from the unending huge vehicular traffic, the entire road network around the airport area – the so-called “gateway to West Africa” – becomes flooded with rainwater with each rainfall. The first thought that hit me when I was caught up in that no-go floodwater was “what the contractors of the road were thinking of when they were constructing a principal street of such nature”. Then a flood of questions followed, the central one being “Did they take into consideration flooding from rain?”
However my mind also went to the fact that human activities such as indiscriminate disposal of non-degradable waste materials could also choke the drains along that road. Although I would never wish any doom for this country, all I was thinking was our readiness and pro-activeness as a nation in the event of something much more serious, especially as we go into the wet season which the meteorological department predict would be severe this year. Are we ready to minimize the negative effects these floods would bring to us?
Record floods in parts of the city this year have subsided to some extent in certain areas. Other parts of the city continue to hold their breath as the worst flooding may still come. For some residents in Accra, Wednesday June 4 marks the first day they can begin assessing the damage of the floods that have hit wide swathes of the city. For others, Wednesday could see the worst flooding yet.
Moving on to a different issue which has given me much headache is our legal courts buildings. We pride ourselves – and the international community seems to endorse it – with the record of a nation with good practice of rule of law and the respect for human rights. Ghana is endowed with good advocates of freedom and justice. That is not debatable.
Regrettably, this great pursuit for rule of law seems to be divorced from its administration and the aesthetic environment within which it is supposed to be achieved or practiced.
The dilapidated structures that purport to represent courts in the Greater Accra Region summarize the neglect that the courts continue to suffer in this county. It is humiliating and an insult to the dignity of this nation to point to the ramshackle on the 28th February Road as a court building.
The wooden structures, popularly known as “Cocoa Affairs”, have been serving as circuit courts in Accra for several decades. The colonial-style architectural building used to be the Ministry of Cocoa Affairs when that ministry was first created in the 1970s under the SMC regime of Gen Kutu Acheampong.
Then the status of the place changed when it was converted into a circuit court to serve as the first point in Ghana’s legal system. If this is the best that the national capital can offer, then I shudder to imagine the situation in the regions. The buildings from where justice is delivered are so poor; security in those buildings is a luxury concept. We have witnessed situations where suspects standing trial in these law courts bolt from the premises when proceedings are ongoing due to easy access to exit points.
Thankfully, a new edifice is springing up next to the Cocoa Affairs wooden structures, which will house a new courts complex. Apart from adding a new gloss on the judicial system, it will also redefine the dignity we attach to the freedom and justice tagline on the country’s coat of arms.
It also pains my heart that governments over the years have paid no or little attention to sports development in this country. How times change! Once upon a time, Ghana’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was directly responsible for sports promotion in this country.
He appointed Ohene Djan as his special assistant for sports who reported directly to the president. The net benefit was that, Ghana did not only excel in soccer. She was equally classified among the elite sports nations in the world relative to athletics, boxing, table tennis and hockey.
Those were the days when the Mike Aheys, Ike Quarteys, Alice Anums, Hannah Afriyies and the rest could hold their own against some of the best in the world, either on the tracks or in the rings, at the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games and return home with medals.
Hockey also held a place of pride in the history of sports in Ghana. Even as late as the 1970s, Ghana was rubbing shoulders with some of the best in the world. Indeed, for several years, Ghana was only second to Kenya on the African continent during hockey tournaments.
Of course, the credentials of the Black Stars in those days were glittering. The senior national soccer team won their first two African cups in 1963 and 1965 respectively under Dr. Nkrumah; with the third one coming in 1978 under Kutu Acheampong.
Clearly, the reasons for these achievements are not farfetched. Acheampong literally cloned the model fashioned by Nkrumah. The military head of state between 1972 and 1978 also had Col. Simpe Asante as the Special Assistant for sports who was responsible for fashioning and promoting sports policies.
Both heads of state placed premium on the annual sports festival during which all the various regions and security services competed in various sports disciplines just like the Olympics or Commonwealth Games. It served as a platform to unearth new talents in all the disciplines.
The inter-secondary schools sports competitions (Interco) also served as a strong pool for unearthing talents. Secondary schools engaged fierce but friendly competition in soccer, hockey and athletics. It was always a pride for students to represent their schools outside their own campuses.
Ghana government under Osagyefo and Acheampong in the 1960s and 1970s placed high premium on promoting sports in the secondary schools throughout the country.
Even with football, the two leaders were similar in their approach to its development: strong organization and competition at the colts level; direct presidential supervision of the Academicals and the Republicans (otherwise known as Osagyefo’s own club), which was a virtual incubator for the grooming of talents into the Black Stars.
The story is starkly different today. Even football in this country is synonymous with only the Black Stars. Organization of football at club level is left to philanthropists and volunteers. The Premier League and other lower division leagues are neglected, with their funding is at the mercy and pleasure of individuals.
The net effect is Ghana’s loss of slots at CAF-organized continental club competitions. Hitherto, Ghana had four slots (two each for Champions League and the Confederations Cup respectively). The reality now is that only the Black Stars are considered good enough to receive all the funds pumped into sports.
It is therefore not surprising that our Premier League is suffering disenchantment from fans across the nation, which, by extension, is affecting the purse of the clubs and impacting negatively on their performances, both locally and internationally.
In the English Premiership (I hate to compare) the three promoted clubs for next season will each have a whopping £120 million for qualifying to play in the Premiership whilst relegated clubs will receive just a little below £50 million each. I fervently pray for the day ours will get to that stage, i.e. if the right ears will listen to do an understudy of the various developed leagues across the world.
Regrettably, all other sports disciplines have been relegated to the back burner. They are now labelled “lesser known sports”, a euphemism for the neglect being accorded to those sporting activities.
Unfortunately, the sports media in the country seems to be equally fixated on football. There is virtually no advocacy from the media to keep pressure on sports administrators to change the course of how they run their activities. Perhaps, one exception is sports journalist Charles Osei Asibey’s (popularly known as Barrister) who has been championing the cause of the so-called lesser-known sports.
Can you imagine the National Athletics Association not being able to compete in an international tournament just because of $9,000? This is so demeaning. Yet our political leaders will always be seen falling over themselves in a frantic mood to claim credit for the achievement of an athlete who had won an international event through their own perseverance. The political leaders would then come up with long speeches and vague promises to confuse the populace and the sporting world.
This country is endowed with some of the finest boxers with raw skills and talent. A recent documentary produced by the BBC on amateur boxing in the Third World chose Ghana as a case study. The sore part of the documentary was that Ghana cannot boast of even one decent state-owned boxing gym that meets international standard.
What are our priorities as a nation with regard to sports? I honestly think the whole sporting system in the country needs to be overhauled. It is amazing how a Zimbabwean swimmer, Kirsty Coventry, is putting her country on the world map because of her heroics in swimming despite her country’s unfavorable economy.
Look at Brazil, Jamaica and even China when it comes to Olympic Games, need I mention more? What is going to happen when the aging generation of Ignatius Gaisah, Vida Anim, Margaret Simpson and Leo Myles Mills can no longer compete? Do we have better ones to come into the fold to restore lost hopes?
It is a universal law that there is a reaction for every action. Apparently Ghanaian leaders are so inert that…
I shall return.