Besides the heaps of garbage which are sometimes found on the shoulders of many of our principal streets in Accra, there is this social canker which is giving our national capital an embarrassing look.
This is about the begging for alms on streets of the capital city by some African nationals.
Though we may not be able to say where these foreign beggars of African extraction came from, the fact is that they are not Ghanaians.
What is seemingly worrying about these beggars is the way they go about begging for alms.
It has become more and more aggressive with children beggars mostly seen holding the hands of passersby, commuters and in some cases standing besides vehicles begging for money.
The strategy now is that the adults/parents dispatch their children at specific locations, while they sit comfortably somewhere observing the kids begging.
In fact, there are instances where these children beggars with their repelling body odour cling to passersby, all in expectation of money.
And this, which is largely done in the public view causes a lot of embarrassment to a passerby who is being pestered by these children beggars for money.
The other aspect of these beggars is they have pitched camps at vantage points and their daily activities are not only a nuisance, but also cause some environmental problems.
The question we want to ask is: are our city authorities aware of this canker and how aggressive these beggars have become? And if they are aware why are they not clearing them from our roads and where they have pitched camps?
There is no gainsay the fact that the activities of these beggars are embarrassing to our national capital. The sight of them and their nuisance activities do not give Accra a good image; especially when we want beautify the capital city.
It is a phenomenon, if not dealt with, could make Accra an unattractive destination for foreign tourists. It is against this backdrop that Today is urging the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to take steps to deal with this issue.
Oftentimes, what happens when some of these issues are brought to the fore is that you see a situation where our authorities take action and then when all appears to be okay, they go to sleep.
This is where we at Today would want to charge the AMA to take measures that will address the issue permanently.
Obviously, we cannot make Accra the cleanest city in Africa when we have these beggars littering about indiscriminately with their begging activities. Therefore, we must act fast before it becomes an issue difficult to deal with.
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