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Ghana: The Need for another Capital
Joseph Andorful,
February 22, 2011
In 1877 after the second Anglo-Asante war, Accra
replaced Cape Coast as the capital of British Gold
Coast Colony because Accra had a drier climate
relative to Cape Coast and even more important,
Accra was not home to the tsetse fly hence conducive
to animal transportation which was the order of the
day. The development of Accra and Ghana took a
gratefully positive turn when in 1919, Sir Fredrick
Gordon Guggisburg, a surveyor, a soldier and
administrator was appointed governor and
Commander-in-chief of the Gold Coast.
In pursuance of Guggisburg policy of
“development of the country by and for the natives
rather than for the benefit of the Colonial Empire”
he introduced drastic reforms and devoted himself
energetically to the task of developing Gold Coast
for its people. In Accra
he created forest reserves to prevent soil erosion
and improved the system of drainage.
Under the direction and planning of
Governor Guggisburg people started referring to Gold
Coast as a model colony and Accra became the most
prosperous and hospitable colonial city in Africa,
with well-planned and clean streets, forest reserves
and parks; commercial centers; schools and railway
from Accra to Kumasi.
When Ghana became independent in 1957, Accra still
held the promise of a clean, vibrant and growing
city with adequate schools, parks, water, regular
supply of electricity and social amenities.
President Nkrumah and his team ensured that Accra
continued to be clean with well planned sewage
system. Law and Order was also maintained and
Landlords did not and could not extend or redesign
their structures without approval from the relevant
authority.
Presently, nobody beside the government would want
to pretend that Accra with its daily congestion,
filthy and unhealthy environment, hold the same
prospects for the future. Accra at the moment is
just over-crowded to the point of choking
and attributes like
decency and common sense are
out of the equation.
There is acute shortage of water,
electricity, schools and all facilities and
amenities in Accra. The
traffic is a nightmare and pedestrian or bicycle
pathways are nowhere available. Wheel-chair access
is a rare sight. The
indiscriminate disposal of refuse which has resulted
in the choking of drains and gutters is a symptom of
the problem of Accra crying out laud for attention.
You would have thought that the regularity of the
flooding problems in Accra was enough to draw the
government’s attention to the problem, but somehow
most of the post independence Ghanaian politicians
have come to believe that if you keep on throwing
money at a problem it will surely vanish.
The problems of Accra will however not go away until
we tackle them with proper project management which
involves planning and monitoring. This is one of the
most important challenges of our time, because in
Ghana, Accra the principal city associated with the
country’s seat of government is the center of
political power (legislative, administrative,
judicial, and economic center). Everything starts,
takes shape and ends in Accra, a situation that no
forward looking nation would tolerate in this
fast-paced world economy. One obvious major problem
is the unprecedented congestion in Accra which slows
down every transaction for everybody and the nation
as well, due to loss of hundreds of man-hours
everyday in traffic. As a result any transaction
that should take a day to accomplish takes at least
3 days.
A solution is to create another capital as
administrative capital to eliminate delays and
enhance efficiency in government operation. This
will not only expedite the function of government,
but will start the decongestion of Accra which is
the basic problem with the city. The flooding is
just a symptom and unless we decongest Accra first,
all the money we spend on the symptoms will continue
to go into waste.
The idea of multiple capitals is not only common. It
has become the most viable option for a lot of
forward-looking nations whose original capitals were
not well chosen or planned to accommodate the modern
demands of a strategic National Capital.
Even in the neighborhood, Ivory Coast
moved its administrative capital from Abidjan to
Yamoussoukro in 1983. This made the official capital
Yamoussoukro but many government offices and
embassies remain in Abidjan. Everybody is aware of
Nigeria replacing Lagos with Abuja as the official
capital while keeping some administrative offices
still in Lagos. Porto-Novo is the official capital
of Benin but Cotonou is the seat of government.
Israel has proclaimed Jerusalem as its political
capital yet most of the embassies and national
security offices are still in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, which
was Israel’s capital from 1948 to 1950. Malaysia,
Myanmar, Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Swaziland and
Tanzania just to mention a few, have all found it
practicable if not sensible to have more than one
capital. South Africa the only African nation
considered as industrial, has three capitals.
Pretoria is the administrative capital, Cape Town is
the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein is the
home of the judiciary. A new better planned
administrative capital befitting the status of Ghana
will eliminate the congestion (traffic, human,
schools, housing etc). All the Ministries and most
of the government departments will move out for
resettlement.
A lot of people do not want to talk about the
possibility of another capital for they
automatically assume that we can’t afford it. But it
will be cheaper for us as a nation to build a new
capital than to continue on the track we are on.
With good project planning monitoring and
accountability, another capital will save the nation
more than we shall lose in our current situation if
we do not change drastically our modus operandi.
During the last flooding in Accra the Government
allocated more than $25 million to combat the
flooding in some parts of Accra. I am going to
resist the temptation to comment on this but just to
say that $25 million is sufficient for any
government with integrity and humility to cover the
feasibility studies and planning for a modern city.
Rumors have it that Nigeria spent more than 3 times
the actual cost of building Abuja because they
wanted an express project.
We do not need a fully completed new capital up and
running within five years, it can be carefully
integrated into our national planning. The emphasis
is on the planning, as Governor Guggisburg and
Nkrumah nurtured the infancy of Accra, before
lawlessness and illegal structures, open gutters and
rampant disposal of trash, misappropriation of
government lands and forest reserves became a common
feature on the city.
The last Auditor-General’s report of 2009 mentioned
that as a result of lack of accountability and
criminal conduct of government officials and their
collaborators, the nation lost more than GHc 2.5
billion through financial malfeasance, and this has
been a yearly occurrence for the past 20 something
years; so if the government enforces integrity and
accountability and we are also able to expedite
government action through the elimination of bottle
necks why can’t we as a nation increase our national
income.?
I shall even venture to suggest that the government
considers the northern part of Brong Ahafo region,
between Kintampo and the black Volta for the
location of the second capital, for the fact that it
is more central, and there appear to be land and
water available. I however know there are other good
locations. My hope is that if such a decision would
be made it would be based on strategic and economic
reasons and factors but never on political
considerations.
Finally I watched the tragedy in Haiti last year
when the earth quake devastated that poor country.
As it has been confirmed, the sad response of the
Haitian government was because the quake hit
Port-au-Prince, the capital city and devastated the
parliament building along with a lot of government
buildings. Since they operate a system very much
like ours where everything is initiated from the
capital, nobody knew what to do without direct
instructions from Port-au-Prince. We should not
loose sight of the fact that Accra is an earthquake
prone area. This is a wake-up call. A word to the
wise is enough.
By Joseph Andorful,
February 22, 2011
Email: kwesitawia@verizon.net
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