The menace of road blocking in the capital city must stop

“Have you ever blocked the road? How dare you compare yourself to me when you are yet to even put a table in a footpath?”

These were the words from a young lady believed to be in her early 20s when she had a banter with one of her peers.

Even though I was clueless about the bone of contention, the words pricked my sense of curiosity. So I asked a friend what the lady meant.

To my utter dismay, I was told it was the pride of the youth in those areas to block the road for their birthday parties, naming ceremonies or funerals and that it was perceived that anyone who had never done so did not belong yet.

This is the practice among some slum dwellers and ‘zongo’ communities in the Greater Accra Region.

The picture

Anyone who has ever driven through certain parts of the city such as Sukura Zongo, Abossey Okai, Korle Gonno, James Town among others especially on a weekend, will be sure to hit road blocks mounted to turn the road into the venue of a social event. If it is not a naming ceremony, a funeral or a graduation from a vocational trade, it will be the celebration of a birthday.

The array of canopies that are put in the middle of these otherwise very busy roads make drivers, pedestrians and other members of the public go through frustration to get to their various destinations.

On countless occasions, road users are faced with the nauseating situation where mourners take the law into their hands and block streets with canopies and chairs amidst loud music, disturbing the serenity of residents.

Apart from the loss of precious time and delays these road blocks cause, road users go through a lot of inconveniences, especially when they have to beat time to deal with an emergency.

The danger associated with this lawlessness is that in times of emergency, people are not able access prompt services.

Consequences

Imagine a situation where personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), in response to a distress call, have to be faced with the arduous task of circumventing unauthorised road blocks to provide rescue services.

It beats one’s imagination as to why the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Motor Transport and Traffic Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service have not cracked the whip on the perpetrators of these acts which clearly violate road traffic regulations.

On numerous platforms, officials of the AMA have given the indication that the blocking of major roads in some communities remained a greater headache for the city authority.

It is, therefore, worrying that the canker is yet to be dealt with, especially when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has declared the government’s intention to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa.

If this feat has to be achieved, then the indiscipline on our roads must be tackled head-on to allow for free movement of vehicles and pedestrians.

Crux of the matter

There is an adage that if you blame the cat for stealing ‘Kobi’ (salted fish), you must equally blame the latter for attracting the former with its smell.

Culturally, Ghanaians attach much importance to social activities such as child naming, funerals and festivals and go the extra mile to grace such occasions.

However, unlike the countryside or rural areas where there is enough space for such activities, increasing urbanisation has deprived the cities of every available space to fulfil these cultural obligations.

Community centres, open spaces and other venues that are supposed to host some of these social activities do not exist in the localities.

The gap in our infrastructure architecture in terms of open spaces for these social activities have turned the law into a perching ground for birds to prey while the law enforcement agencies look on helplessly.

Nutshell

As the government looks set to improve slum communities with the creation of a Ministry for Inner City and Zongo Development, it is important for the appropriate agencies to collaborate to deal with this troubling development in a manner that will not create more problems.

As the AMA develops a roadmap to rid the city of filth, it is even crucial to factor these road-blocking phenomena into it to clamp down on the menace.

To effectively enforce the law on these irresponsible activities, city authorities ought to come out with alternative venues and ensure that no one traverses the road traffic law.