My lockdown experience

I woke up on Tuesday, April 14, 2020, in the third week of the lockdown in Accra and was expecting a beautiful day. I live close to Kasoa and work in Accra.

I moved out of my home on this fateful day looking forward to having a smooth ride to work.

In the previous two weeks of lockdown, driving had been fun, although at the end of the second week there were concerns about increasing traffic in town, as well as the rise in numbers of people violating the stay at home and social distancing protocols in regard of COVID-19.

Back to Tuesday April 14. I had a rude awakening when just at the Kasoa tollbooth, I was confronted with a mammoth traffic jam. “Where are all these people going to, when they are supposed to stay indoors,” I contemplated.

The government had put out a list of institutions whose staff were exempt from the ‘stay at home’ directive and as such could venture out, considering the essential nature of their work.

Again, I asked myself if the traffic that run as far as my eyes could see, comprised people on the exempt list.

“Where were they all coming from and going to? Because in the last two weeks, there had been no traffic. Or had they been recalled,” I kept musing.

West Hills-Tetegu

But, my nightmare had only just began. On getting to the West Hills Mall, I fell into the longest traffic jam in my experience this year. It was 11:30 a.m., when I joined and it moved at a snail’s pace and rolled in a bumper to bumper fashion.

The reason for the traffic was the police check point at Tetegu, close to the bridge over the Densu river.  I got to the Tetegu security barrier at 1.02 p.m., and I had expected to see the police turning away vehicles without good reason to be out in order to free the road for those exempt to go and perform their essential duties, but no.

All cars were moving on and, so, the question again arose as to why the security personnel at the check point would stop vehicles, speak to the occupant(s) and slow down movements, when at the end, they would wave them on to go, anyway.

MacCarthy Hill

That was not all. Having gone through the Tetegu barrier, I heaved a sigh of relief and stepped on the gas, only to meet another traffic situation at the MacCarthy Hill, which was due to another security check point.

I went through the MacCarthy check point at 1.48 p.m. and, here too, no vehicle was asked to turn back, we were all waved through.

Following the stress I had gone through, I decided to avoid going straight ahead to Odorkor and going through Kaneshie, which is notorious for its traffic jam. I, therefore, took the Mataheko route and through to Zongo Junction. I arrived  there at 2.15 p.m. and, here too, there was a security check point, but very minimal traffic.

Beyeeman

As I drove along pondering on the hectic drive and manouvrings I had to do to get to work with so many vehicles on the road and security personnel only looking on, I felt relieved all the same that I was near my workplace after hours of driving, only to receive a ‘slap in the face’ at the traffic light at Beyeeman on the Graphic Road.

Here were about seven police personnel all ‘battle ready’, who had blocked the road leading straight to my office — the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCCGL) and, thence, to Accra Central.

From the traffic lights I could see my office buildings, but the police would not let me through. Gosh! I exclaimed in exasperation, while wondering what could be happening when after having spent so much time in traffic and being waved on at each check point, I should get only a few steps to my office and be barred from getting there.

Under the circumstances, I was made to go through the STC and then to the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and through Adabraka before getting to my office, at long last, at 2:48 p.m.

What was puzzling was why the police had allowed vehicles that it checked to go through and why they had the barriers in the first place.

Opinion

I can only opine as a layman and call for a review of strategy considering the heat and the long hours it takes for one to arrive at one’s destination. While at it, could the number of taxis and trotros also be reduced, seeing that they are also key contributors to traffic jams in this period of lockdown?

As COVID-19 continues to spread, will the police consider issuing out vehicular passes for exempt institutions? This will go a long way to ensure smooth flow of traffic on our roads, as well as helping with the strict adherence of the stay at home directive.

What we are presently witnessing on our roads, to say the least, defeats the lockdown policy and the earlier a review is done the better.

Wrtier’s e-mail: jojo.sam@graphic.com.gh