Digging a canal to Kumasi is a possibility!!

Recently, Nana Kwame Bediako aka Freedom Jacob Caesar made headlines after saying that, when he is voted into power as president of Ghana, he plans to dig a canal from either Accra or Takoradi to Kumasi for vessels to ferry containers to Kumasi. This statement didn’t go down well with most Ghanaians, especially those in and around Kumasi, however, I personally see nothing wrong with Cheddars bold idea. I see his pronouncement as bold and visionary in this 21st century.

I’m taken aback and dumb founded why many a Ghanaian thinks that, it is impossible. In fact, it might be cheaper to construct a canal to Kumasi for ships and boats than to construct a standard railway line for same. After all, we can build that canal with less foreign inputs than railway infrastructure.

This bold idea is something I have personally thought of and I believe it is doable and at a reasonable cost too. After all, what would be needed as inputs would be excavators, dump trucks, cement, stones and sand.

The technology is also not cumbersome and the manpower required could be sourced locally without resorting to international expertise. Besides, the number of jobs such a project would create would be immeasurable. Maintenance costs of a canal of that magnitude would be far less expensive compared to rail transportation. I think my fellow Ghanaians must stop being petty and think big and dream big. We should never say something is impossible when other people have done the same.

Everything is possible if we put our minds to it and purposefully agree to achieve it, if we think that digging a canal for ships to ply on is impossible in our 21st century Ghana, then I am sorry to say that we are a visionless generation that does not deserve anything better. Bob Marley once said, when there is the will, there is always a way. Americans believe in dream it, think it, and build it. This is how good things come into existence.