Finding one’s bearings in Accra and any other urban area is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It is a near impossibility, as direction is given with reference to physical structures such as lotto kiosks, places of convenience, food joints, trees and blue kiosks, a euphemism for akpeteshie drinking bars.
Elsewhere, it is not difficult to find any location provided the person is adept at reading a map of the locality. Thus all hotels have maps, tourist offices have maps, train and bus terminals sell maps to assist commuters to easily find their bearings.
Years ago when Accra was quite a small city, there were street and house names in virtually all the suburbs. Well developed areas such as the Airport Residential Area, Cantonments, Labone, Roman Ridge, Osu RE, Mamprobi, Adabraka and North Kaneshie were demarcated to provide easy access to all the houses and streets.
As Accra grew in size, almost all the street names disappeared, making it difficult for residents to visit unfamiliar areas without hassle. In some cases, it was a nightmare for visitors to look for relatives, friends and business partners because there were no street and house names to guide such people.
Successive governments recognised the importance of house and street names and put in place structures to address that challenge, albeit with very little to show for the resources pumped into the venture.
The present administration did not abandon the project and even some time last year President John Mahama directed all metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives to execute the house and street naming project.
He made it clear to them that any chief executive who failed to achieve that task must consider himself or herself out of job.
We do not know the extent of performance of many of the district assemblies in other regions but we are informed that proposed names have been given to 3,584 streets within the Greater Accra Region by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).
Reports say the exercise was done in collaboration with stakeholders, including traditional and religious leaders, civil society groups, business entities, educational institutions and political leaders.
Speaking at a forum on the project, the AMA boss, Dr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, said naming streets and numbering properties were fast becoming pre-eminent development challenges in the Accra metropolis.
According to him, no one could anticipate the difficulty Accra would face if efforts were not made to have a proper street addressing system in future.
Unfortunately, this otherwise laudable project is coming up against opposition because the decisions do not appear to be embracing the concerns of all.
Some of the assembly members at the forum were reported to have said that the proposed names did not reflect the agreement reached between them and the AMA.
The assembly members are not alone, as no less a personality but the Ngleshie Alata Noyaa Mantse, Nii Ayi Krotia I, has expressed dissatisfaction with the proposed names by the AMA for some streets in the Greater Accra Region.
Street names are given with the history of the city, the region or the locality in mind, and that is why traditional rulers play very key roles in such an exercise.
We have been unable to do many things because of the lack of street and house names. Now that we are committed to the project, we should do it well, so that the banks and other institutions that extend credit and businesses to the people can easily locate the abodes of their clients.
This exercise will also help the security agencies to have easy access to people who put in distress calls in case of robbery attacks and fire outbreaks.
The Daily Graphic hopes that the stakeholders in this national exercise will revert to the drawing board to iron out the challenges that inhibit the smooth implementation of the street and house-naming project.
