Kudos to AMA

After the initial set back which was caused by political interference, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) last Sunday took street hawkers in Accra by surprise when it mobilized about eight hundred men and women from the security agencies to decongest the Central Business District of Accra. Of course, the exercise did not go down well with the hawkers who unleashed vitriolic attacks on the AMA officials.

The Chronicle shares the anguish of the hawkers and the situation they have found themselves in, but at the same time we think the action of the AMA was right and must be applauded. The activities of the hawkers caused more harm than good to the image of Accra and Ghana as a whole. The waste they generate alone was enough to merit their removal from the streets.

Accra is the eye of Ghana because most visitors who come into the country do not go beyond the national capital, yet it became a norm to see heaps of rubbish at the center of the city, where most foreign dignitaries visit. No decent country worth her sort would allow this to happen. The ejection is surely going to throw most families out of job, but it is a necessary evil that had to be done to salvage the image of Accra.

We have often repeated in this column that street hawking is not limited to Accra and other big cities in the country, but the dimension it has assumed is the problem. Hitherto, it was difficult for one to move freely in the streets and pavements of the Central Business District of Accra, because the hawkers had virtually taken over every available space, thus blocking the flow of traffic.

It is our hope that now that they have been ejected, these hawkers would move to occupy the pedestrian shopping mall at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, which was built purposely for them.

Whilst commending the AMA for the exercise, we wish to also caution them to avoid selective ejection. If Accra central has been decongested, the same should be applied at all parts of the city where hawkers have taken over the streets and pavemants.

Most of the hawkers refused to occupy the mall at Circle, because when they move there, their colleagues would still be selling on the streets, and thus depriving them of customers. This should never be allowed to happen again.

If the current mall cannot accommodate all of them, a new place should be found for them immediately, so that existing regulation against street hawking could be rigidly enforced.