DEMOLITION OF ILLEGAL STRUCTURES: political will over rhetoric’s

It is sad that our country Ghana is highly polarised and sharply divided along party lines. One cannot freely air their views without being tagged or bastardized as belonging to party A or B. This however should not prevent the expression of views and opinions especially when there are concerns over development and national safety.

A few weeks ago, Accra was hit with a devastating effect of the June 3 rains which wrecked properties and led to the loss of lives. There is no denying the fact that the floods were occasioned by the indiscriminate dumping of refuse, inadequate drainage systems in Accra, construction of illegal structures along water ways, ineffective implementation of our by-laws and statues, and the lack of political will by present and past state actors who are mandated and paid by the state to ensure that the right things are done and done well. In a recent radio ‘Call-in-Segment’ programme on JoyFM where the public called in to share their views on the current demolishing of illegal structures at Old Fadama also known as 'Sodom and Gomorrah', I was shocked to my teeth to hear some callers questioning the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and government’s audacity for ejecting the slum dwellers without providing alternative accommodation for them and whether they have been given proper ejection notice by the AMA?  My response: didn’t the slum dwellers come from homes and villages much better than settling at such a deplorable place which is just an affront to human existence?

Some also raised the point that, since many of the dwellers are those who fled the Konkomba-Nanumba ethnic feud which started on January 31, 1994, they should be left to stay there as they do not have any shelter back home. As genuine as this point may be, the war has ended way back and many who fled returned home to start life afresh with support from government. I do not consider that these reasons are enough grounds to warrant to the continued stay of the settlers.

The demolition of the illegal structures is one that is shared by the major political parties of recent past and now except that the political will to execute the demolition is what has eluded the city authorities for years. And so now the demolition exercise has started and there are dissenting views on the matter especially on the score that proper engagement processes have not been exhausted. Additionally, leaders of the settlers have also indicated that the AMA has exceeded its promise to demolish structures within 100 meters away the Odaw River. 

In a television interview on the on-going demolition exercise, the Deputy Local Government Minister Nii Lante Vanderpuje stated that '' there has been series of engagement between the opinion leaders in the area as well as the slum dwellers and his Ministry, AMA and NADMO for several months about the pending exercise and that those who took their advice seriously packed their belongings and left the place area before the exercise''.  But as the saying goes there is a Mensah in every home, so some recalcitrant ones refused to move out, hence the demolishing of their properties.

There are slums all over the world even in America and the UN Conventions on Human Rights give recognition to these dwellers. But my question is; must dwellers continue to dwell at Old Fadama and pollute the Korle Lagoon and the Odaw River year in, year out? Must people mess the city up with garbage so that the drains will be chocked and lives will be lost in the manner the city witnessed a few weeks ago? The answer is NO!

Persons who support the demolition exercise should not be seen as heartless men and women who do not care about the difficulties that the displaced settlers are currently going through. The bigger good of protecting lives and ensuring that similar threats to lives would be averted given the effective demolition of illegal structures to give way to water in the event of heavy rains should supersede the temporal challenges. It appears we are not concerned about the deplorable conditions and lack of basic amenities such as portable drinking water and toilets and the general insanitary conditions under which the settlers live which is inimical to their health and safety.

I hold the opinion that the demolition exercise must to carried out to the hilt. As a people desiring social good and order, we must change our attitude by not littering the streets and communities and once we flout the laws, then the laws must deal with us. There are success stories in other parts of Africa we can learn from. My visit to Rwanda in 2011 got me convinced that the people mean business in terms of sanitation and cleanliness whilst we continue to tout ourselves as highly democratic when our people continue to die through preventable diseases such as cholera outbreaks.

Let us stop playing the ostrich and face reality that Sodom and Gomorrah must go once and for all. May I remind the City Authorities that their efforts will be zilch if they just demolish the structures without clearing the debris. We must ensure that never again should another illegal settler community resurface after the demolition exercise.

The act of promoting an orderly society requires political will to right the wrongs and that mere rhetoric will never solve our problems.  Well done Mr. President for showing the way but please let the exercise continue not just in the slums but  also into our so called properly planned communities such as East Legon where some recalcitrant but affluent people build on water ways whilst the poor settler people of Sodom and Gomorrah get their properties tumbled down. Once the tentacles of justice and rule of law extend to all persons, Ghana will be the victor and those crying today will look back and hail the order that has just began.