Kwame Nkrumah Circle - A place of total disorder

Metro ( lead) April 18/2008

Article & picture: Charles Benoni Okine

THE first President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, was honoured posthumously with the mounting of a roundabout otherwise called a circle and named ‘Kwame Nkrumah Circle’. which is now popularly and simply called ‘Circle’. And the name Circle is now stretched to refer to the vicinity of the monument as well.
That monument called Circle is well kept. Beautiful flowers and grass have been grown in it to make it attractive. The water fountain in it is also well maintained and made to run on special occasions to add colour and beauty to the area.
The Circle is so nice that some companies sometimes fight to gain control of it to be able to advertise their products there. Quite apart from the fact that Circle itself looks neat, the companies clamour for advertising space because it occupies a very strategic position in the city.
However, it is a fact that the vicinity referred to as Circle is one of the most chaotic and lacks order. Circle can be judged to be one of the prime areas in the country, where ‘professional’ rogues and pick-pockets are found. It is also an area where one encounters both severe pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
To sum it all, Circle has become the most lawless area in the capital as compared to many such circles in the country.
In constructing the Circle-Achimota road, the architects, in their wisdom, provided a huge pedestrian overpass to prevent people from either crossing the busy street to impede free traffic flow or to save people from being knocked down by speeding vehicles. The architects also provided a wall instead of pavements to separate the carriageways running in opposite directions, a move to provide enough space for more vehicles to ply the street.
To ensure the smooth movement of pedestrians, for instance, well laid out pavements and pedestrian walkways have been provided and fenced to control the smooth movement of people and also prevent them from getting into the streets.
To add beauty to the place, the walls around the pavements have been whitewashed with the taxpayers money, all to ensure that the Circle befits the status of the personality it has been named after.

Circle under an authority

Many years ago, a man, Salifu Amankwah, of blessed memory, was given the mandate to take charge of the area.
What a beauty Circle was in those days and all those who quite remember those days would attest to this fact. Salifu would simply not allow anybody to walk in areas which had not been designated for human beings. Sometimes, Salifu could be found painting the walls himself and no one dared walk on any of the walls. He would simple not allow the rogues and pick-pockets to have their way around the area. Commercial vehicles dared not stop and pick passengers anyhow to cause avoidable and most often senseless traffic congestion.
Most of the time, he was brutish and harsh on offenders but as to whether he was right in doing so or not, the sight of Circle today can tell.
But Circle, since the demise of Salifu has not been the same because there is total chaos and no one seems to be in charge.

Pedestrian walkways

It starts with the pedestrian walkways and the railings provided around the walkways. People, most often well respected personalities in long sleeve shirts, well pressed trousers and neck ties scale the railings apparently to cross the dual carriageways.
One amazing thing about the area is how ‘sensible’ people refuse to use the pedestrian overpass but scale the walls in the middle of the road. This unfortunate act is committed by not only ‘gentlemen’ but ‘ladies’ alike, who sometimes disregard that fact that they are wearing a skirt and, therefore, such adventures could expose their private parts to the public.
Any time, so far as Circle is concerned, is peak hour and the rogues and pick-pockets are on hand to pick mobile phones from the bags and pockets of whoever they find a suitable prey. The worse of it is where they, regardless of who is watching, brutally assault their prey and collect their money or bags from them.
Sometimes they pretend to fight so that when people gather to watch, other members of their gang will have their way to rob unsuspecting people of their belongings.

Commercial transport situation

As a result of the strategic nature of the area, one could easily find a commercial vehicle from Circle to almost any part of the country and even beyond the borders of the country.
The lorry stations at Circle are too small to accommodate the large number of the commercial vehicles operating from the place. As a result, they are forced to park and load on the streets. In the end, they occupy at least two of the three lanes provided to ensure smooth flow of vehicles.
Sometimes, when the police are not at hand to control the drivers, most of them behave as if they were creatures without conscience by deliberately occupying all the three lanes, thereby worsening the vehicular traffic congestion situation in the area, particularly opposite the Ebony Restaurant and towards Caprice as well as the lanes towards the main commercial vehicle station near the Orion Cinema.

Hawking.

Hawking has been one of the problems the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA) has to deal with. Sometimes they swoop on the hawkers to free the area and other times, they pretend nothing is happening.
Circle today has one of the largest number of hawkers in the country selling all kinds of things, from vegetables to car parts.
Instead of positioning themselves away from the pavements, they have rather found that place to be more business friendly.
Interestingly enough, several millions of Ghana cedis has been spent to provide a market meant to contain all the hawkers in the area to free the pavements and the sidewalks. The facility, which is just a few metres away, has been hijacked by market women and other traders whose capital for business set-up is far more than what the hawkers can afford.

Conclusion.

The city authority has bye-laws and it is as if those supposed to enforce the laws are not aware of what they need to do.
The nature of many Ghanaians is that unless they are forced to do the right thing, they will never behave rationally.
Much as it is nobody’s intention to make people poor in the country, what people need to do to find money to fend for themselves should simply not be at the expense of laid-down rules and the law. In a country where the rule of law is cherished, such lawlessness should not be seen in the political context.
The city is heading towards what the state may not be able to contain in the nearest future and the earlier those in authority reason, the better for us all.
For Circle, the AMA needs to respect the personality the area was named after and do what it is obliged by law to do. For instance, it should have some of its guards on hand to ensure the use of the over-pass and subsequently have a noticeboard advising pedestrians to use the over-pass and also specify the penalty for offenders.
The sensible drivers and all those respectable pedestrians in the area have had enough and somebody needs to think straight to get the right thing done.