Is There Such a Thing as a "Ghanaian Distraction"?

I found myself the other day inquiring about driving lessons, and finally hitting an epiphany where it was disclosed that given that I had already passed the theory at the driving school I attended, all I had to do was go to the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority(DVLA) to do my written test one Wednesday. I've given myself one month to cram in all those road signs! In between that, though, I couldn't shake off the "driven to distraction" tag I've been banding around for the past couple of days.

Just seemed so apt.

Then I got my thinking cap on, and wondered whether in Ghana, there is any such thing as a quintessentially Ghanaian distraction?

The immediate ones come to mind:

1. the predominance of almost-the-most-widely-spoken-local language--Twi-speaking--over English-speaking radio by public transport drivers. I cannot for the life of me understand why they think everyone taking public transport can--or is willing to listen--to Twi after a hard day's work!!

2. the politicization and polarization of issues along political lines (usually it's the government vs the largest opposition party, or vice versa)

3. the lack of consistency of the Ghana Police in appearing on busy roads to divert traffic

I'd be happy to hear any distractions you may have!

The Unbearable Lightness of Being...in Spintex Road Traffic

Roads are our lifeblood. It is what we need to move from A to B. It is what helps us get to our destination. So, when we do not move on it quickly, it invariably becomes more than a headache. We cannot avoid traffic--there will always be accidents, people driving crazily and/or carelessly/foolishly--but we can certainly avoid a situation where the most important parts of our morning are eaten up in traffic on the only thoroughfare that will take us into the capital!

I took the picture this morning to first, indicate where the origin of some of the worst traffic comes from, and secondly, to signal that all the noise I had been making to the National Road Safety Commission might just have paid off!

I know because when I called--yet again--this morning, the lady immediately recognised my voice and greeted it with a chuckle.

Then she said that she had called one police officer at the Motor Transport Unit, subsequently rattling of a phone number for me to verify whether she had called.

I brought the tempo down by explaining if she says she has called, then there would be no need for me to call. She promised to call me back, which she did, explaining that the MTTU has a problem with their "roster" [good grief!] so were re-scheduling.

The good news was that the hot line room would call me early tomorrow morning to check whether the police had been dispatched! Oh joy!

Ain't complaining grand!;-D

While I'm jubilating, let me do a public service by offering the number for those on the MTN network: it can be reached on short code 18008; on VODAFONE: 0800.10.800 and on land line 021.912.107

Store it on your mobiles now! The more of us complain, the more pressure will be brought on the Motor Transport Traffic Unit of the Ghana Police to get their act together!

Mid-Week Madness: Re-dux: This is What Young Ghanaian Journalists Should Aspire To; The Inconsistency of Spintex Road Police

Back in 2007, I wrote a blog post, praising Business&Financial Times Journalist Moses Dzawu (now a Deputy News Editor!) who picked up my story of a piece of news I had heard on the radio about Stanbic Bank wanting to take over Ghana's only Agricultural Development Bank. I had spoken with him on Sunday night. By Monday, the front-page of BFT was asking whether ADB was being sold to Stanbic!!

Three years later, I feel compelled to revisit the title, because I think CITI-fm Journalist Bernard Avle (back from studying an MBA at Warwick university in 2008/2009) a couple of months ago and back on the "CITI Breakfast Show" for Mondays-Wednesdays) deserves the accolade for picking up a piece, written by former Deputy High Commissioner in Ghana Craig Murray on his blog a few weeks ago.

The story was on corruption, and how the British government is being hypocritical by not touching on how British companies have been complicit in corrupting Ghanaian officials over a number of deals. I circulated the story last Friday afternoon. On Monday, I saw it in front of "The Insight" newspaper.

After Avle's interview of Craig Murray himself, and a hosting of a panel that included Ghana Integrity Initiative (local chapter of Transparency International)Vitus Azeem, the story has taken somewhat epic proportions. The actual story is here: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/02/the_uk_and_corr.html#comments. I must, in fact, thank my British blogger-friend (since 2005) Daniel Hoffman-Gill, which website I found the link on last week! Thanks Daniel!

Meanwhile, I am getting frustrated in using the Spintex Road as the Ghana Police (motor Transport Unit) continue to show the same inconsistency I complained of in the last post. They simply are not deploying--either on time, or at all--police to stop all sorts of cars creating confusion on the road. When they're there, the traffic assumes a sanity that is refreshing. Refreshing because it is so rare for the road to be sane!

