Assemblies must justify their existence

On the front page of the Friday, August 9 edition of the Daily Graphic, there was a story on the gradual sprawling of a furniture market on a segment of the shoulders of the Graphic Road close to the Liberty Avenue.

This is contrary to the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies’ bye-laws against street hawking and trading.

In 2011, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) passed the Street Hawking Bye-law which was approved by the Ministry of Local Government.

The bye-law stipulates that anyone who engages in street hawking as well as those who patronise the wares of street hawkers will be arrested and prosecuted.

However, what is baffling is that the Korley Klottey Municipal Assembly that has oversight of the area, when contacted by this paper said it was unaware of such activity and would have to find out to be able to act.

The Daily Graphic is at a loss as to why the assembly would give such a response when the paper approached it to find out what it was doing to check the menace. It implies that the assembly has no monitoring programme to find out what goes on within its jurisdiction.

It is, therefore, not surprising that for some time now, the area behind the Ghana Heavy Equipment Limited (GHEL), according to the story, has been the centre of exhibition for the woodworkers, some of whom mount their wares on the pavement, reducing the walkway to a pathway at the expense of the convenience and safety of pedestrians.

In fact, the impunity with which they are breaching the bye-laws and creating inconvenience for pedestrians is most worrying.

But equally disturbing is the fact that the sellers are also putting themselves in harm’s way should a vehicle veer off the road towards their direction, as it is a major route linking the Kaneshie-Graphic Road to the Accra central business district.

As is expected, with no action from the authorities, others selling dresses, shoes, slippers are also moving to the area, displaying their goods either on the walls or on the pavement.

We submit that the excuse by the Korley Klottey Assembly is untenable and its officials must stop this impunity, else we might be in for trouble as a country with a vision of working towards maintaining decency and orderliness.

It has become the norm for assemblies to look on for such lawlessness to get out of hand before they spend resources in time, material, money and human to evict such recalcitrant individuals. It happened recently in the assemblies in Tema where they looked on and allowed people to settle along the motorway for many years before spending money that could have been used for important development to evict them and demolish their structures.

The Daily Graphic reminds the ministries with oversight responsibilities such as the Local Government and Rural Development and Sanitation and Water Resources that they would be failing the country if the leadership of any assembly that allows such unlawful acts to be carried out is not sanctioned.

Holding the leadership of the assemblies accountable will make people sit up and be responsible, without which the President’s vision of making Accra the cleanest city in Africa will be a mirage.