Last week, there was flooding in Accra, Tema, Takoradi and some major cities in Ghana.
This week, so far the sun is shining and we have suddenly forgotten that there was flooding just last week. The unfortunate thing is that, so far we don’t know what caused those floods and nobody in government has been held accountable. Things have suddenly returned to “business as usual”
This is where I have a problem with Nana Addo having 125 Ministers. From where I sit, I don’t see any difference between Nana Addo’s 125 Ministers and when other Presidents had less than 80 Ministers. There have been flooding when Ghana had less Ministers and so when Nana Addo defended his initial 110 Ministers with the excuse that the work load was heavy and needed more men and women, some Ghanaians gave him the benefit of the doubt and gave him the chance. Now, in terms of flooding and sanitation in Ghana, what has changed? We are stil on business as usual with 125 Ministers.
The Minority had a press statement and stated categorically that funds for flooding has not been released by the Finance Ministry, even though they were captured in the 2019 Budget statement. Nobody is following up to see if what the Minority said was true or not, and if it is true, what are Ghanaians doing about it? It looks like Ghanaians are not angry enough. They are comfortable to have 125 Ministers with no delivery.
Since the flooding came, what explanation has the sector Minister, Hon. Atta-Akyea given to Ghanaians? What has he said caused the flooding and what has he said is being done to prevent future flooding in the cities? As usual the party communicators went to radio and TV stations and did their blame game. They blamed everybody for the flooding except the one who failed to release funds to tackle the problem. They blamed everybody except the sector Minister whose responsibility is to get the necessary resources to the fix the problem. In fact, they blamed everybody except the government, with 125 Ministers.
I am not saying there can’t be flooding in the cities, especially Accra. What I want to raise awareness is that with 125 Ministers, little rains of that nature should not cause us something to talk about. And if they do as they did, we should begin to question the reasons given by Nana Addo. Do we still need 125 Ministers if nothing is changing? Is Parliament going to invite Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta and Hon. Atta-Akyea (both brothers) and explain to Ghanaians why we had flooding with that level of rainfall? At least, some people in government should be held responsible for all these mess going on in this current administration.
We have 125 Ministers but when there are flooding or road accidents, the sector Ministers quickly push the blame on the attitude of Ghanaians, goes to his/ her office and drink tea and smoke cigar. That nonsense of the Ghanaian mentality must stop. Our government officials, 125 of them, are paid to solve problems and that is what we should expect them to do. If they don’t do their job, the head of the government MUST be kicked out in the next elections. Nothing less or nothing more.
Dr. Lawrence is the Founder of the Diaspora Progressive Movement based in USA.
