Ernest Kofi Adu
30 July 2008
Kumasi — THE CHIEF Executive of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Ms. Patricia Appiagyei, has taken a swipe at media practitioners in the metropolis.
She was passing the buck for the unsuccessful decongestion exercise embarked upon by the KMA last year. According to her, the exercise, which was receiving full compliance from hawkers of various kinds, suffered a hitch following constant criticisms from a section of media practitioners, particularly broadcast journalists.
The KMA Boss stated this in an answer to a question over the current state of the exercise, following the hawkers' takeover of the streets and pavements in the Central Business District of the city. "If the decongestion exercise had not been successful, then you the media must be blamed. Some of you sit on radio and constantly criticise everything. You are the course of everything that has happened," the KMA Boss fumed, at a news conference held by the NPP, as part of activities marking their 16th anniversary.
Somewhere in February 2007, the KMA sank over one billion (old currency) tax-payers money into a decongestion exercise, with the aim of getting rid of hawkers and other petty traders who were doing brisk business on pedestrian walkways and principal streets.
This was against the background that the commercial activities of these private individuals were a nuisance, and if left unchecked, could pose a serious threat to the development of the city, as well as serve as grounds for disaster to strike. One year on, after the traders had been displaced, they (traders and hawkers) are back on the streets again, and have taken over every available space on the pedestrian walkways and the streets.
In another development, the National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Peter Mac Manu has defended the 70 percent sale of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone. According to him, Ghana's economy, which forms an integral part of the global economy, requires foreign investors to bring about the technology and skills for the efficient management of the country's resources for the benefit of the nation. "Our economy is now $14 billion and we need a government like the NPP to take serious decisions, like the selling of GT, to ensure growth,"
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