If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.
Dolly Parton
APPIAN WAY or Via Appia Antica may not captivate one’s fancy if one were to see it, or walk across it now. The fascination now is for young lovers to serenade on the pavement stones and see the sepulcrum of Barberini and many others buried beneath and alongside it. But, just imagine a road, 14 feet (4.15 meters) wide, made under Appius Claudius Caecus, Roman censor (magistrate) in 312 years before Christ; add 2017 years to it, and that is the road leading from Rome to Capua, covering 365 miles. In its heyday, the well –laid road could allow two chariots to by-pass each other and it took 13 days to travel from Rome to Brindisi Puglia on the Adriatic Coast. Call it the Queen of Roads, or Regina Viarium, the Appian Way is still extant, even though it is not listed as one of the classical ‘Seven Wonders’ of the (Ancient) World, namely: The Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Collosus of Rhodes, Lighthouse of Alexandria, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, Statue of Zeus at Olympia and the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. No wonder, at the height of Roman Empire, “all roads led to Rome”. In our Standard Seven history examination, we were only asked to mention where Appian Way was located, and it was easy because we had read profusely ‘Tete Romafoo Akokodurufoo Bi’ (Some Roman Veterans).
The Pan –American Highway stretching 48,000 kilometers, linking all the nations of North and South America is the longest road network of the world, and the United States of America boasts of the world’s largest road network, followed by China, India, Brazil, Russia, Japan, Canada, France, Australia, and Spain in that order. With 26 lanes in certain parts, the ‘Katy Freeway’ or ‘Interstate 10’ in Texas is claimed to be the ‘widest’ highway in the world, perhaps only because of its 23 – mile stretch. There is the 18 – lane Toronto Airport Highway. And the 50 – lane (yes, 50 – lane) Hong-Kong Macau Expressway, merging into 20 toll-booths!
We, in our part of the world, deserve no pity for the state in which we find ourselves. How we can draw up projects and all we shall be thinking of is how much money will come to us personally? So we build roads whose life – span may not be more than a decade (10 years) or a generation (30 years) when our children are expected to take our place, and start from where we left off. We inflate the costs of every project so that we can rake in undeserved ‘kickbacks’, only to turn to the IMF and other financial institutions for high interest loans! We should feel ashamed of ourselves for this lack of patriotism! We should weep for Ghana. Do not blame the politicians alone; the heads of various institutions have questions to answer.
Kufuor’s administration (2001-2009) could be given the kudos for its road infrastructure – it was terrible in the PNDC days (1981-1992), and even the latter days of the first NDC regime (1992-2000). We remember times in the PDNC regime when a vehicle would leave Accra and stop at a bridge and passengers would walk across a bridge under construction and pick another vehicle for Kumasi. The vehicle from Accra would pick passengers at the point and return to Accra.
Who says Ghana lacks engineers, perhaps road engineers? And what research findings do they make? Or we rely on foreign experts? I cannot think for one moment the kind of expert advice received when the Kumasi – Ejisu stretch of road was being constructed. Why for instance, were the ‘crazy’ roundabouts made at Tech – Junction, Boadi Junction, Oduom and Ejisu? The traffic on the two – lane will stretch from a point and inch its way in a gridlock at the roundabout and there will be a long wait – call it ‘traffic jam’.
The Ministers, including the Road Minister and his deputy—and also the Members of Parliament– may not feel the hazards, because they are whizzed past these frustrating joints led by siren – blowing police motor – riders. Do they know what will be on the minds of the less – fortunate citizens (not spectators) as the ‘lucky’ Ministers and MPs zoom past them? The frustrated traders, the fuddled office workers, the ordinary folk, always carry curses on their minds and their hearts.
Hardly a month passes when we would not experience an accident on the stretch of road being discussed. The usual victims are the handlers of the long articulated trucks especially those carrying goods to the neighbouring countries, like Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali. The statistics must be available at the Tech Police Station. You will pity the drivers when they reach the round – about (‘le rond – point’, ‘courant’, ‘carrefour’). It is not easy negotiating the curves, given the humps at either side of the road, and within the inside perimeter of the roundabout. At Boadi Junction and Oduom for example, there are no roads at the left side from Kumasi, linking to the roundabout, so why the roundabout? There are no fences at either side, to prevent the trucks from falling into a ditch, in the valley below. If this is not a death trap (‘piege mortel’), which is self – made, people should show me another! So, what should be the solution? No matter the architectural or engineering technique, we, that is, myself and some concerned citizens, would like to see something different. We are fed up with seeing horrible but avoidable accidents. We are not convinced about the accusation of recklessness on the part of drivers. The vehicles may be ‘roadworthy’, but is the road ‘vehicle-worthy’?
It is heart – warming that the Ministry of Roads and Highways is being run by two respectable men: Honourable Kwasi Amoako Atta, MP for Atiwa West, as the Minister and Honourable Kwabena Owusu Aduomi, MP for Ejisu, as the Deputy Minister. Whilst the former is a lawyer by profession, the latter is a civil engineer who used to be the Ashanti Regional Director of Ghana Highways. They must be a well – chosen pair: both affable and gentle; both determined and resourceful. Hopefully, these two gentlemen will bring their experiences to bear; get their experts around and re – examine the construction of the Kumasi – Ejisu Stretch of the Kumasi – Accra Highway. The pair will deliver, I trow.
A highway is supposed to be one for high – speed, long – trip moving vehicles. One is not supposed to get into ‘traffic’ on a highway, but that seems not to be the case of this stretch which renders it only an apology of a highway. You will find traffic jams (‘embouteillage’) at ‘La Place de L’Etoile’ (‘Arc de Triomph’) in Paris or Rome’s Porta Maggiore or Shanghai’s Nanpu Bridge Interchange or Birmingham’s Spaghetti Junction. These are all at particular spots. Or go to Malaysia’s Putrajaya Roundabout which is about 3.5km (2.7miles) in diameter. Their experts are constantly planning and strategizing how to improve them, but what do we do here? Spurn every suggestion—as coming from ‘uneducated’ rabble rousers, ‘uninformed’ critics, ‘philistine’ iconoclasts or ‘debauched’ antagonists.
On your return from the hallucination (call it ‘delirium tremens’—severe alcohol withdrawal symptom, such as shaking and confusion), do not tell me I am an anecdotist (a tall – tale – teller). Mine may not be Yaw Brenya’s ‘Ninety –Nine Days in Agege’ nor Jules Verne’s ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’, nor Jonathan Swift’s ‘Gulliver’s Travels’. I live close by the Kumasi – Ejisu stretch of the Kumasi—Accra Highway, and my mother’s hometown, Fumesua, and my father’s, Kokobra, lie astride the highway, and I see accidents every now and then. Shall we go back to the ‘old ways’? In ‘The Journey of the Magi’, T.S. Eliot writes: “We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation, With an alien people clutching their gods, I should be glad of another death”.
Africanus Owusu-Ansah
africanusoa@gmail.com