Our Irresponsible Attitude Towards The Environment

Residents along the Nima-Paloma-Asylum-Down storm drain are saying Minister for works&housing is lying by saying a viral video of tons of rubbish captured floating in the drain following a few minutes of downpour last Monday, is fake.

The residents, speaking to #joynews reporter who visited the area to ascertain the veracity of the said video, confirmed that indeed, they "saw the rubbish floating in the drain" and some of them "took pictures".

Now, since time immemorial, these very residents along the drain are always seen, in broad daylight, squatting in this drain and defecating, while others pile mountains of rubbish in their homes and dump it into the drain, whenever it rains.

So even if the minister is not being truthful, are these residents along the drain also, inadvertently, shooting themselves in the foot with their rigorous challenge of the minister that, indeed, the rubbish was actually floating in the drain?

In other words, we as citizens, deliberately dump these huge tons of rubbish into our drains, and turn round to blame government of not keeping the environment clean.

Now, when government takes a decision that is in our long term interest but appear to be bitting in the short-term, we always rebel with the argument that "power resides with the people and therefore will not allow things to be pushed down our throats".

But when it comes to keeping our environment clean, then we are if the belief that it is well and good to be messy and expect government to clean after us.

HOW COULD ANYBODY BE BOLD TO ACCUSE A MINISTER OF PEDDLING FALSEHOOD ABOUT RUBBISH YOU HAVE AGREED WAS CAPTURED RIGHT AT YOUR BACKYARD, WHEN THIS RUBBISH OBVIOUSLY DIDN'T DROP FROM THE SKIES BUT WAS DELIBERATELY PUT THERE BY YOURSELVES?

In Ghana, it is a common practice to see people dumping huge piles of domestic rubbish, both solid and liquid, into drains whenever there is a downpour or sometimes when it threatens to rain: and how can we turn round to blame government for chocked drains, floodings and all the associated calamities when the rains set in?

I personally took similar pictures of the same drain, and at the same spot, on 4th February, 2016: the problem therefore cannot be blamed solely on government inaction but citizens' irresponsible attitude towards the environment.

We blame the government poor environmental practice created by ourselves but should drastic lawful action be taken to curb this menace, we the very culprits will turn round to engage in the usual noise of disapproval. HOW IN GOD'S NAME DO WE EAT OUR CAKE AND STILL EXPECT TO HAVE IT?

When I visited Rwanda in April,2015, I was overwhelmed by the impeccability of their environmental aesthetics which has been achieved through a level of military-like supervision.

The wholesale Western-style democracy which focuses on DEMICRATIC DEVELOPMENT we've adopted has been counterproductive.

What is workable in Africa, taking into consideration our customary/cultural norms, is DEVELOPMENTAL DEMOCRACY where our ways of doing things must rather determine the kind of governance we adopt and not the other way around.

Kindly visit Rwanda where some people are of the opinion that Kagame is a dictator, and see how his leadership style is yielding tangible results for his people.

I LANDED AT KIGALI AIRPORT AND WAS DRIVEN THROUGH THE CITY, AND MOMENTARILY, I THOUGHT I WAS IN GENEVA.

But I know this will not work here in Ghana because the typical Ghanaian understanding of democracy is engaging in mindless cacophonous partisan political diatribes from dusk to dawn, with absolutely no room for both common sense and responsible behavior.

Newton-Offei Justice Abeeku

email: [email protected]