I wasted units calling the National Road Safety Commission hotline on MTN 18001 today. It didn't go through, so I was compelled to call their landline--only to be told that there was an electrical fault.

With a hotline?

Only in Ghana!

Truth be told, yesterday, when I did call, they picked it up and called me back to say that they have informed the Motor Transport Unit of the Ghana Police and they have been dispatched. Need they be told? I wondered. They didn't have an answer for me. This morning, I got the lie that the MTTU had been deployed. We had been on the road since 7.45am and it was as choked as ever, developing multiple lanes thanks to commuters using shortcuts that fed into the road.

I fear what tomorrow will bring, but I ain't giving up calling them, or radio stations to get the message across that Ghana Police are not helping us...

A Sweet Tale of Trekking to Tema with a Unsung "Mate"

Last night, I made the not-so-obvious mistake of boarding a "Nungua/Bush Road" tro-tro which I assumed would take me through the famed Spintex Road and on my way home. Given the traffic build-up, I found it no news at all to see that the trotsky (as some commuters so affectionately call this form of transport) had turned to take the motorway.

Now, these drivers like shortcuts--a lot, so it was very surprising to see that the usual shortcut that the trotskys pass to get to the Spintex Road had been by-passed by this driver in question.

There we were: some eighteen Ghanaian citizens rocking and rolling (our eyes in disbelief on account of the traffic!) through the night and streetlamps that line up the 46-year old Tema motorway when suddenely I realised that we just would not stop. I kept on harrassing the dosy "mate" (that's the guy who collects the fares) as to when we could hit the Spintex Road, but I noticed after a while that his elusiveness did not just precede him, but it was him: he just was so taciturn it was not funny. As I tried to speak to him in twi, he was practising his relatively good English on me. After speaking that language the whole day at work, I just wanted to fall into vernacular. I guess that's what irritated me all the more. I thought of all the things I could say to him, but held my tongue.

Good thing I did too, because it is this same "mate" who would eventually open up and give me directions how to get back to the Spintex road after we alighted at a TOTAL filling station on the Baatsonaa road, near ECOBANK. All this--not without passing through what I came to find out was Community 18 of the Tema metropolis!

It certainly was a long night.

Did I say it's good to be back some three weeks later (mostly spent planning the year!!)?;-) Well it is! And I sure do hope more regularly, too.

Given that this month is exactly 5 years since I started blogging, it behooves me to come up with some surprises, which I'll keep tightly under my sleeves--for now!

Spintex Road Diaries:Inexplicable Bottleneck

A couple of minutes ago, I had the priviledge of boarding a SAKUMONO-bound MASS METRO BUS. Although we have only as much as crawled a few metres through the snaking traffic, you might want to forgive me for considering it a priviledge.

You see, I arrived here some 20 minutes ago to the sight of darkness falling this side of Accra, in what would be a melee of colours and smells that contrasted wildly with the serene air-conditioning of the mall. Both cars and tro-tros would be bumper-to-bumper in a scene reminiscent of the legendary Christmas traffic that befalls the capital in December with a disturbing regularity it is not funny.

Truth be told, I did not really mind till the darkness started enveloping the capital, because I knew it was not going to bode well for the bottleneck.

And it has not.

Although the crawling of a few metres has made way for significant movement that lets us know we are going forward in a positive direction, you cannot escape the sounds of tooting horns filling the air around us. Everyone seems to want to get to their destination first, forgetting that we are all destined to undergo a degree of frustration till we get to our destination.

I am not trying to be funny here, but I cannot shake off the desire to KNOW what is causing this inexplicable bottleneck.

The historians of this country must have their work cut out, for the mysteries of the strange-yet-unresolved bottlenecks on this darned road must be sufficient to fill tomes!

Any takers?

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Enter Left for Ghana in ECOWAS, as Ghana Plays Host to a Regional Electricity Agency

Two important developments within the past two days have reminded me that Ghana might not be playing a low-key role in international diplomacy, albeit African geo-politics.

Now that one of my long-time blogger-followers since 2005--Daniel Hoffman-Gill--has migrated from my other blog to this one, I think it behooves me to be as clear as possible about where I am going with this post, as even in Ghana, few care about what ECOWAS means.

