It is exactly 52 years since Ghana took a bold decision to ditch some inherited legacy of the British colonial system by changing from driving on the left to driving on the right. Almost at the same time, the country also changed to the metric system of weighing.
These were both major decisions by the then military government under the leadership of General I. K. Acheampong. The questions on people’s minds at the time were many. However, the most prominent were as to whether we were going to succeed or not and whether the military government was not throwing the country into unnecessary chaos.
Legacy
Determined however to leave a legacy behind, the Government of the day went ahead with its plans and the move came to pass on August 4, 1974.
With independence from our British colonial masters in 1957 accomplished on March 6, 1957, followed by the achievement of a republican status on July 1, 1961, the country had already successfully begun packing away those British systems that were not necessarily beneficial to our republican status.
A lot was done by the affable first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Others who followed him thankfully saw the need for us to switch into a fast gear when it came to shedding off some of the colonial practices which were at variance with our governance system as well as our culture. At the same time we needed to stay aligned with our West African neighbours as a starter.
In the entire West African region for example, our neighbours were driving on the right. They had changed their system of measuring to the metric system as well. It made sense therefore that we in Ghana got in tune to facilitate free movement of people and free trade. One may even say that those were perhaps the early beginnings of paving the way for the much talked about intercontinental free trade of recent times.
And so on August 4, 1974, dreams became reality and the historic change over to driving on the right, away from the decades old driving on the left was born. There were excitements as people gathered at “demonstration” points at major cities and towns to watch the changeover and how it would pang out.
As it turned out, the day came with loads of joy and of course, some trepidation too, especially for drivers, since majority of vehicles on our roads had their steering wheels on the right. How were they going to manouver?
Publicity
For months prior to the changeover, the publicity to educate the citizens was on tops. Unlike today when social media, internet and digital communication have overcrowded our space, there were not many such at the time but the education and public awareness went far.
Visible road signs, directing and alerting drivers and pedestrians were all over the place to notify and dispel confusion. The catchy communication slogan used at the time - “Nifa, Nifa, enoaa ne no. Benkum, benkum, yaagyae”, literally meaning we have stopped driving on the left, right is the right way”, still rings a bell when one talks about the switch over to driving on the right.
The Information Services department across the country did some marvelous works disseminating information on the changeover. The electronic and the print media bombarded us with publicity on the changeover. School children were not left out of the education and awareness programmes.
The police and other safety personnel were for a time, on the road to monitor and help with appropriate directions where needed.
Admittedly and as may have been expected in an exercise of that nature, there were reports of confusion and chaos on the roads. These were reported on daily basis but because there were very few vehicles plying our roads at the time, compared to now, management of cars during the period was not too complicating.
The excitement surrounding the whole changeover and the fact that we were going to be at par with others in the sub-region with some boost to economic movements was much in the air.
Over half a century later, one can now look back and admit that the decision taken to switch driving from the left to the right and go on to change our measuring system have served our country well. We have moved forward with the rest of the world.
Now, the success and excitement that characterised the period will always be remembered as one of the legacies of the late Army General, General Kutu Acheampong.
Above all, the whole process in achieving a smooth changeover would remain a measure of how well the situation was managed, in the absence of heightened technology like today.
We were able to, some way; somehow, pursue a flawless execution of a marketing communication to accomplish “Benkum, benkum yaagyae, Nifa, nifa enoaa ne no”.
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