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Operation Sisyphus, the Accra
city cleaner
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot
July 2, 2009
Futility always happens when we
turn against ideals of the state into pursuits for political
power.
So, we know what happened when
the NDC turned control of the streets into a tool for political
power when the Kufuor administration was in power.
Today, hawkers and freewheelers
are back on the street of Accra.
A few weeks back, they were out of the same streets,
pushed back by government authorities.
It is not that we don’t wish the
NDC government well. We
do. After all, it is about our country and its progress. The
cleaner and orderly things look in our environs, the faster
others can see that, at least, there is some attempt to run the
country well. For
this reason, we can only wish the NDC regime a lot of good.
We have to wish our country good
too, but first, it has to be run devoid of unnecessary
politicking.
We point out the futility of some
political actions; the agitations for and against hawkers in the
streets and to call the split between parties on this issue
unnecessary.
More often than not, the division
creates intractable problems. Not only do they add to the
problems inherent in governance, but it creates the opportunity
for some parts of the world to laugh at us.
Logjams in our street, both for
pedestrians and motor traffic, have mostly been perennial in the
city of Accra. The
exercise to rid our street of this madness and the politics that
has so far gone with the effort has been a constant cost to our
sanity.
Before the NDC came to power, the
NPP administration has already put in some efforts to control
the madness in our public places.
They had a good idea of building a new market to get some
hawkers off the streets.
The hawkers took one look at the
NPP’s new market idea and within a blink of the eye chose to
carry on in the open streets, rather than move into the
brand-new market spaces when completed, with public funds.
The hawkers had two reasons for
the refusal.
There was an election coming and
with a wink from the NDC, they knew they could stay in the
streets. The other
reason was the readiness of the street as a profit-making,
tax-free space. The
God-given (Onyame anua) foot and car traffic was there.
Regardless of all the negatives,
the risks and the inconveniences to the public, the foot and car
traffic were more desirable for them because there was no push
back by concerted efforts from administrations.
And even if it meant causing
public health hazards and depriving legal enterprises in the
city their chances for profit, they would be willing to stay in
the streets.
The street hawker has now grown a
newfound spirit that would make him a political revolutionary
activist, a threat to any party in power that wanted to remove
him and his comrades from the streets.
The new market, a proposal by
Mayor Quaye (NPP) to restore discipline and beauty in the
streets, showed good civic as well as political judgment.
And he had assumed that a little act of discipline in the
streets would save the NPP from defeat in the coming elections.
But, soon after the Mayor’s
claim, came a counter move by a cowardly official from his party
(NPP) that said the new market idea was a loser.
He had figured out that, a sure bet to stay in power
would be to keep the hawkers in the streets.
So, amid an aggressive city
cleanup campaign by Mayor Quaye, who thought that the order to
clean the street would help the NPP in the next elections as
well as spruce up the city, the order came from his party to
stop the cleanup exercise.
Mayor Quaye had the right civic
strategy but he was countermanded by his party.
This countermand notwithstanding,
the NPP lost the 2008 election; in part, because the NDC kept
the pressure on them, advocating and telling the same hawker
electorate that no one had the political right to deprive them
of the means to make a living in the street.
So, making a living in the street
has become a cause for social justice and a tool that the rogue
politicians would not allow to go to waste.
Kaya Yei, load carriers, and
their counterparts can do business, sleep, urinate and continue
to procreate openly in the street and other public places and
they would be within their rights.
Shall we say “Power to the
People” at this point? Amen.
But not so fast.
The opportunity to clean the city came alive again, when
in June 2009, the new mayor of Accra under the new NDC
administration, started the street cleanup campaign again.
And as noted by some
publications, including Ghanadot yesterday, July 1, 2009, the
hawkers are back and are disobeying the new NDC regime.
The hawkers, now angrier, are issuing the old political
threats against the NDC as they did against the NPP.
Meanwhile, the street cleaning
exercise has turned into a Sisyphean task and the derision in
its trail has heightened.
The opportunity was lost when the
NPP was in power.
Instead of staying neutral, on the street hawking issue, the
opposition party, the NDC, decided to use the issue for
political gains. It
helped the NDC. And
now the issue has become a winning one.
Is it now the turn of the NPP to
use the issue against the NDC?
We hope better sense will prevail
within the ranks of the NPP. After all, for the common good,
civic obligation dictates for us to have a healthy beautiful
capital. And good
clean, orderly streets can help in that direction.
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher
www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, July 2, 2009
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