Who manages Ghana's Road Infrastructure?

It’s not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong, but not what we gain but

what we save that makes us rich, not what we read but what we remember that

makes us learned, and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity

-Francis Bacon

It is a fact that everybody expects equitable development from the powers that be, but like everyone, living the ideal life to guarantee these goodies is a terrible burden, if not a people’s coup of their own integrity.

I am appalled by the level of deterioration many beautiful projects and facilities dotted around the country, and which were constructed with colossal funds, loans, grants, and credit facilities are allowed to waste.

In fact apart from the Akosombo Hydroelectric Dam and some few others dotted round the country, that is in good shape, because of a strict maintenance regime in place, the conditions of many state structures and facilities, including some new ones leave much to be desired.

The recently commissioned George Walker Bush Highway or the N1 Highway, linking the Tetteh Quashie Interchange to Mallam Junction offers a typical example. The less than a-year-old highway is already suffering some deterioration, with badly smashed metal guards that separate the roads, the fence on the edges of the road and the shameless defacing of the facility with a cluster of posters on some parts of the road are worthy of mention.

The damaged metal guard scenes at Nyamekye Junction, Lapaz, as well as those between Dimples and Dzowulo junctions, and several dents on the metal fences on the edges of the road are pitiful and frightening. The ugly scenes of these damaged portions of the fences, yet to be attended to, expose sharp edges of the mangled barricades and make travelling risky and unsafe.

Similar unsightly damages are seen on the Accra-Tema Motorway, where many street lights, as well as the metal guards shielding the underground bridges on the motorway, is smashed or knocked down through accidents. These examples are replete in other cities throughout the country.

Other facilities that require urgent attention on our roads are the numerous nonfunctional (electricity-powered) traffic lights in a country with abundant sunshine throughout the year. Some of them are out of order, having been knocked down by reckless or dosing drivers.

The worrying manner in which they go off is ample evidence that it was time our traffic lights and for that matter the streets lights are powered by reliable power sources.

A cursory look again at our roads reveals an awful effort by some Ghanaians to deface the beauty of these roads on yet another scale. One could spot some portions of the N1Highway and others, awash with a sea of a filthy assortment of belated and postdated posters of so-called men of God, politicians, and musicians, who want to breathe the air of free advertisement space.

The littering of posters and other flyers are mostly posted at night and on the inner and outer walls of the road. Even the street lights, road signposts, and footbridges are not spared in this venture.

Regrettably, lack of routine maintenance has reduced the lifespan of some of our major trunk roads, which at best have become death traps.

Who causes them?

There is no doubt road infrastructure such as the railings, metal guards, traffic lights, street lights, and roads signs are important components that decorate the roads, and aid in easy usage of the roads by vehicles and other roads users. Whereas the traffic lights regulate the free flow of human and vehicular traffic, the street lights illuminate the streets and perhaps help to reduce occasions of petty crimes committed at night on the roads.

Having said this, one wonders why such useful facilities get damaged or are knocked down and left to rot, for several weeks, months, and years unattended to. 

Often time, the question that comes to mind is who causes these damages to the furniture or contribute to defacing them. Why does nobody seem concerned about the unsightly damages or littering on our roads?

From my layman’s understanding, reckless driving, loss of control by drivers due to tiredness and dosing off the steering wheel mostly account for the numerous accidents that damage the roads railings, the street lights, and other facilities.

While the numerous non-functional traffic lights and some street lights cannot be blamed on drivers entirely, their consistent malfunctioning should warrant a close scrutiny by the technicians supposed to manage them.

Who repairs them?

Contrary to popular belief, the government must not always repair and manage its properties, even when somebody’s negligent action or inaction caused their damage, raises concerns about who should repair such damage road facilities. Certainly somebody and not the government must be made to pay for the cost of these repairs.  

In encouraging a spirit of responsible citizenship, this writer is of the opinion that culprits of such acts must be made to pay either the full cost of repairs of damages or at least 75 percent of the cost.

