I do not know about the story of the Seven South-East Warriors or what they must have done. All I know is that the person who wore a green T-shirt with this label has become a warrior of some sort, defying all odds and strictly adhering to his own game plan which he set out after accepting his position.
When most Ghanaians were snoring and sleeping on the warm and dark night of Saturday, January 20, he quietly set out to execute his Plan A, which for me was becoming more of a talk, talk than a do, do.
Stanley Nii Adjiri Blankson, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) Chief Executive has not reneged on his promise to make Accra environmental friendly and in the spirit of 50 years of nationhood has actually gone all out to make this a reality.
As I saw him the day after he rid the streets of the business district of unwanted and illegal structures, in his warrior-labelled shirt and in a warrior-like mood in a mop-up exercise at the Kwame Nkrumah circle area with the help of a strong police team, my admiration for the work of this man got lost in the quantity of filth that had engulfed the area.
I have always held the view that generally we Ghanaians are just not disciplined. Right from our homes to our offices our acts of indiscipline keeps painting the picture we are all witnessing today- filth, filth, filth.
Only a couple of days ago I encountered a young man who gave me a good ‘dressing down’ for questioning which he threw the empty water out of a ‘tro-tro’ instead of dropping it in the car. “Are you the one paying those who sweep our streets, ‘kwasia’, if you have been employed to check people go and stand at Makola” he said topping it up with a heavy dose of spittle.
I looked at him pitifully because straightaway I was imagining the room he slept in and how such a person will bring up his children but above all I wished I knew his doctor. I would have made some proposals to let him pay heavily for his folly but then I remembered the National Health Insurance Scheme will make people like this man go away with such ‘foolishness’ anytime they reported sick.
I notice that we like to eat everything and everywhere, I have a problem with that but most of all I am worried about the way we dispose of the things we eat and use.
It is shameful that our own attitudes are killing us. Now we have become so dirty that it is no longer news to find used sanitary towels lying about anyhow and I shudder to think that in the 20th century some Ghanaian ladies living not just in Accra but in areas regarded as ‘middle class’ areas do not even know how to dispose of their sanitary towels but these are the same people some of whom we find all dressed up and thronging to the big offices, churches and mosques. ‘Ntama kata adieso’ (Clothes are covering things).
Along the stretch of grassland at the Ashiaman side of the Tema motorway our brothers, fathers, sons, boyfriends and husbands throw all decorum to the dogs and shamelessly pull down their underpants and ‘freely range’ in the area in the full glare of the public especially those who use the motorway.
Does it mean that we no longer know what is right or wrong or even know no shame?
My parents tell how in the past school children were taken out as part of environmental lessons to pick up little from communities but today such practices are no more for no sooner will you ask school children to even sweep their school compound will some parents’ ‘gnaw’ at whoever issues the instructions.
ATTITUDES AND EDUCATION
Attitudes are difficult to change and it takes a careful and conscious effort to work at changing ones way of doing things over the years especially when it has built into a confirm zone. For this reason, it will require constant education and the collective effort of all Ghanaians to help in this regard. We must never lose out on educating the populace on what must be done to maintain good environmental practices.
The churches, mosques, shrines and other places of worship must begin to hammer more strongly the need for their members not only to raise their hands in worship but to also raise their minds to maintain the earth they came to inherit for the future generations.
I am not sure how to describe the performance of our local authorities in ensuring good sanitation. Some of the people I have spoken with on this issue lay the blame for the poor sanitary conditions the nation is facing at the doorstep of our district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies and I quite agree with them.
Most of our areas lack the requisite facilities that will entice them to ‘behave properly.’
Public toilets are not enough and for those available the maintenance is a different story and yet we take daily tolls from people for using them. What do we do with the money we collect ? No thorough cleaning, no disinfection, no soap to wash hands after using such facilities, the only interest in running such public facilities is to collect some paltry sum and that is it.
A private person put up a public toilet at Tema Community One and when I first said it I could not believe it was a public facility. It looked so clean and well maintained and years after you still pass by and the air around will not give one the slightest hint that it is a public toilet.
Water is again one major setback to effort to keep a clean environment.
There are a myriad factors militating against making progress in our fight for a clean environment but let us start of individually by doing whatever is possible, in our own little way to make the country environmentally friendly.
I decided not to mention the health hazards associated with poor sanitation practices, experience is always the best teacher.
Let not Mr. Adjiri Blankson’s commendable efforts end with the Ghana@50 celebrations. Let us not get into any cosmetic exercises but let all right thinking Ghanaians join hands to make Ghana a showpiece in Africa. This is not for government along or for a DCE but for all 20 or so million citizens of Ghana. I believe we can make it. This is our land, this is our heritage, let us preserve it well.
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