Accra Quiet After Stars Defeat

The streets of Accra were unusually quiet and the bubbling commercial activity in the city was missing, a day after Ghana lost to Cameroun in the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations (Ghana 2008) soccer fiesta.

There was minimum traffic in many parts of the city in the morning and as of 9:10 a.m., there were a few vehicles on the portion of the Kojo Thompson Road from the Farrar Avenue traffic light and the offices of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) in Accra, which is noted for heavy traffic at that time of the day.

The police had little work to do because there was very little vehicular and human traffic to control and the usual milling crowd in the central business district was absent.

Very few vehicles were still flying the miniature flags as has been the case in the past few weeks, while the spectacle of dresses made in the national colours which Ghanaians proudly displayed was also absent.

The area around the Kinbu Gardens and the Ministries was no different as there were few people and vehicles. Workers at the various ministries were, however, seen busily working, although for many of them, their demeanour portrayed their disappointment over the Black Stars' defeat.

In a chat, some of them said they were heartbroken because they had very high expectations. Some of the ministries visited were the Communications; Water Resources, Works and Housing; Ports, Harbours and Railways; Women and Children's Affairs; Trade, Industry, PSI and PSD; and Education, Science and Sports.

The disappointing mood of football fans appeared to have affected patronage of the tournament paraphernalia as prices of many of the items had been reduced to encourage customers to buy.

The T-shirts which were formerly sold for GH?15 are now selling at GH?10, while caps which were previously sold for GH?5 are now selling for GH?2, with the price of headgear falling from GH?2 to GH?1.

The Rawlings Park in the Central Business District, which was full of paraphernalia traders a few days ago, was also experiencing low patronage when the Daily Graphic visited the area around 11:10a.m.

At the Makola branch of the Barclays Bank, there were few customers around and only one of them was wearing a Ghana 2008 T- Shirt although some of the ladies behind the counter wore Ghana 2008 ear rings and bangles. The Derby Avenue branch of the CAL Bank was not different in respect of the number of customers as compared to those who were in Ghana 2008 T-shirts.

Story by Naa Lartiokor Lartey & Davina Darko-Mensah

Source:
Daily Graphic

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