Editorial

THE STREET-NAMING IS LONG OVERDUE
The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development of Ghana has announced the president’s directives to all the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to, as a social necessity, start a street-naming project at long last. He gives the 18 months deadline period.

The Republic would wish to add its voice to those praising the mutters of the Street-naming project as directed around the country. It has been long overdue and couldn’t have come at a better time.

Ghana has become one murky slum with visitors always seem to be groping when locating an otherwise simple destination – they do not only waste man-hours locating, but they also stressfully waste money and energy, which in the end proves counterproductive.

The Republic believes that, owing to the stuffy vehicular traffic jam situation in the country’s big cities and areas, a situation proving so energy-supping, the citizenry could become better off knowing their destination beforehand.

Some public service sectors that would also benefit a lot from the Street-naming project would be the National Fire Service, as well as the Ambulance service, as well as the police.

This is important because, most of the nation’s recent deaths and destructions of property, through fire could also be traced to the lack of straight-to-the-point location of the distressed.

For these hitches it takes the fire engines and ambulance service personnel called to help in an emergency situation umpteen years to be meandering their way around call destinations which most of the time prove too late.

One aspect also the paper noted the Street-naming venture can help the nation and its citizens, is the boost of the postal system that until today has little good to write home about. Letters and parcels could then be easily and simply dropped in people’s homes and work places.

It is important also to note that as Ghana is increasingly rising to a global investment hub at the dawn of oil discovery and drilling in commercial quantity, the country should as well strive to put its house in other to be able to direct and accommodate informedly its business partners.

The street naming will also help reduce the country’s crime rate, departing from the situation where the police couldn’t easily locate a distressed call area for resolute action.

The Republic believes that the foregone stated among many other benefits that the country could achieve, was that the exercise when successful will also create more employment where more hands would be needed in the relevant sectors like the post, to deliver door-to-door letters and parcels into locations. It will also help in harnessing the country’s needed revenue mobilization.

National Service Into Pure Water Business

Story: W.K. Adusu

In pursuance of creating more job avenues so as to imbibe personnel with more skills into the entrepreneurship market, the Ghana National Service Scheme (NSS) is making moves into water bottling project, at Medie near Amasama, in the Greater Accra Region.

The project which due to lack of funds was halted to a stand-still, has potential of generating employment for about fifty (50) graduates.

In view of that, the Acting Executive Director for GNSS, Alhaji Alhassan Imoro, said the outfit is pursuing a public-private partnership with some investors to revive the project.

He stated further that over the years, the scheme has provided portable water to some communities through borehole drilling. Some of the beneficiary communities mentioned, are  Adenta Municipality, Akuse, Amasama and Pantang Hospital. NSS, he said, is committed to providing vital services to needy communities, especially institutions, he said.

By this, with the support of the NSS Board, Alhaji Imoro intimated that the scheme helps the Ministry of Education to improve upon school health, especially, at the basic education level; hence, the outfit is renovating the National service rig to enable it carry out the task.

The NSS in collaboration with UNICEF has started a pilot on a complementary basic school in three districts. This programme targets the dropped-out school children; to provide them with access to formal education.

In view of that, about 45 service personnel were deployed to three of these districts. The beneficiary districts include Komenda in the Central Region, Affram in the Eastern Region and Savelugu in the Northern Region.

Alhaji Alhassan Imoro, in recounting the scheme’s challenges, said in the last three years, the institution had recorded a number of impersonations, fraud and extortions by some unscrupulous people who attempted to take advantage of desperate service personnel who desired to change their postings.

In light of this, he advised personnel to beware of people who would made payment for any change of postings. And asked that if any personnel want change of posting, the person should follow the due process which demands no payment, Alhaji Imoro added. 

NRSC To Educate MMDAs On Road Carnage

Story: W.K. Adusu

Mrs. May Obiri-Yeboah, the Executive Director of National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), is hinting that as part of the Commission’s public sensitization programme geared towards reducing road carnage, her outfit would go after the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, MMDAs and their Coordinating Directors across the country with the education.

She told The Republic newspaper in Accra that the move is in collaboration with the Local Government Service Secretariat, to inform MMDAs on how they could incorporate it into the local government system.

“On this score, the Commission would start from the Southern and Northern sectors including Kumasi, Apam and other places with the sensitization”; she disclosed.

Mrs. Obiri-Yeboah hoped that with the education to all these persons, it would trickle down into their work departments and the transport sections in their course of building social centres - like schools, market centres and shopping malls systems would be put in to keep the safety of the people or users. 

It was said to make Ghana a country with the safest road transport system in Africa, the religious leaders need to be involved in the fight against the road accidents.

On that note, Mrs. May Obiri-Yeboah suggests in her opening remarks at the workshop held for religious bodies that there should be road safety day in the religious calendar.

She intimated that it looks as the road accidents in the country is now more than victims of ailments such as HIV-AIDS amongst others.

She further indicated that hospital beds across the country are taken over by these victims of the road accidents more than patients suffering from other ailments.

She, therefore, appeals to the Reverends, the Apostles, the Clergy as well as Imams to start, if not yet, the preaching on road crashes in their churches and mosques in order to help reduce the fatality. 

She noted that this could be done just as they preached peace before, during and after the Supreme Court election petition hearing. 

The clergy were reminded that safety is a shared responsibility, so it requires that all the religious bodies – Christians, Muslims, Traditionalists, Hindus etc join to organise sensitization in their churches or and mosques or during their outreach programmes to create the road safety awards among the congregants.

With this, the workshop realized the programme trigger the long awaiting positive attitudinal change towards road safety or crash amongst the people.

The clergy unanimously, lauded the move and came up with lots of suggestions that would inure to the success of the NRSC’s sensitization across the country.

In an interview with the Pastor T. Techie Ocran (DMin) of Men’s Ministry with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, has stated that “anybody who wants to be a friend of Jesus must be a friend to road safety”. With this, he said one could make a meaningful in-role in saving more innocent lives.

As a Pastor, Mr. Ocran said as representative of Jesus Christ, he preaches to ensure no life is perished; therefore, it behooves upon him to also save lives of the innocent so that he could continue to reach out to them with the goods news (i.e. the word of God).

In the light of this, he promised to help with the crusade according to road safety commission, since road carnage has no respect for persons.