Some billboards are nuisances and should be pulled down if indeed the authorities are serious about maintaining a clean national capital.
When the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, raised the issue of the clatter of billboards lining up the streets of Accra during a presentation to the Advertisers Association Of Ghana, he spoke for all cherishers of an Accra without such eyesores.
Even the capital’s ceremonial streets have not been spared the clatter. Sometimes, even safe motoring is hampered by the obstructions caused by the billboards.
Of course what it means is that the regulatory authorities responsible for ensuring that decency prevails in the placement of billboards in the nation’s capital are not on top of their assignments.
It is for the obviation of such eyesores that regulatory authorities exist but when their existence remains a formality only, and fails to achieve the objectives needed, then we have cause to ask questions as we are doing now.
The Regional Minister’s warning that he would soon descend upon such eyesores would go a long way in ensure that our national capital wears the garb it deserves as a gateway to the country.
Engaging with the relevant authorities in this regard would go a long way in ensuring that the exercise to rid the city of unauthorised structures achieves its objectives, seamlessly.
The situation, as it persists, suggests that anybody at all can put up billboards without passing through laid-down procedures. That not being the case, as the procedures remain dormant, the suggestion that those in charge of erecting such structures are themselves not appreciative of the aesthetics of the national capital, is veracious.
It should not have taken the regional minister to subtly call the attention of such authorities to live up to expectation.
Imagine the regional minister mobilising a squad to proceed on an exercise to demolish such illegal structures. The message then would be that germane bodies have failed in their duties.
The beauty of a city does not lie on only attractive structures but among other factors such as how billboards and others are maintained as they shoot up to join the skyline.
The synergy between such structures and other permanent features such as ornamental plants on our medians all go a long way to define the beauty of our cities, in this context Accra.
With billboards haphazardly placed near medians which bear remnants of green grass, long scorched by the sun and deprived of water since the raining season gave way to the dry season, the picture of green, now brown grass with paths carved on them, is the unattractive feature.
Juxtapose such images with gutters choked with empty plastic bottles and black polythene bags stuffed with items of unknown contents and you get a picture of Accra unfortunately.
Much as this is not the picture of Accra we want and in the face of many efforts put in by the regional minister and his team, this eyesore persists.