The Economic Community Of West African States is a regional organisation--just as the EU is of 27 countries--that has been in existence since 1975. It successfully, albeit controversially, resolved the crisis in Liberia, primarily by expanding its mandate from an economic imperative to a peace and security one as well.

In 2007, it changed its structure to an EU one, whereby there are now ECOWAS Commissioners for trade, human security, etc. The Secretariat in that year also became a Commission, rather than a Secretariat, with greater powers to facilitate a more people-centred organisation that would be meaningful for West Africans.

Now the boss, since 2001, has been a Ghanaian by the name of Dr.Ibn Chambas. Yesterday, I learnt from reports online that he has just landed a top-job in the Brussels-based African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP Group).

In the same vein, I found out today that the promise that Ghana would play host to one of the ECOWAS agencies--in this case the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA) has been honoured, and it is in a very visible place on the famed-Spintex Road!

This evidently means nothing about Ghana in ECOWAS foreign policy, but the developments within the past two days is certainly nothing to be sneezed at.

For the record, I do hope that as the EU meet today to decide who becomes the President of the newly-empowered EU Council(thanks to the Lisbon Treaty) Tony Blair will miss it by inches--not because he is not competent, but because I don't think someone who never accepted that he botched the justification for the invasion of Iraq will be accountable to EU citizens!

Taxi Tales: Of Men & Moral Ambiguities

The moral ambiguity that comes with not asking questions in a situation where the wrong thing is clearly being done is an article of the average Ghanaian's application of the law.

From tro-tros using the shoulder in traffic, to using illegal routes on the Tema motorway, you would be hard-pressed finding a Ghanaian who has not over-looked wrong-doing.

I am no exception!

Last Friday evening, I joined three others in a shared taxi to the Spintex Road--except that it was not a taxi. This taxi was a private-registered car, meaning that it had white number plates. This is one of the the beauties of commuting in Ghana--knowing how to identify either a private or commercial (yellow plate) car. I must confess that the car was rather comfortable, which is atypical to the usually-shared taxi that plies the Tema/Fridays/Baatsona route every day!

I, like the other three, said nothing because we all wanted to get home on time. We didn't call him--he did.

How could we have refused an offer like that?

And so the ambiguity continues...

Spintex Road Diaries: The Bigger Scheme...

Another manic monday that has flown faster than a purpose-driven mosquitoe on a lights-off night.

It,s 18h39 and the tro-tro engine has burst to life, taking the order-of-four-seated commuters to "bush road! nungua side" destination. Ofcourse some of us will stop closer.

Have to say that it seems rather incongruous listening to Natasha Bedingfield's "These Words are My Own";, and have a few commuters whistling to the lively tune behind me.

Go on, call me a snob.

While ur doing that, spare a thought for those languishing in hospitals out of family negligence, or those who have broken up on Valentine's day.

Those seem to be the small things, but they really are not...in the bigger scheme of things.

Good health is a virtue, and having someone to call your partner or lover are two of the age-old and time-tested formulations that remind us of our humanity. and make it simultaneously meaningful.

Can't wait for CSI tomorrow morning--even if it might make me soporific the subsequent couple of hours!!

It sure is great to be alive, and have and make choices.

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Spintex Road Diaries: Heading for an early night?

It is a cool evening, with adom fm just announcing in the taxi i am in that egypt has scored two, ghana also has two. I guess this is a friendly.

CSI (Las Vegas) rocks on viasat 1, but staying to midnight almost daily is making me seriously soporific. Must opt for the DVD in its stead.

So bloody tired it is not funny! Traffic meanwhile is surprisingly smooth.

wow...

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Spintex Road Diaries: Smooth Traffic Confuses Me

Children are back to school, and it rained yesterday, so how come the traffic is so deliciously smooth? Not that I am complaining or anything, but I am profoundly quized by the absence of a bottleneck this side of 6.45pm...

We can only hope both shared taxis and cars are able to ply this smoothly from hereonin!

Looks like a minute later, I might have spoken too soon, There is a tipper truck in front of us that was speeding, which is now virtually crawling.

This is what I am used to. Don't spoil my fun!

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Spintex Road Diaries: Always-Inexplicable Traffic

Currently in a shared taxi en route home. There is traffic here that is as inexplicable as it is a regular diet of the average commuter heading home.

The passing of the late Finance minister Baah-Wiredu has dominated news. May his soul rest in peace...

