Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
Our very respected traditional and religious leaders must resolve now to call out those who in the name of politics have abandoned our national values and virtues.
Since the flood disasters in parts of the Volta Region occasioned by the spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong Dams, some NDC apparatchiks have decided to say anything at all as if they are in bed with pigs in the mud.
If that were not the case, would Okudzeto Ablakwa denigrate the Ghana Armed Forces on mere suspicion that they were leaving Mepe on so-called orders from above.
Let us remind Ablakwa that so long as he wants to ride on the misery of the disaster victims to advance his political career and maybe catch the eye of John Mahama for running mate, he is bound to fail miserably. The good Lord would continue to expose them for their disrespect for President Akufo-Addo, because his battle is still the Lord’s.
Now Ablakwa, you must render an unqualified apology to the Ghana Armed Forces for the blatant lie if you still have any dignity and honour left as MP.
For purposes of this discourse, we want to share the conversation President Akufo-Addo had with the people of Mepe last Monday and whether it drowned the focus of the national action to deal with the humanitarian emergency as claimed by Professor Gyampo, who in recent times has lost the proverbial Akuapem respect and speaks to President Akufo-Addo as one of the students in his Political Science class.
The spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong Dams and its effects on livelihoods in many communities downstream, have exposed the nation’s disaster preparedness. The entire nation was caught hands down virtually helpless in the wake of the catastrophe of unimaginable proportions.
We are familiar with spillages, if not for the one by the Volta River Authority (VRA), but for the annual rituals by the Burkina authorities in discharging the Bagre Dam to flow into Ghana’s water bodies up north. This exercise by the Burkina Faso government has always caused a lot of pain to our brothers and sisters up north, especially farmers who have had their produce inundated by flood waters.
Presently, some farmers in that part of the country are also counting their losses as a result of the spillage and heavy rains in the five northern regions. However, the devastation caused by the spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong Dams is unprecedented and we wonder whether the VRA and its stakeholders appreciate the humanitarian emergency they are dealing with.
We all can see some structures that have been inundated by the floods, making it difficult to describe communities such as Mepe as ground zero, but the spectacle has brought those affected communities on their knees. Scenes of the devastation and the helplessness and hopelessness of the victims show that those communities would never be the same again.
The effect of the spillage is no respecter of persons, with the old and young at risk of various water borne diseases and starvation. Now the state is at its wits end trying to find some level of comfort or temporary shelter for the victims. Some of the leaders of the victims have suggested that the government should consider relocating the victims temporarily at the Saglemi housing project and also declare a state of emergency.
We wonder whether those proposing those choices understand the implications, for instance, of a state of emergency that would restrict the freedoms of the victims. We expect that when calamities like this befall us, we would take off it political veils and deal pragmatically with the challenges.