The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana: 10 Deaths Too Many in Ghana; 157 Deaths Outrageous in Weekend Air Crashes in Ghana & Nigeria

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

10 Deaths Too Many in Ghana; 157 Deaths Outrageous in Weekend Air Crashes in Ghana & Nigeria

At a time that Transport Minister Collins Dauda has told the press that they are considering land at Prampram for a new airport, let it just be said that according to a GHANAWEB piece back in 1998, that land had apparently been acquired. (http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ghanaweb.com%2FGhanaHomePage%2FNewsArchive%2Fartikel.php%3FID%3D3331&h=eAQF4SW67AQHua0qIHx54ZGYtQD5Iq4xk0E1dutTHqlZvyw&enc=AZPq10pfBpjQnWme8MQdz4ygNYifQFibhvyq8QvgwCTuR9aPrBW-9vL4gCHnkqamBd_zLGr74VKpmR7nTgIwC7SR), so what had been happening 14 years later that neither the NPP nor NDC governments had broached the issue?

I don't know how many proponents of a relocation exist in the country, but I would be happy to see the media continue to put pressure on the Minister to:

a. account for the report of the Saturday 2 June accident on time

b. sustain pressure to offer updates on the land at Prampram, which had been acquired(apparently) back in 1998.

In the meantime, please find below a facebook discussion I initiated the day after the plane crash of Saturday 2 June, 2012.

Emmanuel K Bensah Jr

Sunday via mobile

Just had an insightful conversation with a good friend, who suggests DODOWA could be our major intl airport, and KOTOKA becomes our domestic one. Who's with me for campaigning 2 re-locate Ghana's intl airport?

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Ruby Baah-Messie, Terry Mante and 8 others like this.
- John Schaefer Why do they keep upgrading Kotoka? It is completely surrounded by the city with no room for expansion. This has been clear since the early 1990s.
  
  Sunday at 9:27am via mobile · · 1
- Afua Ankomah Are we still planning to relocate the Administrative capital? If so, Dodowa may not be the best place - it could become another Kotoka very quickly. Doreen Owusu Finaku mentioned they're working on acquiring land at Prampram, but that's a "long term" plan.
  
  Sunday at 9:31am · · 1
- Kate Nkansa-Dwamena fast trains systems should be constructed to dodowa before considering the move
  
  Sunday at 9:34am · · 1
- Emmanuelle Occansey Please elaborate. What's the rationale for a Dodowa move? Methink Dodowa is a suburb already. And the Akwapim may be too close for the approach to be very safe. Just saying.
  
  Sunday at 9:42am via mobile ·
- Kofi Blankson Ocansey shoot, i live within walking distance of the airport.... I don't want to drive from Dodowa to get home... and am sure that am not the only one with those sentiments.
  
  Sunday at 9:48am ·
- Afua Ankomah ‎@Kate fast train systems should be constructed nationwide. It may be expensive initially, but I'll forever be in GOG's debt for reducing my risk of hypertension.
  
  Sunday at 9:51am · · 1
- Emmanuel K Bensah Jr Thx, guys. All very pertinent questions, which can feed into themes for a petition:
  1. Rationale for expansion of kotoka--is it not false economy?
  2. If Prampram has been identified for relocation of airport, what r features making it ideal?
  3. State of public transport? Progress of Bus Rapid Transport? Timelines for completion?
  Any journalist in the house ready to push forth these questions to MPs and the like??
  
  Sunday at 9:54am via mobile · · 1
- Kate Nkansa-Dwamena ‎@Afua you're right! It should be done in phases, Phase I should be constructing fast train networks from our airports to major hubs and cities in our country. The advantage about Ghana is that geographically we're small so it should not be so difficult.they should build the supporting transportation networks first before relocating the airport
  
  Sunday at 9:56am · · 1
- Kofi Blankson Ocansey A cheaper more sensible solution might be to relocate that stretch of Burma Camp road and create a bigger buffer zone for takeoff mishaps. We don't have the traffic to support Kotoka as a domestic airport.
  
  Sunday at 10:00am · · 2
- Emmanuel K Bensah Jr Kate, a sharp wake-up call for govt 2 get more serious on prioritising transport, no? If transport were more efficient, half the headache would be reduced. We're really sitting on a powder-keg, what with rising population. Methinks, though, we HAVE to have a two/three-pronged approach where we're working contemporraneously 2 achieve these urgent objectives.
  
  Sunday at 10:01am via mobile ·
- Afua Ankomah There's a Ghana Association of Private Rail Transport Systems set up to do that...it's dormant now, but there's no reason not to revive it. After all, with the people who are actually facing the problem leading a public-private partnership, there should be a way for government to front the money and the private sector to generate returns on an investment that has a positive social impact. Anyone who's interested should message me for details!
  
  Sunday at 10:05am · · 2
- Kate Nkansa-Dwamena Kintampo os supposed to be the central hub of our country geographically. We should focus on kintampo as the transportation hub of Ghana. Road, rails should be constructed from that point into other networks. I may even suggest we move the airport there. Do u realise how the rest of Ghana is underdeveloped except for Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi?
  
  Sunday at 10:06am · · 2
- Mac-Jordan Degadjor According to some sources at the Ghana Civil Authority, there are plans to relocate the Kotoka Airport to somewhere on the Ada-Pampram road.
  
