Maintaining our physical infrastructure and morality

There is no doubt that the road from Odorkor in Accra to Kasoa in the Central Region has been of great help to commuters. That notwithstanding, certain landmarks on the stretch – such as the location of the market near the Sakaman Junction and the tollbooth near Kasoa and the perennial wash-down of sand from the nearby hills close to the booth, which always clogs the road whenever it rains – give cause for worry.
Of particular concern are the massive sand drifts that block the road and slow down traffic whenever it rains heavily. This has not occurred once or twice, but ever since the road was completed. Why this nagging problem has been allowed to persist and a lasting solution not found to it beats  imagination.

In such situations, when the road leading to the Kasoa town gets blocked, the traffic that is caused goes on for miles, sometimes to the Buduburam town (about 25 kilometres away). In such a situation, there is no gainsaying the man-hours that are lost as a result of lateness to work. Frustration and impatience can be seen clearly on the faces of drivers, some of whom take the law into their hands and drive with reckless abandon in their attempt to beat the traffic and get ahead of others.

The road, which is a portion of the West African Highway, I believe, falls under the ambit of the Ghana Highway Authority and the reason why the authority has sat down all these years and put the people under stress during the rainy season is difficult to understand. Ironically, in spite of the difficulties on the road at such times, road tolls are collected from drivers unabated. Can a part of the tolls collected not be used to find a permanent solution to the problem at hand?

If the problem is beyond the engineers at the authority, at least they could ask for help from the foreign contractor that constructed the road. In fact, from the way things are going it will not be long when that portion of the road will deteriorate. And I can bet that repair woks will take a long time in coming, seeing that even the move to ensure that the road is maintained seems not to be part of anybody’s agenda.

This and others, such as the fires that are affecting the country and bringing untold hardships on the people, should be capturing our minds and not how a computer software was used to digitally modify our President and other notable statesmen in undignified ways. That was wrong and whoever did that must bow his or her head in shame. I wonder what came into the mind of the perpetrator when he or she sat down to do the ignoble.

We have visited this sort of shameful spectacle on past Heads of State and other politicians and I think it is time we put a stop to it. I will encourage the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) to go through the recent matter that concerns not only the President, but also the leading opposition figure with a fine tooth comb in order to flush out the nation wreckers.

In the midst of all the troubles that we are facing as a nation, is it not surprising that people do not have the time to think and come up with solutions to our problems, but are rather able to envision how to make the country worse off?

Despite the electoral dispute at the Supreme Court, we must always have it at the back of our minds that we are, first and foremost, Ghanaians before anything else and that is what should guide us in our utterances and behaviours.

Over time, we have collectively sent wrong signals to the youth of this country. Particularly disturbing is the culture of indiscipline and disrespect that are gaining roots in society. We live in challenging times. As someone put it, while technology is improving at very fast pace, the moral fibre of the people is weakening.

As Ghanaians, we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and take actions to change for the better. To achieve this, there must be a strong leadership, right from our traditional to national settings. I believe that if we are able to put the morality of the people on the right track, all other things shall be added.


Article: Jojo Sam