Who owns the city?

Today I ask yet another important question, a rhetorical one that causes us to think deep into our very souls. The nation's anthem goes "God bless our homeland Ghana and make our nation great and strong". I must say that it is indeed a good choice that we have put God first in the nation’s development. Now because Ghana is classified as a developing country I am forced to believe that we are on our way to greatness but as to that bit that talks about strength I think we are nowhere and it is obvious. I’ll make that known to you shortly. In my opinion should I rate our strength as a nation, I would not even give us a zero but a -7. Yes, that is how serious the distin is. That is how weak we are as a nation.

Returning from RADIO GIJ one evening, I was very happy because as a beginner is it an honor for my story to be read on the news. My happiness was immediately blurred upon seeing an under teenaged female public pupil still in her uniform squat comfortably and ease herself into the gutter by the side of the road.

I have lived in compound and family houses where tenants spit indiscriminately on the very floor they walk upon barefooted. Coming from a very humble home with too little to spare I have been a perpetrator of such activities when I was below the age of 10 because the conservative elders who lived with us with their silence and unconcerned attitude over such matters communicated to us that there was probably nothing wrong with defecating into the Tema Site 2 gutter instead of the public Toilet.

I have seen with my own eyes two white men on two different occasions stand and urinate in the open like how some irresponsible Ghanaians also do. On the second act I asked the culprit and the reply he gave in very bad English grammar was that the citizens also do it so why not them? How dare you go to their country and do same? When my uncle travelled to Singapore he couldn’t even dare spit phlegm on the side walk. Meanwhile in Ghana someone will confidently spit but mistakenly spread some contents on your leg and still not say sorry even at the point of realization.

I have had opportunities to attend school with diverse groups of people from the kids of celebrities to sons of footballers to being in French class with students from across Africa and a whole lot of categories. I had a Fulani from Mali as my desk mate in junior high school year two. She is beautiful and all the sweet things a lady could be as I had almost no problem with her throughout my school days. Unfortunately that is not the case with the Fulani herdsmen. What even annoys me is that on 19-01-18 a report by myjoyfmonline.com revealed that the Fulani community wants a sum of GH¢1500 as compensation for their dead cattle.

They still have the guts to even demand such an amount of money from Ghana. Are they not the ones who rape our wives on their way to the farm? Are they not the ones who overgraze the very land that do not even belong to them in the first place thereby destroying our crops and herbs? No, as humans as Ghanaians are are we that worthless than compared to their live stocks? Last time i stood by the newspaper vendor, they have dragged Ghana to UN over that issue.

What are we waiting for as a nation, another Captain Mahama issue or the sequel of the July 3rd black twin Wednesday? We refuse to use the overhead and the cows rather make use of it. Really, like who does that? Apparently it seems like wake up calls don’t caution us well enough as a nation. My mother saw with her very eyes as two huge rock crushed two to death and left a third person severely injured in a saloon BMW and the crossing of the Tema road by un-shepherd cattle was part of the cause of the gory accident says many eye witnesses.

There has been countless demonstrations, headlines and complains by retailers in the nations city about the influx of foreigners competing with them in their businesses. So the trade minister assures Ghanaian retailers that it will deal with foreigners who have invaded spaces meant for local traders but is enough being done to address their plight? The Ghana Union of Traders Association has been kicking against Chinese and Nigerian retailers in the country whom it says are breaching the Ghana Investment Promotion Centers instruction that slabs foreign participation in lower levels of the retail chain unless they bring about one million dollars and employ about twenty Ghanaians. The Ghana Investment Promotion Center and trade ministry are supposed to ensure that the retail sector is not invaded by foreigners. Well are they? Ghana continues to become like South Africa. Ghana is becoming like Johannesburg. Authorities should deal with foreigners taking over Ghanaian businesses. We don’t want the situation whereby every property that is good will be owned by foreigners till we have no choice than to move to the outskirts. Ah, is Ghana for real?

The Ghana Real Estates Developers Association, GREDA has once warned of the complete takeover of Accra by foreigners who are acquiring houses from Ghanaians at an alarming rate due to lack of regulation of the real estate’s industry. As for me I won’t be surprised when the same people who sold their houses end up being maintenance men and house boys in their once owned properties and that is when they do not effectively invest the money gained from selling their properties very well.