  Sunday at 10:31am · · 1
- Emmanuel K Bensah Jr Thx, MacJordan. Highly encouraging, but it needs support and pressure to make it happen. We know how our govts r like. This is where, Afua, details of the association ur talking abt wd be very very handy. Why has it been left dormant till now?:-(
  
  Sunday at 10:38am via mobile ·
- Emmanuelle Occansey I agree in theory about the Kintampo idea, because it'd the geographical centre of Ghana. However, I happen to know the place and, in practive, it wouldn't be practical, because of the hilly nature of the terrain there. I however strongly believe Ghana is now run as if her northern border was just outside Kumasi and the north and upper regions are ignored. This should change, politically and transport-wise.
  
  Sunday at 12:16pm via mobile · · 1
- Emmanuelle Occansey sorry for my spelling and style, I'm thumbing my phone. I know first hand that people in Bolga find they have to sell to Burkina Faso because they find it exceedingly difficult to get their products to points south of Bolga within Ghana. But they can't speak French, and their buyers for all intents and purposes fix their own prices. There is a lot of bitterness over this. With more efficient measures to improve the landlocked situation of the 3 northern regions, these could develop faster. Infrastructures (rail, air) would help. The roads are good, except the dismal 75km leadint to Hamile border, in UW. There are airstrips in decent condition that never see a plane. Rail never went farther north than Kumasi.
  
  Sunday at 12:22pm via mobile · · 1
- Afua Ankomah On an extremely cynical note, Emmanuelle - maybe we can help solve their problem by adding Accelerated French to the curriculum. It may be faster than trying to integrate 'the North' into the country's economic development agenda beyond SADA. Emmanuel K Bensah Jr GHAPRATS needs people with persistence and the ability to follow through. There are too few people involved to break down the problem into manageable chunks.
  
  Sunday at 3:03pm · · 2
- Kobi Little Excellency Annan ‎Emmanuel K Bensah Jr, I told my dad about this and he is very interested and willing to lend support. Inbox me with some more info if you can and I'll see if I can get the two of you in touch.
  
  Sunday at 5:21pm · · 2
- Emmanuel K Bensah Jr Thx, Kobi. Wd be great 2 have ur Dad on board
  
  Sunday at 9:08pm via mobile ·
- Emmanuelle Occansey Afua Ankomah, I agree with you. French teaching is totally inefficient in Ghana. Very few Ghanaians even dare opening their mouths when they meet Francophones. I still can't understand why nobody seems to genuinely find it important to master a language spoken by everybody around them. I mean, we are sandwiched between Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, and Togo. Let's call it "intellectual infrastructures". We need them. You're 100% right. Nothing cynical about that.
  
  Yesterday at 9:19am · · 1
- Emmanuel K Bensah Jr What are thoughts on establishing a FB group to incorporate the following demands:
  
  1. Ghana must re-locate its int'l airport, and make KIA a domestic one
  
  2. The govt must come up with a timely report on the fatal crash of Saturday 2 June, 2012. Failure to do so ought to result in the Ghanaian electorate advising themselves whether this is truly a ''better Ghana''?
  
  3. The govt must explain why it has taken so long to act on demands to relocate the airport to Prampram
  
  4. The Ministry of Transport must explain why scheduled plans for BRT and improvement of public transport has taken so long
  
  5. The govt must prioritise learning of French to facilitate cooperation with our francophone eighbours for the benefit n enhancement of the subregion at our borders.
  
  Yesterday at 10:51am · · 2
- Mawuli Tsikata Let's hope the proposed location hasn't been sold.
  
  Yesterday at 10:59am via mobile · · 1
- John Schaefer Close to Nsawam would be good for the motorway. Only a train line would have to be added, which might run down the centre of the motorway lanes.
  
  Yesterday at 11:20am via mobile ·
- Emmanuel K Bensah Jr The vice-president met a delegation from Czech republic a few months ago to discuss feasibility of metro in Ghana. This issue ramifies into other areas, including a call for Ghana Journalist Association to include transportation and infrastructure reporting in their GJA Media Awards.
  
  Yesterday at 12:36pm via mobile ·
- Julius RK Sowu Am not sold on relocating KIA mainly because am seeing this as a knee jerk reaction, plus it would again place on the back burner the much needed and overdue infrastructural developments our regional airports need.
  
  Yesterday at 1:04pm ·
- Emmanuel K Bensah Jr Julius, while I appreciate ur point on knee-jerk reactions, I think govt still needs to come clean on the relocation. If it has been on the cards for a while, why has it taken so long to do so, and why has it stalled? What's happened to the idea of Prampram? Is it still feasible? If not, why not? Where, in addition, are our journalists specialising on infrastructure/transport who can give us regular updates and insights on the state of our transport?
  
  Yesterday at 1:14pm via mobile ·
- Julius RK Sowu ‎Emmanuel, like all things priorities must be set and lets face it can we fund it ourselves, and would the donors give the go ahead ? take Heathrow for instance with aircraft landing every five minutes and yet still after the noise from concerned citizens for over a decade no chance it will be moved.
  
  How many flights into Accra a week? and yes it would be nice to say in the coming decade we shall be the West African if not African Hub, but can we warrant the investment at the moment? I still say if anything investments should be put into our other domestic airports not only for logistical reasons but also not to be underestimated social political & economical reasons.
  
  Yesterday at 1:32pm · · 1
- Augusto d'Almeida ‎Julius Sorry to say everybody has become an 'expert' on this issue the question you just posed makes heads wangle relocation relocation seems to be the jargon in town....furthermore aviation accidents sats are far lower than road accidents and I am surprise people are no calling for 'relocation' of our road network when thousand of people perish every yr......like you said ' like all things priorities must be set and lets face it can we fund it ourselves, and would the donors give the go ahead'?a food for thought .......thanks
  
  Yesterday at 3:14pm ·