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Accra must sparkle and bloom!

Accra must sparkle and bloom!

Why do so many places in Accra look like they are part of an official project to grow and export weeds? Do the city authorities not care that Ghana’s capital is looking so unkempt? Clearing hawkers from the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange as the Accra Metropolitan Assembly did last week is good, but what about the filth and the weeds all over the city?

Last month when President Nana Akufo-Addo said that his aim is to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa, some people might have thought he was being too optimistic. 

The President said at Jamestown, in Accra: “The commitment I want to make, and for all of us to make, is that by the end of my term in office, Accra will be the cleanest city on the entire African continent” (Daily Graphic, April 26). The occasion was President Akufo-Addo’s installation as a chief of Jamestown, with the stool name of Nii Kwaku Ablade Okogyeaman.

However, to me the President’s aim is doable; and he didn’t even go far enough. My view is that Accra could become not only the cleanest, but it also has the potential to be the most scenic city on the continent.

After all, what is stopping Ghana from achieving those two objectives, if the President has already committed to the first, cleanliness, and by implication sanitation, the most difficult to achieve?

The President appointed Mr Kofi Adda, Minister for Water Resources and Sanitation. It means that Ghana is now seriously confronting the squalor in our urban areas. 

As to the beautification, half the job is already underway, almost unwittingly. In recent years our capital city has undergone a lot of stupendous changes. The Accra skyline is changing dramatically, very pleasantly, even wondrously so in places: including the Ridge, Cantonments and Airport areas; not to mention sections of the Accra – Winneba road.

Architectural marvels all over! And one can’t help wondering where all that money came from, because the one thing the new structures have in common is that they all manifest mountains of money!

So what is left is the relatively ‘small’ matter of complementary horticulture, tidy greenery and flowers to complete the picture. And it can’t be that there’s a shortage of labour!

Places whose surroundings look like commercial weeds enterprises include, shockingly, the Ministries; the Pension House junction and the Ring Road. Then there is the Graphic Road, ending at the Obetsebi Lamptey Circle which at present resembles a forest under cultivation.

I need to mention yet again the usually deplorable state of the George Walker Bush Highway.

The fact that almost all the central reservations or traffic islands are complete eyesores prompts me to ask once more: why do our road authorities copy European/western roads designs which have delightful central reservations if they have no intention of maintaining ours in a similar manner?

In summary, this country needs the Department of Parks and Gardens fully working!

As I wrote in this column earlier this year (January 6, ‘Beyond the euphoria of the new era’): “The New Patriotic Party administration under President John Kufuor that not only saw the need to beautify Accra, (and) actually named a ‘Ministry of Tourism and Modernization of the Capital City’ …

“Accra needs to look like the capital city of a country whose people are proud of their nation; a country whose well-travelled leaders have seen how others with much less natural endowment have been able to beautify their capitals and even towns and villages,” the January article stated.

Beautification of the city should be again put under a specific ministry again to ensure commitment. Other cities, towns and district capitals will take a cue once Accra has been spruced up.

Accra must not only sparkle with cleanliness, Accra must also bloom!

(I had just finished writing this article when I read in the ‘Graphic’ of May 10 the encouraging news that  AMA Chief Executive Mr Mohammed A. Sowah on May 9 held a press conference to outline a programme to achieve the President’s vow.)

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A man on a dedicated march  

I couldn’t believe my ears when not too long ago I heard about a new political party in France whose leader was to contest the presidency. It was the party’s name that astounded me, ‘En Marche !’.  

The name of the party, led by Emmanuel Macron, brought back long-ago memories of a secondary school French textbook here in Ghana with the intriguing title, En Marche, which we understood to mean ‘on the move’ or ‘on the march’ - but marching to where, our teacher failed to tell us. 

Never did I think I would come across the expression ‘en marche’ again, and in such an unexpected connection.

Wikipedia, the free internet encyclopaedia, translates the party’s name as ‘Forward!’ or ‘Onward!’. Wikipedia helpfully adds that “the initials of the name of the party are the same as the initials of Macron’s name”.  

Interestingly, Mr Macron, was reportedly almost unknown to the French electorate because he founded the party only a year ago. Well, last Sunday the newcomer became the President-elect of France, having won the presidential election. 

But that’s not all that is remarkable about Macron. The story of his marriage to a woman reportedly 24 years his senior is even more heart-warming and inspiring.  

His wife, Brigitte, now 64, was his drama teacher in secondary school and he fell in love with her when he was 15. She was then a married woman with three children. When he was 17 he promised to marry her some day. After her divorce, they married in 2007.  

The 39-year old has accomplished a historic feat and is also the youngest French President. He will be sworn into office next Sunday, May 14, as President of France! And, of course, Brigitte will be the First Lady. 

Incidentally, the party has announced that its name will be changed to ‘La République En Marche (Republic on the Move).  

Such is the nature of the global village and interest in happenings everywhere and anywhere, that in my little corner I, too, was rooting for my ‘En Marche !’ friend. 

As I said, our teacher never told us where we were marching to, but evidently, Mr Macron knew exactly where he was marching to: the Elysée Palace, the official residence of the President of France.  

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