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Opinions of Saturday, 3 June 2017

Columnist: Derbie Raphael

A sober reflection on the June 3rd disaster.

A photo of the June 3 disaster A photo of the June 3 disaster

The month, June has been recorded in the bad books of Ghanaians on different incidents. It remains an enigma why most of the unfortunate incidents that befell Ghana, occurred in this month.

At exactly two years ago, Ghana recorded a tremendous excruciatingly heartbreaking news. It was a heavy blow that was beyond our imagination. It was the news of an unprecedented indescribable natural catastrophe, which claimed the lives of multitude of Ghanaians after a heavy downpour of rain. The incident was so devastating that Ghanaians could not blink their eyes without a drop of tears.

This sad incident occurred late in the evening, that is around 10:00pm thereabouts. It was indeed a day that Ghanaians woke up at the wrong sides of their beds to be greeted with such a shockingly news that befell the country. In fact, the state was deeply shocked to its marrow upon being slapped in the face with this sad news.

Meanwhile, flood was a perennial problem which was invariably talked on yearly bases with less efforts to minimise its excruciating effects on indigenes in Accra and those living along the black and white Volta. This particular natural disaster was artificially motivated as human activities such as choked gutters, building in water ways, inter alia were the catalyst. It was also strangely flabbergasting seeing fire burning in water. That the first time we witnessed such. And that made the incident terribly catastrophic. The fire disaster could have been precluded if the institution in charge of that had diligently done its work.

Leaders of this country are characterized by verbose English language which they usually use to articulate their views on "spilled milk" as we saw them yesterday, displaying their English language proficiency in parliament on the gruesome murder of Captain Mahama Maxwell, which they could have prevented if they were that vociferous on similar incidents that opened the floodgate for more of such unfortunate events. When will we learn to be proactive? I can say without mincing words that Ghana will continue to suffer in perpetuity if we continue to have leaders who talk too much without walking their talks.

The fundamental reason why I laced these words on this particular issue is to remind Ghanaians of it and how failingly failed we are to learning from previous mistakes so that we save ourselves from repeating certain unpardonable mistakes.

I also seek to inquire from leadership whether they have carved out better preventive measures to permanently bar such unpalatable unfortunate incidents from raising their ugly heads in this country? Ghana is sixty(60) years old and this shows how mature we are. We have indeed grown beyond the stage of leaders endlessly parroting their well rehearsed English language anytime Ghana is trapped in such a pathetic situation.

I want to use this opportunity to call on government to ensure that all the institutions as well as ministries is well fortified to enable them discharge their onus diligently and efficiently.

It is a known fact that this catastrophe had left an indelible blue print in the minds of so many Ghanaians especially those who lost their love ones. I am not also oblivious that some of the victims who were lucky to have escaped that great conflagration and flood are still wallowing in abject poverty. While others are still undergoing treatment, some are being discriminated against by the public because of the scars on their bodies.

It is undoubtedly true that some of the victims lost their jobs as a result of the disaster. I therefore want to use this medium to call on government and Non-governmental Organizations to offer helping hands to these victims by reinstating them on their previous jobs or getting them something to rely on for their daily bread.

In conclusion, I think it would be prudent leadership organise a yearly anniversary to commemorate the unexpected painful demise of those people. I also call on Ghanaians in general to be proactive in whatever we do because we are always the victims in every unfortunate incidents.