Sodom and Gomorrah

The brutally inhuman way in which the authorities of the Accra Metropolitan City Council, backed by the Central Government, have treated the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah in Accra, is a disgraceful demonstration of the fact that our current rulers are very cynical indeed.

For what they have done is clearly to capitalise on the revulsion felt by the public against those whose thoughtless acts of clogging and silting up gutters, caused such a tragic loss of life in the recent floods, to perpetrate an injustice against the slum-dwellers.

Now, no-one will dispute the fact that some of the slum-dwellers had erected both homes and commercial kiosks in waterways, and had thus contributed to the flooding of the area. But was it every structure pulled down in the area that stood in the way of flowing water and therefore, deserved to be demolished? The people obviously don't think so.

That aside, what a Government that respects its moral duty of care to its citizenry ought to have done would have been to get town engineers to demarcate and mark with red chalk, the structures that specifically contribute to flooding. Then accommodation should have been found for the inhabitants, and those willing to move, evacuated before sending the bulldozers in.

As it is – and remember we are in the rainy season – where are the homeless to go?

Of course, we all know that our Government is broke and, moreover, has borrowed money up to its neck. So carrying out any meaningful resettlement would be difficult for it to do at this time in any case – even if it wanted to.

Nevertheless, if it had drawn up an attractive practical plan and tried to sell it to the people, some of the slum-dwellers (at least) would have co-operated with the plans.

You see, the demonstration effect of providing modern one or two-room houses to people who live in shacks cannot be over-emphasised. We have the evidence before our very eyes: in Accra, the old “estate houses” at Labadi, Osu, Kaneshie and elsewhere were all meant to prevent the growth of slums in the metropolis, and people fought over them. Tema, Kumase and Takoradi also had their share. The work of the colonialists was embraced and expanded greatly by the Ghana Housing Corporation.

Mr John Dramani Mahama would do well to remember that his father belonged to a Convention People's Party (CPP) Government which sometimes exhibited admirable humanitarian concerns for the welfare of the people. For example, when it realised in advance that the Akosombo Dam would cause massive flooding and create “the largest man-made lake in the world”, it planned new townships for the people who would be displaced.

Of course, not everyone liked the houses given to them (mainly because they were not based on our traditional concept of “the compound house” but, rather ignorantly, on the modern idea of one/two-bedroom houses which are alien to many Ghanaians' desire to interact constantly with other members of their extended families.

Well, I can tell the Government that the displaced people of Sodom and Gomorrah will be watching keenly to see whether the real reason for moving them so precipitately -- and in such an opportunistic manner to boot -- is to make the vacated lands available to the “business cliques” that now rule the country. I hope not!