I have been thinking about the scandal that erupted some months ago involving the United States New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, and the deliberate creation of traffic jams in a town with a mayor who was not very fond of him.
Those who followed that story, inevitably dubbed: “Bridgegate,” would recall that some members of staff and political appointees in the governor’s office were said to have collaborated to create traffic jams by closing lanes entering the George Washington Bridge from the town of Fort Lee. You probably need some local knowledge of the area or a map to aid in understanding the intricacies of what happened; but it is enough to know that some people who were friendly to Governor Christie conspired to create traffic jams in the town of Fort Lee.
One political appointee wrote in an e-mail: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee”. Indeed, the traffic problems did start in Fort Lee on a Monday in September 2013 and did not end till Friday when the lane closures were removed. I should add hastily that Governor Christie denied that he had any knowledge of what his friends and hirelings were doing.
But the involvement or otherwise of the governor does not really interest me. What interests me is the depth of human ingenuity that would come up with the idea of creating traffic jams to cause maximum inconvenience to people and thus harm the political prospects of the mayor of the affected town.
The Mayor of Accra
And why am I digging up dirt on Governor Christie when the matter has been resolved a long time ago? Governor Christie doesn’t interest me but Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, the Mayor of Accra, certainly interests me.
As I sat in my car in the perpetual traffic in Accra on Monday, I suddenly wondered if some people have deliberately conspired to cause a massive traffic jam in Accra every day. I wondered if somebody or some people were saying: time for some traffic problems in Accra, and chuckling to themselves as they survey their handiwork.
But I woke up from my reverie to face the fact that the nearest conspiracy theory I could possibly come up would be to blame it on the city authorities themselves. They probably take some perverse pleasure in watching all of us waste precious fuel, get late for appointments, shout at each other and scratch our cars.
Or maybe they have interest in the hawkers on the street; if the traffic is flowing smoothly without any holdups, there is not likely to be much hawking on the street and we wouldn’t buy sachet water and other foods and strew the accompanying rubbish on the street. How else would they have an excuse to organise clean-up programmes and try to make us all give up our Saturdays for a pointless exercise?
Photo Opportunities?
Or maybe one of the President’s communication experts has decreed there must be a photo of the President cleaning gutters on the front pages once every month. Or maybe the city officials get some pleasure from putting on the hazard lights of their cars and weave through the traffic and resolutely keep the car windows closed so they don’t see the dark looks and curses being thrown at them by frustrated motorists.
Or maybe someone believes Ghanaian children benefit from being woken up from bed at unholy hours and spending an hour or two trying to get to school.
I admit freely that this particular rant has probably been triggered by my having been in spectacularly extreme traffic jams this past week. I tried to get out of Accra to get some respite and it was a sad mistake as I got into an even worse traffic jam.
I am ashamed to have to admit that my frustration probably bubbled over when I chanced upon a story about the light rail project in progress in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
I haven’t been in Addis Ababa for some time but apparently the $475 million project that covers 34 kilometres is scheduled to start operating next year.
I know I have read and heard about a light rail project in Accra. This was supposed to help ease the traffic in Accra and my current frustration has sent me to try and find out what has happened to the project. I can’t see any sign of it in Accra but I was able to find something interesting to read about it.
Where is our monorail?
Ours is supposed to be a monorail; the one in Addis Ababa has two lines. Ours is supposed to cover three miles or a distance of less than five kilometres; the one in Addis Ababa covers 34 kilometres or 21 miles. This is published information from the would-be project contractors — ours is projected to cost 1.5 billion US dollars and the one in Addis Ababa is projected to cost 475 million US dollars.
Monorail
There is no sign yet, on the ground, of our 1.5 billion US dollar, 4.8-kilometre, monorail. The Addis Ababa $475 million US dollars, 34- kilometre, two-line light rail is up and being built and will be ready for use in 2015; some say by Election Day in May.
There is something wrong. There are certain inconveniences that people get adjusted to. Traffic jams are not one of them. Every day, more cars join the madness on the roads in Accra. Every day, people try to find ingenious ways to avoid the traffic and end up starting fights on the streets.
I wish it were possible to blame it all on some devious people who have closed some lanes and it will all be over one day. Unfortunately, it appears some have an interest in keeping all of us stuck for hours in unproductive traffic. Since it doesn’t seem the problem is likely to be solved soon, I promise I shall not complain about it again. I will remember it is always time for some traffic problems in Accra.
