POLITICAL WILL AND PEOPLE'S POWER (JUNE 16, 2009)

ONCE again the planned decongestion has become music in the ears of many residents of the city. It is virtually the same hymn, except that the tune is coming from a different set of people.
Attempts had been made in the past to decongest the city and on the many occasions that we managed to clear the streets and pavements of hawkers, it turned out to be a nine days’ wonder.
Sometimes the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) receives very little support from members of the public to decongest particularly the central business district (CBD) and some selected areas in the city.
For many people, a visit to the CBD has become a nightmare. Not only is one unable to find space for movement in the city; criminals also take advantage of the influx to rob both residents and visitors of their belongings.
We know that under the district assemblies concept, metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), as the highest decision-making bodies, have the mandate to take decisions in their areas of jurisdiction, except that those actions must be taken within the broad government policy framework.
That is why some people find it strange that even under the decentralised dispensation, political interference has made it difficult for the assemblies to carry out their mandate.
Decongestion of our cities has become politically suicidal to undertake for fear that those affected will accuse the authorities of not keeping faith with them after they had voted for their leaders.
The pressure on the government three years ago was so intense that the AMA led by Mr Stanley Nii Adjiri-Blankson had to spend billions of cedis to construct the Pedestrian Shopping Mall at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.
Ironically, some of the traders who created the impression that they were in dire need of stalls and stores so that they could move away from the streets eventually refused to accept relocation to the shopping mall, citing low patronage of items and lack of security.
Today, the mall has become a white elephant, while all the hawkers are back doing brisk business at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Kaneshie and other areas, to the extent that our streets are choked with people selling all kinds of imported items. In the process, they impede the smooth movement of traffic.
The decongestion of our cities cannot succeed by mere lip service. To begin with, the authorities have to go back to the drawing board to establish clearly the logistics and the budget for the exercise and then engage residents and visitors to buy into it.
Unless there is ownership of the exercise by hawkers, traders, the city authorities, the government and the political parties, any attempt at decongesting the cities will fail because the exercise, as usual, will be politicised.
When the exercise was introduced a few years ago, sampled views of some of the political parties were interesting. The views were non-committal because some of the parties did not want to incur the displeasure of the hawkers who form a huge electoral college in the city.
The DAILY GRAPHIC calls on the AMA Chief Executive, Mr Alfred Vanderpuijie to muster the courage, this time round, to clear the city of hawkers so that there can be order in the CBD.
The time has come for naming and shaming those who do wrong and thus punishment becomes a deterrent, while those who do well are identified and honoured.
Let us not allow a few people determined to always pursue the path of wrongdoing to have their way. Majority of us want to live in a disciplined and clean city.