The Failure Of The Educated Class, So-Called

Education is the key. True. It is also true that schooling does not necessarily equal education. Education is supposed to imbibe in an individual the ability to find a balance between knowledge and wisdom. But this balance seems to elude many. I remember my thoughts when we gathered the citizenry in forums to seek their suggestions on how to solve some problems. My thoughts have always been that it is unfair to go back to the people who sacrificed to get us educated for solutions to problems the educated are supposed to solve. They gave us opportunities to have what they didn’t have only for us to turn back to them for what we’re supposed to know and be doing.

Take farmers for instance. How do we feel about our failure to provide solutions to the problems facing the agriculture sector? And worse, attempting to consult farmers for solutions. I’m not saying they know nothing. I’m only saying we’re supposed to combine what they know with what they don’t know to catapult or better still, leapfrog our development. Climate-smart agriculture? AI in agriculture? Irrigated farming? Mechanized farming? The solutions are there. Open. Obvious. Not a secret.

I’m not talking about agriculture today. I’m interested in the transport sector, which is responsible for moving people and goods for development. In the past weeks and months, I’ve been moving without a personal car and I’m always confronted with frustrations about why we have deliberately decided to ensure systems and structures are either absent or don’t work. Anytime I stand at bus stops and lorry stations waiting for hours, I ask myself whose responsibility it is to ensure people are transported easily, safely, and timely. I ask myself where the masses of Ghana went wrong. Unfortunately, my answer has always come down to one group of people, the educated elites. To put it nicely, the middle class.

I would not fail to admit that the politicians have done all of us a lot of disservice. But they’re also part of the group I’m talking about. So let’s not shift blame. We’re all in the same pot. Politicians, public/civil servants, entrepreneurs, citizens without portfolio, we’re all in this.

I’ve been wondering how you feel when people queue in wait to be transported to their destinations. The filth and stench are unbearable. The chaos, you have no option but to adjust. The fact that no seats are available at most of the lorry stations and bus stops is even intriguing. The kind of vehicles available leaves too much to be desired. And the managers of these terminals appear to be stuck in the Stone Age. Just imagine. The kind of ticket GPRTU has been issuing since I was a kid remains the same across the country. That’s almost forty good years of stagnation. I’m curious to understand why. And it appears apart from issuing tickets in return for money and charging exorbitantly for luggage, they do nothing but sit and frown and talk to passengers anyhow. Very little is regulated. They seem interested in only one regulation. That is, tickets sold are not returnable even when you’re changing destination at the same station. But we have done better before.

I remember when Metro Mass Transit Ltd started the busing system. They were transporting people safely, timely, and affordably. If my memory serves me right, the buses moved at regular intervals whether full or not. Commuters could therefore plan their movements based on the buses’ schedules. And there were provisions for free or subsidized fares for children, students, the aged, and people with disabilities. This is a model of a working system built by the people for the people. When I was working in Sunyani around 2014-15, I remember DKM transport operated an efficient system where buses moved per schedule, tickets could be booked and paid for at the passenger’s comfort, seats were assigned per ticket, and the buses were comfortable and safe. Without depicting these examples as perfect, my point is that these models work elsewhere and have been sustained. Why can’t we do the same? Elsewhere, I have sat on a bus severally where I have been the only passenger or sometimes with a few passengers. But the bus moves per schedule. And picks and drops off passengers because people are planning and working.

As Christmas approaches, my worries include how people will find safe, timely, reliable, affordable, and available transport. The unfortunate truth is that many will not find. And if they do, it will be after hours of waiting and struggling. And one reason why many will not find is that those who can create this system are rather interested in owning their own means of transport leaving the masses to their fates. The other reason is that there is no planning with regards to our transport. Anyone buys a vehicle and the next day they’re into transport. No planning. No technical know-how. Poor regulation. Just a business of providing below-par services and short-changing people.

I entreat local government authorities, school authorities, churches and other religious groups, and the private sector to take transport seriously. Churches, for example, could release their buses to beef up transport within and across communities, towns, and cities. Schools could also release their buses during peak hours to support. While this approach will raise revenues for the entities, let’s not forget that those buses belong to the people. It’s not far-fetched to request what belongs to the people to be released to help the people for free or at a fee.

I use the Santasi roundabout to Anwiankwanta stretch a lot. Anytime I get to Star Junction and meet many people waiting and rushing to board vehicles, I muse “are there no local authorities or religious organizations or school authorities around who have noticed this problem?” Four or five buses plying that stretch will be a lot of relief to commuters. The commercial vehicles take advantage of the shortage to truncate the journey at short distances such that a commuter would have to pay fares three or four times before reaching their destination. Or wait forever at the bus stop if they prefer to pay the fare once. The scenario isn’t different at various bus stops, lorry stations, and bus terminals. But who will take the bold step to provide bold solutions or organize the existing systems better? When it rains, the story is even worse.

The discussions about alternative transport aside from road will take hours but will end nowhere. Passenger trains? High-speed rails? trams? Water transport? Why can’t we get the Sprinter cargo cars that have been metamorphosed into passenger vehicles plying long distances out? Why have we allowed Pragia to be endangering lives without control? Your guess may be as wild as mine.