Renowned Economics, Sidney Casely-Hayford says government is to blame for the perennial flooding in the city.
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Blame government for perennial flooding – Casely-Hayford
According to him, it is unacceptable for government officials to shift blame onto the citizens because they have been given the mandate to take decisions that will have positive impact on the citizenry.
Casely-Hayford - Financial Analyst
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“I am sad that we should be faced with the logic that we are all responsible and we should all accept blame for what goes on in this country. I am not responsible for this neither is anybody who is not directly involved in managing the affairs of this country. The reason why we elect people is based on a manifesto which they give us in order for them to able to come and fix the problems…
“I don’t care whether the problems have been there since 1963, 1971, and 1991 or whenever, I don’t really care. I care that the persons in authority today, people who are managing our institutions are responsible for fixing the problems we have, whether they created it or inherited it.
“They [government] are responsible. This is why we put them there, this is why we pay them. Nobody pays me to live as a citizen in this country. I pay my taxes, the ministers collect my taxes, ride in a cars, sit in an air-conditioned offices and have privileges of state that I do not have. It is their responsibility to ensure that we fix these problems and I and Occupy Ghana are not going to accept from anybody under any circumstance that we the people of this country should also shoulder the responsibility for fixing the problems that somebody else is being paid to fix” he said.
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On the issue of people dumping waste in gutters, the anti-corruption crusader stated that all was due to government’s negligence of its responsibilities.
“When you build roads and you have open gutter systems by the sides of the roads and you do not think people will throw waste into those gutters because they are open, you are an idiot. It will happen because that is what people will do in a working day. Take anybody who sits by the wayside cleaning, the residue will end up in the nearest open drain. If you do not give them the mechanisms to be able to guide and control how they manage waste, they will continue to do they think is most feasible.
“If you do not have public toilets where people can go and ease themselves, you are responsible for it. It is not for citizens to build public toilets. It is government’s responsibility. If you build roads and they are potholed and no attempt is made to patch them and accidents occur as a result, it is not the responsibility of the citizens,” he said.
Wednesday’s inferno and floods has resulted in over 200 deaths. Several homes in many parts of Accra were flooded whiles commuters were left stranded as most roads were almost impassable. The flood caused heavy vehicular traffic at Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Spintex, Kaneshie and several other places. Most drivers parked their vehicles on the inner and outer pavements to prevent their vehicles from being carried away by the flood.
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