ARTICLES

OKADA BAN

 CANNOT WAIT

For certain reasons, I decided not to comment on  this issue but for the recent news on Peace Fm (11th August 2012), saying two motor riders were killed instantly in an accident in Tema, the previous Monday and Wednesday. The riders were both said to be in their twenties and were without helmets or licences.

It is good news that parliament has finally passed the bill for the ban of okada on our roads. Reports given by the police on the deaths as a result of accidents involving the okada bikes are frightening.

Motor cycle business popularly known as the ‘Okada business’ is doing us more harm than good. That is why I find it very disappointing that the MP for Ashaiman Constituency, Alfred 

Kwame Agbesi urged okada riders in Ashaiman to go about their business despite the ban by parliament.

In a news report filed by TV3, the member of parliament was captured encouraging riders to go about their business as if nothing had happened. According to him, the riders should not be worried as the ban cannot be implemented now. 

Clearly, Alfred Kwame Agbesi is doing this in order to get the riders on his side as election date is fast approaching. The question is shouldn’t an MP put the lives of his people first before power? The lives of his people do not matter much to him. Just Votes!

Is the MP not aware of the alarming death consequences as a result of the Okada business?

There were also very disappointing statements on the ban from Nii Laryea Afotey-Agbo, the Greater Accra Regional Minister who also doubles as the MP for Kpone-Katamanso. His excuse that the youth who engage in the okada business are doing so to earn a living due to the unemployment situation in Ghana is not reason enough to hold the ban on okada.

If making money is the deal then what would armed robbers say? ‘We are also doing this to feed our families so why are we being arrested?’

He is an MP right? Election month is approaching right? Your guess is as good as mine.

A few weeks ago, the Western Regional Police Crime Officer, Mr. James Kofi Abraham told Ghana News Agency (GNA) that motorbike accident cases were being reported to the Police every week in the region.

With this medium, I call on the police and connected authorities to put systems in place to make sure that Ghanaians, especially the okada riders abide by this new legislation to reduce such accidents.

Okada ban cannot wait when people are dying as a result of it.

GHANA-MAN-TIME (GMT)

  The familiar words you hear from the lips of a typical Ghanaian late for an appointment are “I was stuck in traffic” and that is all there is to be said. Funny enough, most of these appointments we attend late with this excuse are either appointments that go a long way in adding essence to our own lives or programmes we have paid our hard earned money to attend.

One would ask, “Why can’t the Ghanaian man get his time right?” But how can we when lateness has been received and made a necessary part of our culture?

Gradually, we have embraced lateness as a part of us and have accepted it as the “normal”. We show up late for work, business meetings, job interviews, dates, shows, ceremonies and the list goes on.

Obviously, our attitude with regard to time results in our low productivity and that is not an attribute of any progress seeking country. It rather reflects of us as a people, who cannot prioritize their needs, and lack a sense of urgency in all their undertakings.

We do not seem to realize that our unpunctuality is playing a massive role in Ghana’s regression and if this country is to develop at the pace we require, we have a lot of catching up to do with getting our time right.

When we show up late for a programme, it is expected that we close late which automatically affects the next appointment on schedule, and then unto the next which continues unending. It appears as no surprise that in Ghana, events start an hour and thirty minutes late, what should take a week, usually takes a month, and a contract of two years is executed in the fourth year.

An event starts two hours late and the explanation an organizer gives is “this is Ghana for you” how appalling? But do we always have to blame the organizers for starting a show late? If audiences show up on time for programmes, there is no way organizers would leave them sitting down watching an empty stage.

It is surprising how quick we are at copying all sorts of lifestyles from western cultures yet we don’t seem to be bothered about that positive attitude about them that says “we don’t joke with our time” This approach to life obviously has made these countries industrious giants to contend with.

For our own good, let us, as Ghanaians take our time more seriously as that will be just the beginning of Ghana’s headway.