SCHOOL BUSES OR HEARSES?

Has anyone recently taken a critical look at the vehicles posing as school buses by our private institutions notably the primary and junior high schools? If you have not, kindly do so as a matter of urgency! Because by all standards, most of these buses can double as hearses! They are not fit to convey children to school! They can only be described as hearses! In fact, not all even qualify as hearses! Ironically, this country boasts of brand-new vehicles operating as hearses, whiles the actually dead vehicles are being used to transport healthy and hearty people! Only in Ghana!

I have on several mornings encountered these hideous vehicles on my way to work, with innocent victims, children, as passengers! Sometimes, the sitting arrangement of these children in such buses leaves a huge question mark on the issue of supervision. Each time I keep wondering how and why these vehicles are being allowed on our roads, especially in the transportation of children. Each time, I wonder how and why schools and parents would endanger their children!

A critical examination of these vehicles would reveal that most are unfit to roam on our roads. The external works only reveal scraps on the move! The tires, completely worn-out! Internally, everything is hazardous! Seats are usually unfit to be used! To make matters worse, these children are cramped up like packets of canned fish! As though they are charity cases! The schools usually prefer to cramp up children in these buses for a one-trip, rather than make provision for more transportation options. I sometimes wonder if parents actually consider the kinds of vehicles being used as transportations by schools before signing up their children; it is like signing their death certificates!

The Benz bus is the usual culprit for such crimes! Indeed, the Benz bus has been defaced in this country! The dream bus for most of our schools seem to be the thoroughly worn out or overused Benz buses! Ones that children are usually cramped up in! Whenever a Benz bus is mentioned, it usually comes with a sting.

Indeed, I was thrilled when a few weeks ago, the motor and traffic unit of the Ghana police service decided to embark on a campaign of ridding our roads off these hearses! Many people have various encounters, and stories to share when it comes to the scrap metals, posing as transportation on our roads! The cuts, scratches, bruises, stains, cramps, twists and fractures, to mention but a few! When it comes to accidents on our roads, they have higher fatalities! How then, and why then, should our children be conveyed in such vehicles?

Parents owe a greater responsibility of securing the future of their children. Parents should not only be interested in the terminal reports but should take a keener interest in ensuring that the school environment is safe, holistically! This can only be achieved by ensuring that the right standards are always maintained! If there are no standards, set standards! Schools should not be allowed to operate as they like! There is no point in a school securing a bus when the vehicle poses potential threats! There is no point in parents paying all sorts of monies to schools as bus fares, when those vehicles can get their children killed!

Such buses often leave children stranded, and exposed on our highways, at the peril of their lives! Such buses are moving time bombs! Parents must sit up! Our schools must be held accountable! The Parent Teacher Association in our schools must take up the issue as a matter of urgency before it is too late! If owning a school bus means purchasing a potential hearse, it is far better not to own any!

I believe that the MTTU of the Ghana Police Service should start this cleanup exercise from our schools. Our children deserve better! The Ghana Education Service and other relevant agencies have a key role to play as stakeholders in ensuring that the right standards are set and maintained by our schools, especially private. They should not be allowed to operate on their own terms! Although transportation is a key consideration in running a school, the sorry excuse of a bus is no useful alternative either!

How long would it take for this nation and its institutions to establish standards, and live up to it? Development can only be built through a system of well established institutions, backed by functional policies and legal frameworks! Our schools need school buses, and not hearses!

Anna Esi Hanson (nnhanson2@yahoo.com), Takoradi, esociocomm.blogspot.com

GHANAIANS DESERVE EQUAL MEASURE; MONKEY DEY WORK, BABOON DEY CHOP!

Is Ghana a socialist or perhaps a capitalist nation? I need to know because at the moment, the happenings in this nation, has left me confused!

It is the ‘Monkey dey work, Baboon dey chop’ syndrome! It is the uneven distribution of national wealth and resources! It is the reign of unequal opportunities! From all indications, this country belongs to specific people, rather than all! The communal spirit has long been lost!

Ghanaian workers are generally dissatisfied! This is simply because workers, especially in the government institutions, have to fight daily for their entitlement! Several meetings have been held by stakeholders over the years in relation to the demands of workers in the sector, but till date, nothing conclusive has been done! It is the same palaver each year! One strike action after another! It has become a yearly affair particularly among teachers and health workers!

The strikes would persist because from all indications, some people are enjoying, whiles others suffer! The case of monkey dey work, baboon dey chop! Some people work for others to enjoy! Any different from slavery?

Quite recently, it was disappointing when we heard fifty thousand Ghana cedis was to be paid to our parliamentarians as rent allowances! The issue was debated but in the end, our honourables had their way, as usual! Unity in corruption! Only a few months afterwards, we have been told that millions of Ghana cedis are being handed over to our honourables again, as ex-gracia! One thing becomes clear, the national coffers is being spent on these particular group of people! Yes, Ghana seems only interested in squandering her scare resources on the honourables! Better still, our politicians only seem interested in squandering our money! What of the average Ghanaian? What of the ordinary tax-payer? Do we have a share? When will we also enjoy our fair share?

Rather interestingly, and quite unfortunately, the amounts usually owed our striking workers, are relatively negligible! Our honourables, on the other hand, receive their so-called entitlements in a timely fashion!

Is Ghana indeed for all Ghanaians? I am yet to realize the truth in this assertion! From my desk however, it is clear that not all are enjoying the same measure! Some are getting more, and others, none! Is that the fruit of democracy? Is that the fruit of independence? Is that the fruit of freedom and justice? Ghanaians deserve the same measure!

