Airport for Ho; groundnut bank for Bolga?

Not too long ago, some of our regional capitals were only scruffy little settlements. To be able to serve as the political, administrative and, often, the commercial seat of newly created regions, the infrastructure had to be upgraded.

For Ho, Bolgatanga and Wa, infrastructure was typically less than basic. Thus unwilling civil servants transferred there took to joking with certain permutations of the names to depict living conditions: Ho became HOT and Wa was called WAR. Uncharitably, Bolgatanga was reduced to BOLA. That was the prize they had to pay for being latecomers to the development scene.

In upgrading the status of the towns, there certainly have to be priorities. When as a student on vacation training with the Plant Protection and Quarantine (now Regulatory Services) Department in the Upper Region in 1969, I got to know Bolgatanga as truly an open space with groundnut and millet fields. Nevertheless, there was the market noted for pito and donkey kebab on market days. There was the new library, pert and tidy which was the envy of other regional capitals. There was the new bank which, by the standards of the time, was quite majestic but incongruous in the surroundings.

 About this edifice, an aspiring Prime Minister was quoted to have gasped, “My God, are they going to store groundnuts in there?” It was an obvious allusion to the perceived low commercial activities of the region though the meat factory at Zuarungu and the the Tomato factory at Pwalugu had all existed before the bank. In a news broadcast recently, my heart was stung to hear that the library had fallen on hard times and was in a shameful state of disrepair. But surely, the bank has continued doing roaring business, thus justifying the wisdom in the vision of the planners over 40 years ago.

Ho became the regional capital of the Volta Region through the default of Keta. When merchant ships berthed with goods, Keta was butubutu (credit to Kwatriot). Keta had the endowments of a regional capital. Gradually and unfortunately, nature, through the action of the ruthlessness of the Atlantic waves, has pulverised Keta to a thin waist of a wasp sitting precariously on sand. While the government pondered over what to do with Keta, Ho must be made to assume some responsibility. That was Ho was prepared for regional capital status. But Keta is not a totally lost case. Through great government effort, a mighty sea defence wall project has been executed to save what is left of the town.

Critics have questioned the wisdom in pouring enormous resources in trying to save the town. They have argued that Keta has no cocoa, timber or gold to be protected. Recently one listened to that type of argument put forth with respect of a proposed airport for Ho. Again, that was a sequel to the thinking that has deprived Ho of the Kofi Annan Centre for Peace Keeping. Ho, they said, did not deserve it.

Accra has to have it. Like the Bolgatanga bank case, it would be possible for some people to proffer an argument against low economic activity and make a pitch for the Eastern Region for this airport.

“White elephant” was a term introduced into our economic lexicon by arm chair economists when Nkrumah was overthrown. The Akosombo Hydro-Electric Dam, Tema Motorway, JOB 600, Atomic Energy, Black Star Square, Hotel Continental, Ghana Medical School (Why build it when America was ready to offer one for free?), the Sogakope Bridge, the creation of the Upper  East Region and then the Upper West Region…the list does not seem ending soon. Incidentally this malaise of not being able to see beyond our noses used to afflict white society as well. Would one believe that when America purchased Alaska from Russia and Texas from Mexico, all for a pittance, some politicians called them the follies of that era? Undeniably, all these acquisitions have turned out as impressive pay-backs. History is a witness.

Sometimes we need to dream as some of our founding fathers did. It is this urge that makes me dream that one day the Keta Lagoon will be dredged and all that expanse of water turned into a seaport with Atiavi on the north, Anyako and Afiadenyigba on the east and Alakple on the south-east as major water transport hubs for the Atlantic. Yes. Infrastructure attracts business. Ho must have her airport. Human beings will use it, not birds. Bolgatanga is a test case. One has to hasten to point out that feasibility studies always precede great projects. Ho is not going to have an airport for airport sake. It has been justified.

frazierjoek@gmail.com

(lame not the Darkness; Akora; The Sissain Bridge)