Elsewhere, Ghanaians who visit Europe and other countries testify about how systems work to ensure and enhance the orderliness, discipline, and a high sense of responsibility among the public. No wonder they share tales of their beautifully preserved historical artifacts, national monuments, roads, and other amenities.

Yet some of these Ghanaians with vivid accounts of what they saw and profess rather than helping to improve upon the situation, only bastardise the system here at home and often become   worse offenders of these ills.

The unanswered question is why can’t we do the same here? It is sometimes irritating to see how the very loud self-baptized “been-to” behave on our streets, in our homes, and even in public services. I am not questioning their attitude though, but rather am tempted to agree more with a friend who once described the “been-to” as only portraying the bad values of their host countries and not the positive. Could that be the true picture?

Although every good thing may not be good enough for the Ghanaian, we the people must collectively find tune some of the best practices, we observe in our tours, and sojourns of these countries to improve and make the best in our nation-building task.

Be that as it may, the concept  of making people responsible for their actions must be upheld, since it would, to a large extent, instill the spirit of discipline, decrease the number of death from road accidents, and lower the cost charged to the road funds annually for the repairs of some of these damages on our roads.

Conclusion

Since holistic development is our destination as a country, governments while ensuring that Ghana gets value on such investment in the areas of construction of roads, bridges, flyovers, and other capital intensive infrastructure should be made to institutionalize maintenance of these facilities to prolong their lifespan for our good.

Considering the huge investment in road construction, measures ought to be taken to make them last longer. However, that seems not to be the case as dozen stretches along the 14.1 Kilometer George W. Bush Highway are seriously deteriorating.

Also, steps have to be taken to ensure that the cost of repairs of damages of road furniture are borne by the drivers or whoever was involved in the accidental damaging of the road furniture. In Ghana, the fact is that a chunk all motorist have insurance coverage for their vehicles. Interestingly, in such instances  where these vehicles are involved in accidents, the third party claim which covers the repairs of smashed road railings and other dented facilities are either not being invoked or the motorists are unaware of such conditions or perhaps the authorities in-charge of our roads are not enthused  to pursue the provisions that require the insurers to pay for the repairs of the smashes, possibly because of the cumbersome nature of nuances involved with such procedures.

Moreover, it is believed that most constructions have a component of maintenance with it. This means that if there is such a clause that requires periodic maintenance of the N1 Highway and others, and the period has not yet elapsed, then it is only feasible to call the attention of the contractors to repair such damages.     

Another approach to ensure that our road furniture is in shape is through the collaborative efforts between Testing Officers at the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA) and  such Mobile Transport Units or Road Task Forces charged with the responsibility of ensuring that offenders who mangle road furniture are identified and made to pay for their repairs or may be brought before  the appropriate authorities to ensure they (the offending drivers) or those who deface these road infrastructures are dealt with appropriately.

As the volume of vehicles in our cities and countries grow, and as government continues to make a huge investment in constructing new roads now and then, a lot must be done to salvage the wastage and losses on our roads. To stem this tide, it behooves the Ministry of Roads and Highways, the Department of Urban Roads, and the Metropolitan Municipal District Assemblies (MMDAs), to take measures to maintain our roads and their furniture to make them last longer.

Indeed, to grow our economy, we must deny this prohibitive culture of lack of maintenance in our nation and collectively galvanize support to work and make our country great and resilient, as well as be that gateway to a beautiful and a capable Africa.

One claim we made as a country at independence was the ability and capability of the Blackman to manage our own affairs, even better than our colonial masters. So let us be inspired by this innate ability within our hearts to do good to mother Ghana and the generation yet to come by demonstrating the will to maintain the facilities we have now.

That professing what we practice gives us integrity means the Ghana Government must adopt serious measures for regular maintenance in all facets of the economy and help preserve our past heritage and make our present developmental efforts yield the dividend we require in the future for Mother Ghana. It is possible that proper maintenance of our assets could also inspire the study of our national history, which would be more evidence-based rather than on oral tradition and generally boost the tourism industry.

Maintenance is our obligation,

It is in our interest to do it,

Together we can.

God bless Ghana.

Writer’s email: kybem11@yahoo.com

http://kwesiyirenkyi.blogspot.com