Cut the cheap tweets and get to work, Messrs. Politicians!

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York

I know it is the rage of the present and very likely the future as well. Still, I find something rather cheap, tawdry, vulgar and tacky about this mad rush to tweeting on the part of many a Ghanaian politician these days. In the wake of Wednesday’s Metro-Mass Transit Bus accident on the Tamale-Kintampo road, both President Mahama and Candidate Akufo-Addo were reported to have tweeted their condolences to the family members and relatives of those who perished in this accident which also, reportedly, involved a truck packed with tomatoes or some such farm produce, at least according to one of the media accounts. Another account had the MMT Bus colliding with some three cars, or perhaps it was a domino-like chain reaction.

Whatever the real details of the accident may be, I expected these two gentlemen, particularly President Mahama, to have called for an immediate enquiry into what caused this tragic accident which resulted in the deaths of some 53 passengers, at the initial count. As of this press preparation, the death toll had risen to 63, with some 23 others reported to have been injured. A little over two years ago, a very prominent relative of mine, who was also an invested traditional ruler, perished up-north somewhere on the same highway when the vehicle he was driving attempted to overtake a commercial passenger bus and collided with another oncoming commercial vehicle.

Needless to say, inasmuch as road accidents are inevitable, particularly as our highways have experienced an exponential increase in the volume of traffic, nevertheless, road safety continues to be a major headache throughout the country, with the problem of poor road signage and badly maintained roads being at the top of the causative list. In the case of the MMT Bus, which was reported to have taken off from the Burkinabe capital of Ouagadougou, the commuting public has an interest in knowing whether this accident was caused by a mechanical or human error or both. For instance, was the driver of the MMT Bus or the tomato truck under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol? And how long had the bus driver been driving continuously?

Then also, the public needs to know whether both of these vehicles, as well as the private salon cars involved in the accident, were road worthy. For instance, were any of these drivers operating their vehicles with a valid driver’s license, an expired license or a suspended/revoked license? If so, why and how had they managed to get on the road? Is the portion of the Tamale-Kintampo Highway where the accident occurred notorious for the rampancy of vehicular accidents? And if so, what is the cause and the annual cost of such accidents in human and monetary terms? In other words, there may be the need for driver-safety, as well as passenger-safety, campaigns.

And also, are these MMT buses equipped with seat belts? And were any of the casualties involved wearing seat belts? And to what extent could an enforced culture/code of seat-belt wearing have remarkably reduced the number of casualties and the extent of the injuries sustained by passengers? Were any of the drivers involved in the accident speeding? All these are relevant questions that ought to be of utmost importance to our leaders and politicians.

Tweeting sympathies definitely has a place in our national life and culture, but it ought to be among the least bit of the worries of commuters and frequent long-distance travelers. It was also quite heartening to learn that Emergency Services personnel had arrived at the scene of the accident, although we have also learned that the only ambulance at the hospital nearest to the scene of the accident, namely, the Kintampo Government Hospital, was barely roadworthy. The one or two others available had long been taken off the road for lack of spare parts. If this revelation does not make a darn pathetic liar out of President Mahama and his suave tweet about emergency workers having promptly arrived at the scene and having done a marvelous job, I just don’t know what else is.

It was also not clear whether the response of our proverbial first-responders had been timely enough to make a significant difference to survivors and the wounded. Probably not, because it has also been revealed that the bad condition of the KGH ambulance may well have aggravated the condition of some of the badly wounded and may well have contributed to the sharp rise in the death-toll. Then also as of this writing, we were being told by the Superintendent of the Kintampo Government Hospital, Dr. Owusu-Fosu, that the hospital authorities were considering mass burial for the deceased whose fast-decomposing corpses were yet to be claimed by family members and relatives. The KGH morgue, we are told, has a preservation capacity for only 15 bodies. For a major government hospital in Ghana, this is a screaming shame.

On the up-side, as it were, we need to heartily commend the valiant and yeomanly efforts of the detachment from the Ghana Navy who reportedly rescued all 500 passengers aboard the Yeji-Makonga Ferry which sank in the Volta River at about the same time as the Tamale-Kintampo road tragedy.

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