Reflection is good for the soul. Reflection gets you thinking of the past; to smile to yourself or stir feelings of frustrations, and to contemplate about what is possible for the future. As the year 2018 comes to an end, I find myself reflecting on Accra, the city of my birth.
I was born in Accra some six decades ago. Those were simpler and saner days. Now it has grown beyond bounds and aches from nerve-wracking complexities, whilst thrilling under numerous excitements of possibilities. Today, the indigenes of Accra are like endangered species, having been literally swallowed up – making them a minority ethnic group in their own hometown. Accra is no longer a Ga-town; it is a Ghana-town where everyone has come to assemble.
Accra is a city of contradictions, probably like other cities anywhere in the world. Accra has its beauty and it has its beasts, co-existing side-by-side. Accra frustrates and excites at the same time. Accra has a unique energy. It is a fun place if you make time for fun. But Accra can also cause you much misery: high rents, senseless traffic, poor environmental sanitation, noise, lousy access roads—among many others.
THE BEAUTIFUL SKYLINE
The Accra of my childhood days was not really a city (by the definition of a city today). It was just a fairly big town along the beach and a little beyond. It was surrounded by forests. Accra used to be flat; now it is growing taller and taller! Then, there were very few storey-buildings but now, buildings are going up and up into the skies as if to touch the clouds!
Over the past 10 or so year, a skyline has developed in Accra. These are beautiful plush modern state-of-the art types of architecture. If there is ever a reincarnation, I am certain that those who died 20 years ago will not recognize Accra. If they hear of Dubai in the after-life, they will think that the skyline neighbourhoods of Accra is actually Dubai!
Parts of Accra are thriving. They are show-pieces we can brag about. There are houses in Accra that are as grand as the houses of the rich and famous I saw in Hollywood, California. This suggests that there are filthily-rich people in Accra.
CLEANLINESS AND GODLINESS
President Nana Akufo-Addo promised (or resolved) to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa. Methinks that he bit more than he can possibly chew without breaking his jaws and losing his teeth. Accra is a tough call! I cannot wrap my mind around why in the heat of the moment, President Nana made such a promise. Did he not properly assess Accra, the city of my birth?
Promises are tricky things. Derived from wishful thinking, they are attempts to predict the future. It has been two years into the president’s four-year mandate and Accra is nowhere near becoming clean. It does not even appear that Accra has embarked on the long, hard and gruelling journey to cleanliness. Dear Lord, President Nana needs a miracle to clean up Accra! May be God will grant the president this much-needed miracle as reward for his determination to build a cathedral to honour God the Father Almighty.
OVER-POPULATION
Accra welcomes all and sundry. It beckons the good, the bad, and even the ugly. This Christmas season, just like many other previous Christmases, lorry-load full of mostly young vibrant people will be poured into Accra to choke this city further. They come fleeing the villages to the bright city lights of the capital. They come with hope in their hearts that Accra will rescue them from their dull and decaying existence in rural Ghana. No one is counting them. The truth is that we do not know the population of Accra; we engage in wild ‘guestimations’.
With the over-populated ministerial appointments of 110, President Nana should have appointed a Minister of Accra De-population. If we have a minister for creating regions, we should also dedicate a ministry to depopulate Accra!
The mandate of that ministry will be to arrange for all persons who have nothing to do in Accra to return to their hometowns/villages. If you sleep on the streets of Accra, you must go home. If you are a hawker, you must go home. If you are idle, you must return into the embrace of your hometown.
But the hometown returnees should not be abandoned in their home bases. The government must put in the real work of developing our rural areas, creating jobs, and keeping our youth occupied and fulfilled. The state must take good things to the rest of Ghana.
OVER-GROWTH
Today, Accra is an over-grown city with a streak of morbidly chaotic and disruptive characteristics. If nothing changes, someday, Accra may implode. Periodically, Accra undergoes mini-implosions—as if to test its ability to sustain itself and to survive when something worse than the usual occurs. I consider the perennial floods and incidents of gas explosions as tests of Accra’s resilience.
Accra experiences several moments of truth. During my life-time, Accra has lost its innocence. This city has become unmanageable. The local government authorities, who are supposed to manage various parts of this sprawling city, do not appear to have a clue on what to do.
I have a feeling that in another 60 years from now, more than half of Ghana will be living in a super-sprawling city that spreads very far into the Eastern, Central and Volta regions. All hills and mountains in the vast space will be fully covered in concrete. And the vast area will all be known as Accra.
EARTH SNEEZES AND COUGHS
Earlier this week, an earth tremor occurred on the Weija side of Accra. The Meteorological Services folks have cautioned that this may be a sign of mightier and earth-shaking incidents to come in an unknown future time. I consider tremors as sneezing of the earth whilst earthquakes are severe coughs. When the earth quakes, everyone pays attention because it displays its destructive powers.
Accra, the city of my birth is in no way ready for the earth to quake. No! No! No! With impudence, we have dug into hills to chop them off as quarry, precariously built in places we have no business building, and done everything ‘by-heart’. We have been reckless with the way we have managed Accra. We do not have what it take to handle earthquakes.
Accra needs moral clarity. A lot of things need to change. The status quo cannot be allowed to continue. Accra needs to be rescued from the madness. We must seek to create order and to bring some sanity to the city of my birth. Dear Lord, please save Accra!
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