So, Ghana Has a Maintenance Culture After All?!

Offlate, the airwaves have made serious effort to reduce reporting of politics, focusing instead--as CITI97.3 fm did last week -- on discussion of bad roads, and how Ghana's Road Fund.

Needless-to-say that a pot-hole-free Accra is a reflection of a maintenance culture that has reached near-perfection.

It is therefore very encouraging to see--as I saw this afternoon while at A&C Plaza in East Legon -- that workmen were fixing the streetlight there.

Long may it continue!

Thanks to 89% Electricity increase, I can emphatically ask: "Where are My Accra Streetlights?"

Yesterday, I launched what is to become a series of vituperative pronouncements on Ghana's streetlights--or lack thereof. Just to spare you going to the actual link, this is what I actually wrote:

I was in the Central region over the weekend, and noticed without fail that despite the ubiquity of the beautiful and well-maintained roads, there were no streetlights!

I believe this either remains the bane of contractors who come to Ghana to help us with our roads, or is a reflection of the myopia of our government.

From the Spintex Road (that has undergone a metamorphosis) to the already-well-done Accra-Cape Coast road, how can security ever be maintained without sufficient streetlights? No matter the number of police patrols you have set up, lights have–and will continue to remain–a great deterrent to criminals, both physical and otherwise!

I am not quite sure what else to say, except to say that it is heart-warming to see that there are actually government cars out there that have "Street Lighting projects" emblazoned on them. It is indicative of an effort.

Now, that the Public Utility Regulatory Authority announced 31 May that electricity has gone up by 89%, might we not finally sit up to protest for our streetlights?

A careful scrutiny of our electricity bill reveals that each and every blessed consumer pays an amount towards fire-fighting and street-lighting.

Bottom line: where are our streetlights?

Street-Hawking at Night in Accra

This is so familiar a sight during the evening on the streets of Accra that we probably don't even see it any more.

These hard-working ladies--that comprise what many would consider "the working class"--eke out a living from working almost 24/7.

Come hell or high water, they are here--and mostly it's the women that persevere. The young men hawk mostly chocolates, and small bites--and usually drop off earlier. This woman was still working around 8.30pm, selling sachet water.

Better than selling oneself, some might say!

(good to be back!)

Ghanaian Shot in the Dark? (A Tale of Unlit Roads)

Not quite! Just a headlight on a dark -- and unlit -- road in Accra. This is not to say that our major roads and otherwise are unlit, but there seems to be a visceral dislike by our two past governments of well-lit roads, which probably explains why the streetlights that were erected on the Spintex Road remain, after four months, veritably unlit!

Apologies for a two-day absence.

I wish you all a Happy Friday and weekend!;-)