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Taxi Tales: "They are Killing Us!"

It has become an article of my quotidian walking diet to stop by the Spintex Road GOIL filling station to either pick a taxi, or walk home. Depending on my mood, I pick a taxi. Last night was no exception.

There was a slight difference in the usual silence that rings through from the filling station to my house some six minutes away from GOIL. Usually, I am so knackered, I allow myself to converse with my thoughts. Yesterday, the difference was in the mini-conversation I had with the taxi-driver after he said that I would be charged GHC1.20--instead of GHC1.00. He told me that yesterday was "the last day" he would be charging me that rate, which I found interesting, considering I have never seen him around that area before.

Oh well.

He went on to say that "they" were "killing us". I knew exactly whom he was talking about. Generally, he was referring to the government; specifically to the National Petroleum Authority that has, yet again, allowed Ghanaians to suffer and experience the vagaries of the fluctuation of oil prices on the market.

Joy Online, in its report put it this way:

This is the second time petroleum products prices have been adjusted in less than a month and the third since October 2007.

The Public Relations Officer of the NPA Steven Larbie tells Joy Business report that the reviews will no more be done monthly but according to price movements of crude oil on the world market.

What it means is that a gallon of petrol now sells at 4 Ghana cedis 68 pesewas or 46,800 cedis; while a gallon of diesel is 4 Ghana cedis 63 pesewas or 46,350 cedis

Putting these prices into context, you can understand why the consumers will have to pay the taxi-drivers. I have had quite a few tales of these over the past few days--and I really cannot blame them.

What I do think is extortionist is when the taxi-drivers decide, consequently, to offer arbitrary prices, knowing fully well that they are providing us with the service, and so without them, we cannot get to our destination!

Whatever the case may be, it's true, this government is killing the average consumer's disposable income.

That, on top of these high prices, one spends around GHC50.00 to buy the equivalent of electricity that would have taken me (before November 1st) almost three weeks for, now, just under two weeks!

As the Week Draws to a Close in Accra:Load-Shedding Resumes in Style; When Residents Run to the Media

Get video codes at Bolt. This video was taken on 16 March, reminding us of the cherished rain that the nation had so waited for for aeons. It was finally here--as was the resumption of load-shedding.

Now, since last Wednesday 28 March, the load management programme has resumed ingrand style, with the lights going off 12 hours every other day--either during the day or night. This morning, parts of Accra woke up to lifeless houses, prompting many to reach for their battery-operated radios...till 6pm, when electricity resumes. Come Sunday, the same parts of Accra will be lifeless--except this time from the evening towards the night!

This morning, there was now contemplation that for businesses, there ought to be a review. Given that the incumbent NPP likes to talk about private sector being the motor for development and all that, small wonder.
Truth be told, the Daily Graphic carried the story that the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Ghana Employers Association (GEA) were the ones that called for this new review as a way of stimulating productivity. They argued for the lights to go off during the evening, and not during the day, as it kills productivity and has the serious potential of laying off jobs.

Fair point, in my view, as during the evening is when more electricity is consumed.

Community Advocacy
Meanwhile, last week Saturday, residents of Manetville, off the Spintex Road, called a Press conference to convey their grievances, as it were, to the court of public opinion that has had no clue of the execrable service delivery that has been delivered by Manetville.

Now the reason why this press conference is particularly significant is because it is coming a good SIX years after the first one that yielded little results, coupled with the more important point that all efforts by residents are now in place to launch what is, in effect, a media war against the estate developer that is Manet.

The residents have developed a blog (http://manetvillespintexroadwatch.blogspot.com/), which paints a very stark contrast of what the developer has delivered on its numerous Estates (Manet Palms, Manet Gardens;etc). You might be surprised to know that one of Ghana's most-visited websites GhanaWeb attracted some 54-odd comments from the article written by Ghana News Agency.

Suffice-to-say, as long as there is life, the fight for a better life continues in earnest!

Taxi Tales: Taxi, oh Taxi drivers, Where art thou uniforms?

I came into work this morning, half-expecting to see the taxi drivers, mandated to start wearing uniforms (sea-blue shirt and navy blue trousers), as of 1st February--i.e. today. Not too much to my surprise, all the taxi-drivers I saw on my way to work, and my Dad noticed a few, too, were, in effect, breaking the law.