The invasion of immigrants and more visibly their children begging for a living on the streets of Accra has become a tormenting, worrying and disgusting trend for quite a long time. Ah, even poor citizens of Ghana don’t beg for money with such aggressiveness. According to some commuters right under the newly constructed Kwame Nkrumah interchange a group of children hung around and look on wretchedly as they pass them by. From the little that I have learnt from the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights GIJ chapter, these kids are not orphans neither are they refugees but immigrants from other African countries who have traveled with their parents to Ghana to look for greener pastures.

They hold the hands of commuters so tightly and aggressively as they beg for alms. In some instances they refuse to let go until they are handed coins. Their mothers sit at another side of the road and look on as their kids beg for alms from the streets of Accra. I don’t remember my colleague from Niger that I attended high school with ever begging for money. Perhaps their financial status is better and they are not illegal immigrants.

She was amazingly smart and had a high sense of humor too. Not forgetting the beauty with brains part. I miss her though. Perhaps the reason why their parent themselves don’t beg is that no one might actually mind them but the children can find some sympathy with commuters. Most people will give arms to kids than compared to grownups. I am not so sure if Ghana can provide some kind of protection for these kids because they are not seeking asylum or refugees but are illegal immigrants but it still does not mean they should continue to hung around and aggressively beg for money. That act has now become a nuisance. Something must be done.

So how can we call ourselves strong as a nation when we are internally week? Should we start killing each other with guns before you accept that the nation is not making considerable efforts to becoming safer and stronger? When will the wife of the farm owner be confident enough weed without any fear of being sexually harassed by Fulani herdsmen? When will that farmer finally enjoy the works of his hand as the Fulani continue to destroy the crops he toiled to grow without even access to government support for farmers? For how long is the authority going to look aloof as filing stations continue to spring up in town?

A report by UTV news yesterday in the afternoon "community watch segment" revealed that the inhabitant of KWESIKROM in the Western Region’s health facility is in a deplorable state. I can’t even call it a health facility. As situation where a pregnant woman in labor has to get down from a tricycle ambulance to give the vehicle push before finally making it to the labor ward, how do I call that one a health facility? Some pregnant have to face such unfortunate events in their own country. Other towns use bamboo stretchers when pregnant women are in labour.

In Tema these same tricycles which are used as garbage trucks have the drivers developing the attitude of dropping down heaps of debris every mile intentionally. Commercial drivers use the sirens indiscriminately without licensing. Mini bus drivers pump fumes of smoke from their exhaust as if they own the air. The THUNDRA that has to go to the mechanic ever weekend simply because it used the Ghanaian roads full of pot holes.

Once again I ask the question who owns the city? Is it the illegal immigrants who aggressively beg citizens for arms, or other foreigners who continue to take control of retail businesses, the Fulani’s who rape our women and destroy our crops or they buying estates from Ghanaians at an alarming rate forcing us to the outskirts of town?

It is the citizens themselves who decide to live irresponsibly with illegal electricity connection, galamsey operation, mobile money frauds, armed robbery to mention but a few as if Ghana is the land they inherited from their parents?

I also ask if is it the authorities who have been voted and some even appointed to power but decide to put the nation behind them and put their stomachs rather at heart. For a common social amenity to be constructed at Kumasi a journalist has to shoot a documentary "next to die" before the hearts of many are touched to build an ultra-modern health facility why because your wife won’t attend a deplorable health facility so you don’t care about the other women?

The media networks who chose to telecast telenovela at the expense of the local movie industry or the so called celebrities who leak their nudes and sex tapes or extremely throw blows of insults on their selves in the name of beef. I mean come on, what happened to the beef at the community one market I always use to prepare what we mistakenly call "anointed rice/ emo ne angua" (braised rice) but never end up eating it because I’m a vegetarian?

What is even funny is that they wear akkapoko, expose their cleavage, turn their music videos into blue films and then tell the audience to be their selves. Her Aba Radical says how dare you and what do you mean? With such people they will still manage to look nude in a kaba and slit if you like ask them and see. Perhaps if we all live and take responsibility our problems would be less and every one would own the city equally instead of treating it like it is just an added advantage to our lives and we don’t really have to care about it. Who owns the city?