THERE is one attitude about us Ghanaians that we seriously need to check: we always wait for disaster to occur before we act. We are always behaving like the vulture who knows what is right but will procrastinate and sometimes even do nothing about an impending danger.
And even when disaster has occurred we do not seem to do things that will prevent a recurrence of such disasters. It is almost two years that a building rented by the Melcom Group of Companies, located at Achimota in Accra, collapsed and claimed lives and properties.
WHAT happened after that horrifying incident? We at Today recall several calls for the Mayor of Accra, Dr. Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, to resign. That did not work! Instead an official at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly was arrested. What happened to that AMA official?
WE at Today were, once again, horrified about the news yesterday that an eight-storey uncompleted building which was at the sixth-storey stage had collapsed at Nii Boi Town in Accra. The sad news was that one person was reported dead. Our sympathies go to the bereaved families of the deceased.
IN fact this latest incident raises a lot of questions about state institutions mandated to prevent some of these occurrences. The first question that we believe many Ghanaians will be asking is: Did the land owner have a building permit to commence the project? And if yes, were building inspectors coming round to check to see whether the right building materials were being used?
IT is clear that we did not learn anything from the Melcom incident! We only brooded over the issue and went to bed. Pure and simple! We will not be surprised when same is done to this matter because that is the typical Ghanaian attitude.
THE fact of the matter is that there are occurrences that we can help prevent as a people. But we prefer to suffer the consequences instead of taking preventive measures. Why is this so? It is early days yet to know the cause of the Nii Boi Town incident, but definitely fingers will be pointed at our state institutions. It is therefore important that we proactively work towards averting preventable disasters.
WHILST blaming some contractors for buying cheap materials for land owners, it is important that our mandated institutions charged to ensure that lives and properties are protected sit up and discharge their duties without fear or favour.
WE cannot continue to behave like children and pretend we are doing the right things when in actual fact we are not. It is time as a nation we set our priorities right and made sure negligence of some people who are paid with the poor tax payer’s moneys go unpunished by instituting legal actions against them.
UNTIL some people are made to face the law and pay for their ineptitude towards we will be looking for solutions elsewhere to such problems anytime they occur when the solutions are indeed not far-fetched.
Source: Today
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