Even if the Accra Metropolitan Assembly had botched things up with their lack of enforcibility, the decision not to wear uniforms smacks of disrespect for the law.

On my way home from work yesterday evening, where I took this picture (in part to show-case the erection of streetlights on the Spintex Road), I asked the taxi driver, driving a colleague and myself home, whether he was prepared. He sputtered out forlornly that "emi, me nshe uniform, o", or "I will not wear any uniform". That kind of gave me a taster of what to expect today, but one could hope anyway;-)

Just for good measure, here's some more about AMA:

"The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) is a corporate body and the highest political and administrative organ in Accra. The Assembly has legislative, deliberate and executive functions. Development in Accra is financed from several sources and at two (2) levels; central and local. AMA is a facilitator for development rather than profit making institution. This is consistent to central government policy. AMA spends 66.70% of its revenue on recurrent expenditure whilst 33.30% on capital expenditure. The expenditure ratio indicates low commitment of the city authority to development."
from:http://ie3global.oregonstate.edu/ie3/openings/ghana7.html

Let's see what the rest of the day will bring!

tags:
ghana taxi;taxi uniforms;accra;spintex road;

Why this Terrible, Morning Traffic on the Spintex Road?

I live some ten minutes away from work. I'm on the infamous Spintex Road, which I have blogged about many a time, and where you can even find my video of how dark it gets on that road, which I took in April 2006 here.

All that said, I cannot for the life of me understand why since yesterday, when I left home around 8.05am, I would arrive at work--some ten, fifteen minutes max with light traffic away--at 9.55am!!!!!

This picture is just to give you a snapshot of the scale of the traffic this morning. It was the same yesterday morning, too.


I suspect the culprits are the feeder, back roads, which people are using, which block the main Spintex road that this picture was taken on.

If you can check the two figures in fluorescent clothing in this picture, they are police traffic officers who are supposed to be directing the traffic. Where they are standing is the feeder road, which private cars and tro-tros alike use to feed into the main Spintex road. It leads to the Lister hospital area, where, regrettably, my very good friend Mrs.Nana Amma Osei-Ahenkorah spent her last days in late April this year, culminating in her passing over on 1 May...


I tried to be clever by taking this picture from the rear-view mirror, or vizor, and this is the clearest I was able to get. Can you see the line trailing allllllll the way upwards?

Question, now, is what to do about such execrable traffic conditions. My visceral take is to deploy more police on the ground so that they can equally discipline those commercial vehicles, like the one in the first picture, that try to force their way when everyone else also wants to get to their destination on time!!

tags:
accra;ghana traffic;spintex road traffic;spintex road;tro-tros;ghana transport;morning traffic accra

Accra's Spintex Road Makes an Eponymous Entry

The Spintex Road in Accra is one of the fastest-growing, traffic-inducing roads just outside the Accra Metropolis. It leads to Teshie-Nungua, and onto Tema. From that road, you reach the famous (or should that be infamous?) Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange, where you either get confused by the structure or follow the automobile crowd.

This is in no way a coherent entry, but given the relative absence, I thought I'd broach the very important issue of the Spintex Road. A picture of the road from the infamous tunnel graced an entry way back in 2005, which you can read here.

The picture to the right is that of a taxi a few minutes away from the-said tunnel.

In any event, the Spintex Road is also the road that boasts the most badly-lit semi-highway in the country. Rumours have abounded that streetlights would be a feaeture this year--Ghananian drivers, and ECOWAS ones to boot, who ply the route regularly have yet to see it.

What is clear, and that is a bit odd considering how dark it can be;-) -- is that the government is paying scant regard to a route that will prove to be a great source of frustration and enjoyment for drivers going to, and coming from, Teshie-Nungua/Tema/Baatsona/RegiManuel/Manetville Estates--for a very long time to come.

Hopefully, this third edition of the "Spintex Brief Community Journal" has made inroads into the consciousness of Ghanaians on how to make our frustrations better heard.

Video Clip: Driving on Accra's Spintex Road at Night

This is how dark it gets on the Spintex Road at night. Taken around 8.30pm, you can see for yourself that the number of cars passing at quite high speed suggests a busy road, and yet...no streetlights!! The placard (yellow) I am trying to capture to the right of the video is that of "Papaye" on the Spintex Road. I am in a taxi, and radio is on 104.3FM--Peace FM, where the presenter is discussing Sports and the Black Stars performance in Germany.

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