I always thought of Ghana as a socialist nation, one in which there was even allocation of resources, and opportunities! Rather sadly, it is a fallacy! This is a country where scholarships, meant for the brilliant but needy, are handed over to the rich, but dull! Accessibility to useful information is usually a hurdle for the masses but made readily available to the elite! This is a country where monies meant for the execution of contracts, are usually shared and squandered! This is a country where the leadership only seems interested in themselves, rather than meeting the needs of its citizenry! This is a country where the people who award contracts, are the very ones who execute them! The reign of monopoly! Are those the marks of a socialist nation?

Nations have failed and keep failing because their growth and development has always been virtual; unrealistic! Ghana keeps accessing the economy’s performance based on inflation! Well, for the ordinary man, inflation is meaningless! It must reflect in the pocket! People have to cater for themselves and their families! If an economy seems to favour the elite, how then does it attain sustainable growth when the vast majority is average or perhaps impoverished? This country keeps electing selfish leaders into power! Leaders, who are only interested in themselves, rather than their subordinates!

Local workers in this nation, and therefore Ghanaians, are generally dissatisfied! The dissatisfaction stems from the unsatisfactory conditions of work! Workers in Ghana are not asking for the impossible! The request is that they receive what is due them!

It is an undeniable fact that this nation spends huge sums of monies on leadership, rather than the ordinary citizen; the ones who actually contribute to the economy! Whiles the average man struggles each day to make a living, our governments only seem interested in fueling their lavished lifestyles! The masses are homeless, jobless, and hungry! How then must we sit down and watch as governments continually spend huge sums of the nation’s wealth on politicians?

Is that a fare measure of the national cup? Indeed, we all deserve the same measure! For now, it is only monkey dey work, Baboon, dey chop!

Anna Esi Hanson (nnhanson2@yahoo.com), Takoradi.

GHANAIANS ARE SABOTAGING GHANA!

The National Health Insurance Scheme is failing!! The rationale behind the scheme has been trivialized! It is an open secret that the scheme has been abused! Drugs meant for patients, are being hoarded! This is a trend in most public hospitals in this country! Yes, such are the crimes being committed at our hospital pharmacies! Patients are usually referred to other pharmacies to purchase their own drugs since the prescriptions, we are told, are unavailable!

Unknown to us, the records later indicate that those drugs have been administered to us for the National Health Insurance Scheme to be charged, whiles the wicked perpetrators later sell those drugs to the cash and carry patients or drug distributors! And the cycle begins! People are dying, as a result of this practice because we are always told that drugs are unavailable, especially when costly!

This is not a cooked up story! It is the story of a recent encounter! What is the government doing about such operations? What measures have been put in place to check the activities of our health workers? Do we have auditors in this country? An investigation ought to be conducted, as a matter of urgency! This is happening across the nation!

The sabotage is not only in our hospitals, it is also happening at our work places! What is happening at the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation? I smell a conspiracy! I smell sabotage! Each day, Ghanaians are told stories! The government usually tells us of the receipt of huge volumes of fuel and gas. These items however, do not seem to find their way to our markets! It is evident in our frequent shortages! A large volume of these items seem to get lost in transit! It does not add up! What is the real story? We need to hear it!

I suspect foul play! I believe that the commodities are being hoarded for a much higher price in the lean season! The actual volumes that we are told about, never reach the Ghanaian market! People are bunkering these commodities! We have been told of how our fuel is being smuggled across our borders! How are they smuggled? Who does the smuggling? We need to hear the true story! The losses in our distribution system need to be thoroughly investigated! This is an issue that must not be dealt with lightly! Where are the auditors?

Ghanaians are sabotaging Ghana! Yes, quite recently, our media covered stories of how generators which had been imported into this country to boost power had been sitting idle! Those machines were idle despite the power crisis! Instead of distributing the generators to the various regions to boost power supply, someone seemed to have a different plan; the generators could be sold to boost his or her pocket! I am even told that in some places, the actual number that had been requested for never found their way to their destinations, although the record showed that! Yes, a whole generator seems to have been lost in transit!

It is the same in several governmental institutions! Several vehicles and machines lie abandoned! All they require is a simple repair! But somehow, someone sees it wise to allow them to spoil; to go waste! By going waste, they can be sold as scraps! Accordingly, this country has lost huge revenue and resources, and still does! Vehicles and machines, that are repairable are written off as irreparable, and then sold off as scraps! Such people ought to be brought to book! Where are our auditors?

Fuel to be used to run our plants, vehicles, and equipment are sold off each day in Ghana! Drugs to be given out to patients are hoarded and sold off each day in our hospitals! Machines in good shape are written off and sold as scrap! Office equipment in our governmental and at times, private institutions, is sold off! Educational materials to be supplied to our schools are hoarded and sold off! Equipment for our hospitals and other institutions are sold off! Items to be given out to charity are sold! Items to be distributed to the public are usually taken home! And of course, the usual ghost names! These ghosts exist in all institutions, both public and private! I am very positive that soon, we would all be sold off!

Have we no shame? Have we lost all shame and dignity? Has the Ghanaian lost all sense of humanity?

Ghana needs serious investigations into the affairs of local workers, especially in the public institutions! The activities of workers in the sector, leaves much more to be desired! We need no longer close our eyes to these issues because in the end, we all suffer! This country needs to conduct a serious audit into all sectors and institutions because the activities in these places, is a huge disgrace to this nation! Are the auditors in this country functional?

Anna Esi Hanson (nnhanson2@yahoo.com), Takoradi.