It rained heavily in Accra at the weekend.
For residents of “safe places” in the capital, it was welcome relief from the weeks of sultriness in the tropical sunshine.
For people on the other side of town – those unfortunate to have rented houses in “unsafe” territory - however, it was another nightmarish experience.
We were slightly disappointed that some officials we spoke to kept reminding us that February was not in the rainy season.
That, specifically, was why we had called: to draw attention to the fact that the promises made to the nation in the midst of last year’s floods and the threats issued to those whose complicity had caused or worsened the flooding were yet to be fully fulfilled or carried out.
Indeed, to us on the Times, the weekend rains may have been God-sent, to warn Ghanaians that another rainy season is around the corner.
Whilst it is true that even in advanced societies like the UK, flooding is inevitable, that should not be an excuse to neglect what ought to be put in place and what ought to be pushed out of place.
What about the threats we issued to those who have built on waterways? The way we behave in Ghana has been captured in the holy book of the Christian religion where the person who continues to sin is likened to a man who looks at his face in the mirror and sees that it is very ugly.
But no sooner does he leave the mirror than he forgets what he saw in it.
That is an apt description of the attitude and behavior of Ghanaians to disaster.
In the heat of the disasters, all of us scream and yell at people who, by virtue of their money and influence, build unauthorized structures at unauthorized places.
And do we know how to complain and grumble!
No sooner had the pain of loss or injury abated than the noise dies down, along with the threatened remedial action.
It becomes a ritual, if not a mantra. Nobody gets punished for the negligence and lack of action, and the year passes on into the next year – with all its pains and teeth-gnashing – into another year …forever!
At one level, the threat is seen as empty even while it is being issued, because the people being threatened are so politically, economically and socially powerful - the untouchable –especially when their party is in power!
With others, it is their money: there is no-one they cannot bribe. It would only take a higher political authority, and even then the axe will fall only if the target’s “politics is wrong” – as we say in Ghana.
This explains why people conclude, in the event of a successful demolition, that the victim did not have a godfather; that he/she had nobody “behind him”.
Meanwhile, the rain is coming and as usual, Ghana is not ready. The dangerous structures are still where they were last year and the year before, and the year before five years ago.
On another level, is the chorus of sympathizers. They are the victims who cry loudest, and yet they are the same people who weep loudest in sympathy with the person whose structure has been demolished because he did not have the permit to build where he/she put up the structure.
This merry-go-round must cease if Ghana is to succeed in making our cities fit for human habitation in rainy seasons.
In that dream city, we shall not cry, “Rain rain, go away”.
Even if when we do and we add, “Come again another day”, we shall mean our very word because the next time it rains,nobody would suffer.
For residents of “safe places” in the capital, it was welcome relief from the weeks of sultriness in the tropical sunshine.
For people on the other side of town – those unfortunate to have rented houses in “unsafe” territory - however, it was another nightmarish experience.
We were slightly disappointed that some officials we spoke to kept reminding us that February was not in the rainy season.
That, specifically, was why we had called: to draw attention to the fact that the promises made to the nation in the midst of last year’s floods and the threats issued to those whose complicity had caused or worsened the flooding were yet to be fully fulfilled or carried out.
Indeed, to us on the Times, the weekend rains may have been God-sent, to warn Ghanaians that another rainy season is around the corner.
Whilst it is true that even in advanced societies like the UK, flooding is inevitable, that should not be an excuse to neglect what ought to be put in place and what ought to be pushed out of place.
What about the threats we issued to those who have built on waterways? The way we behave in Ghana has been captured in the holy book of the Christian religion where the person who continues to sin is likened to a man who looks at his face in the mirror and sees that it is very ugly.
But no sooner does he leave the mirror than he forgets what he saw in it.
That is an apt description of the attitude and behavior of Ghanaians to disaster.
In the heat of the disasters, all of us scream and yell at people who, by virtue of their money and influence, build unauthorized structures at unauthorized places.
And do we know how to complain and grumble!
No sooner had the pain of loss or injury abated than the noise dies down, along with the threatened remedial action.
It becomes a ritual, if not a mantra. Nobody gets punished for the negligence and lack of action, and the year passes on into the next year – with all its pains and teeth-gnashing – into another year …forever!
At one level, the threat is seen as empty even while it is being issued, because the people being threatened are so politically, economically and socially powerful - the untouchable –especially when their party is in power!
With others, it is their money: there is no-one they cannot bribe. It would only take a higher political authority, and even then the axe will fall only if the target’s “politics is wrong” – as we say in Ghana.
This explains why people conclude, in the event of a successful demolition, that the victim did not have a godfather; that he/she had nobody “behind him”.
Meanwhile, the rain is coming and as usual, Ghana is not ready. The dangerous structures are still where they were last year and the year before, and the year before five years ago.
On another level, is the chorus of sympathizers. They are the victims who cry loudest, and yet they are the same people who weep loudest in sympathy with the person whose structure has been demolished because he did not have the permit to build where he/she put up the structure.
This merry-go-round must cease if Ghana is to succeed in making our cities fit for human habitation in rainy seasons.
In that dream city, we shall not cry, “Rain rain, go away”.
Even if when we do and we add, “Come again another day”, we shall mean our very word because the next time it rains,nobody would suffer.
