Friday,
January 24, 2014
My good friends, I will stick my
neck out to make some generalizations for a purpose.
Ghanaians have a major problem
that is difficult to tackle: widespread indiscipline, disregard for law and
order, and the penchant to dare the devil. There is also a strong motivation to
get-rich-quickly, damn the consequences.
The consequences of all these
negative traits are dire to the self and country; but who cares?
All over the country, the
consequences of indiscipline are particularly noticeable. I don’t know what has
come over the Ghanaian to make him or her want to do anything at all willy-nilly,
provided self-interest will be served. And then, when everything backfires, the
Ghanaian quickly turns round to blame the government for it.
And as if that isn’t enough of a
major hindrance to development efforts, institutions of state also fail to do
what is required of them, thus, creating room for more mess to be caused before
they resort to knee-jerk measures, which worsen the situation and damage the government’s
interests all the more.
Many happenings over the years
have proved that there is a lot wrong with Ghanaians; but who cares?
The
latest in the series is the demolition of houses in the Tema area. It has been
reported that Since Tuesday, bulldozers, escorted by
heavily armed military and police personnel, have razed down about 150 houses
at Sraha and King Solomon City suburbs. This didn’t happen without fierce
opposition from residents, local chiefs and the Member of Parliament for Tema
West Irene Naa Torshie Addo. Gun shots were even fired by the
security personnel to scare away the resistant residents.
The TDC had accused the home owners of
encroaching on its lands.
Now, the NDC leaders in Tema have
come out, urging President Mahama to remove from office “without delay” the Managing Director of TDC (Joseph Abbey).
MY COMMENTS
I have seen pictures of houses
demolished and the huge burden that has been placed on the victims. Only two
issues pertain to this problem:
1.
How
did the residents get to acquire the land on which they put up those buildings?
Or did nobody ever notice the developments taking place to stop them” We note
that the buildings didn’t just spring up overnight but were constructed over a
long period, which leads us to the next issue.
2.
Where
were the TDC officials at the time that these buildings were being put up? How
did they begin solving the problem to ensure that the land wasn’t developed? Or
were some of their own officials extorting money from the land developers to facilitate
their activities? Likely.
Folks, do you see how the
Ghanaian (mis)behaves? I am very much concerned at the manner in which the
problem has been tackled—the usual recourse to inhuman acts when preventive measures
could have been enforced long before those buildings sprang up. And the
demolished buildings were really beautiful too!
People’s lives’ labour gone away
with the wind just like that? When I saw the pictures, I nearly wept. How can
human beings be so wicked? I blame the TDC for this happening.
One major move to stop the
development of the land would have been to sue the land developers at court for
the court to officially deal with the matter at its formative stage. But nothing
of the sort was done to stem the tide. Mere warnings or inscriptions to “Stop
Work!” won’t solve the problem because the Ghanaian is the dare-devil type in
such circumstances. The law must work in a democracy!!
True to their nature, they went
physical, relying on raw military and police strength to reduce everything to
rubble, unperturbed by the consequences of their draconian act. This kind of
attitude doesn’t solve problems. It creates more room for anti-social
activities.
Undoubtedly, the lives of these
victims have been disrupted beyond measure. Now, they are asking the NADMO to
assist them live their lives, meaning that the burden has become the government’s
to solve, failing which it will have a huge political price to pay.
I am all the more saddened by the
fact that the victims might have invested all their lives' labour and earnings
in such buildings only to lose everything at the pull of an accelerator.
Not only that. Consider the fate
of school-going children who have been displaced by this excessive show of
force. Now, the problem has bounced back to the quarters of the government
itself because NADMO is registering the victims with the view to providing them
some temporary relief.
Had the right thing been done,
could the situation have ground to this disturbing point? The laws must bite
but they must first be given teeth, meaning that the preliminary steps should
have been taken by the TDC to rule out this "show of force" in the
end!!
In a democracy, good conscience
and recourse to the law should define human behaviour, not this kind of
senselessness. What has the TDC earmarked that land for, anyway?
I have insisted on many occasions
that the high degree of indiscipline and plain incompetence or wickedness in
high places is a major threat to our country. Now that the matter has been
politicized, I wait to see how the government will solve it to rid itself of
the shame that has been brought to it by the TDC. Pathetic!!
I shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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