LET'S DO THE RIGHT THING (JUNE 19, 2010)

It is a truism that discipline is the bedrock of success in any human endeavour.
Without discipline things cannot be done right for the requisite level of success to be chalked up to move society forward.
It cannot be denied that indiscipline constitutes a serious drawback to our socio-economic development as a people.
Simple laws or rules and regulations crafted to regulate our behaviour in various spheres of national life are more often than not flouted with impunity.
Indeed, there are times when some patriotic citizens, in seeking to draw attention to violation of the law have had their good intentions being greeted with scorn, including from onlookers who should have joined in insisting that the right thing be done.
In recent times, metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies have launched crusades against this canker in towns and cities across the country in a bid to restore some semblance of normalcy in these areas.
One has seen structures illegally constructed in our towns and cities. Many of these structures have been erected on watercourses and this constitutes a principal cause of flooding and destruction of lives and property whenever there is a torrential downpour.
The Accra and Tema Metropolitan Assemblies have, as part of their efforts at restoring sanity in their areas, embarked upon decongestive exercises that have involved the demolition of illegally sited structures.
The TMA only this week had to defy stiff resistance from some dwellers to demolish many such structures at Lashibi. And only yesterday, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, after years of indecision and hesitation, finally moved to demolish the dense concentration of illegal structures behind the COCOBOD head office popularly called Abuja (pages 16 & 17).
We wish to commend these assemblies and their respective Chief Executives and urge them to do more to help return a sense of normalcy to our towns and cities.
It is no secret that taking a decision to demolish illegal structures and actually moving to demolish them requires a strong political will and personal courage and vision of political leaders.
It is on record that political leaders higher up have on a number of occasions put the brakes on the efforts of the areas of the nuisance of illegal structures through directives to halt or end such exercises.
These acts have only served to embolden the indisciplined members of society to persist in their nation-wrecking activities, making all of us the losers.
We note with a sense of pride and relief that today there is free and unhindered movement of traffic in the Central Business District of Accra where hitherto it took several hours or more to make that short distance.
While commending these assemblies for a job well done, we would also like to urge them to endeavour to be proactive in helping detect and stop the erection of illegal structures at their very onset before they develop into small townships and therefore becoming more difficult to uproot.
We also wish to urge all citizens to co-operate with the assemblies in these endeavours so that together we build and operate the clean, efficient and prosperous cities we all crave for.