Cart before Horse: Why “The Year of Roads” Should Have Preceded “The Year of Return”.

On January 14, 2020, Ghana recorded one of the most fatal road accidents in its history. Two buses travelling from opposite directions rammed into each other at Dompoase, near Elmina in the Central Region. Thirty-five persons died whilst many others were maimed for life.

Occurring on Monday January 13, barely two weeks into 2020, the year in which the Sustainable Development Goal 3.6 seeks to “halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents”, the accident could be aptly described as both ironic and unfortunate. Apart from the SDG’s target, 2020 is also the year President Akufo-Addo declared in December 2019 as “The Year of Roads”. It is not too clear if the President’s declaration has anything to do with SDG’s but one thing that remains true is the fact that 2020 is another election year in Ghana. In Ghana, roads are a political issue. They play a major part in determining who wins elections in Ghana. This is the reason why many road projects are awarded, completed and commissioned in election years. The year 2020 is certainly not going to be different.
———–
PS: WIP

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *