We had cause to carry a story recently about the rebuilt fuel station at Mile 7 in Accra with a view to pricking our conscience as a nation.
This is a fuel station which is owned by the MP for Ayawaso East constituency, Mahama Toure Nasser, a member of the ruling party. It was demolished because of the genuine danger it poses during deluges. The residents in the immediate neighbourhood of the fuel station are by their proximity to it, exposed to avoidable dangers in the event of fire. Yet public servants paid from the common kitty have decided to shirk their responsibilities and allow aberrations to be perpetrated, the possible dangers notwithstanding. It is even more worrying that the decision to allow the rebuilding of the facility was politically-powered.
Whatever informed the wise decision to shut it down earlier has not gone away; we weep for our nation and how it is run by those doing so on our behalf as citizens of Ghana.
Having been shut down in the wake of last year’s eerie June 3 disaster which struck Accra inflicting unusual fatalities, we are dumbfounded that the structure has sprung up once more like a mushroom with business resuming as if nothing had happened.
It was as if nothing had happened to warrant the shutting down of the place. We have all of a sudden forgotten what we went through as a nation when the June 3 incident happened.
The sigh of approval from a cross-section of Ghanaians when Hon Mahama Ayariga ordered the demolition of fuel stations whose locations breached existing standards and imperiled lives of residents and their properties appears to have waned. Nobody is asking relevant questions: we are waiting for the next disaster so that the authorities would engage the media as they go about ordering the demolition of such structures which would be rebuilt if they are owned by politicians from the ruling party.
Why do we sometimes organize forums to discuss the causes of our backwardness as a nation when the reasons are not distant? With very weak institutions and abuse of incumbency with impunity a preference, we hardly make progress. Need we search for the causes any further?
We are constrained to point out that the Mile 7 fuel station has been rebuilt because the owner being an MP and belonging to the ruling party, did not fail to press the necessary buttons to have the authorities of the Ga West Municipal Assembly, and of course the relevant ministry, give him the nod to rebuild the offensive fuel station. What a nation!
We pray against a calamity but should something untoward occur as a result of the rebuilding of the structure, those who have been irresponsible by giving the nod for the aberration to take place must dance to the appropriate music whoever they maybe.
May Almighty God spare us another June 3 because the conditions then prevalent have not varied with more and more politicians-owned fuel stations springing up behind the windows of residents. Hmm!