Where is the lady Chief Executive of AMA?

The Accra metropolitan assembly area today covers three constituencies namely Odododiodioo Ablekumah south and Okaikoi south. The chief executive today is madam Elizabeth Kwatsoe Sackey and my question once again is where is the lady mayor of Accra? before I hazard a guess as to the whereabouts of the mayor, let me give a little background on the administration of the city.

Accra started as the Accra Tema city council and became Accra city council when Tema was decoupled from Accra. The city grew to municipal status and then attained metropolitan status during the PNDC era.

This changes in status came as a result of the increasing population of the city and this also engendered changes to the administration of the city when directors were appointed to all the sub metros in the city.

The growth of the city did not come without its problems which were mainly unplanned development, building in waterways and flooding during the rainy season. Garbage collection also another major problem, these had earlier on been exacerbated when conservancy labourers who were mainly Creole from Sierra Leone left to find greener pastures in Nigeria when the the Ghanaian economy collapse d in the late seventies.

From that time onwards the problem of sanitation, garbage collection and flooding became the top priority for any mayor appointed to manage the city.

The likes of Hon. ET Mensah, Kofi porthuphy and Ishmael Aryeetey had their work cut out for them to ensure sanity in the city and coordinate the development of the city as the Ghanaian economy began to grow.

These were the times when the Abbossey okai spare parts market, and Agbogbloshie markets were established.This exposed the sanitation garbage situation and flooding in those areas further and the mayor who attacked the problems head-on is Nat Nunoo Amarteifio during his tenure the pileling of refuse at a location was outlawed with the introduction of door to door collection by city and country waste and serious attempts were made to ease the flooding situation in areas like Alajo, Avenor, Nima, Mamobi Assylum down amongst others.

The last mayor of Accra before the beginning of the new millinium was Addokwei Addo. These were the mayors Who worked hard to lay the foundation for the beautiful and vibrant Accra we find today. They pioneered the privatization of refuse collection in the city so that the city authorities can focus on the development of the city.

When his Excellency JA Kufuor came to power in 2001, he appointed hon Adjei Darko as mayor but he turned out to be an armchair mayor and the condition in the city began to deteriorate so he was removed and hon Adgiri Blankson replaced him but there was no improvement and the president was forced to create a special ministry for the beautification of the capital to have oversight on the situation in Accra.

At this stage it is now apparent that the appointees of the NDC do a better job in managing Accra than the appointees of the NPP.

When his Excellency JEA Mills came to power in 2009 he appointed hon Alfred Oko vanderpuye as mayor he raised the bar of performance in the city and he gained the celebrity status being known even by kids as Tsentse. I don't need to enumerate his achievements for the city there is a real one Man thousand no wonder he was voted the best mayor in Africa in 2016.

Today Accra is much smaller as it has been segmented into smaller municipalities so I am expecting better management of the city but what do we see?

His Excellency the president has done very well to create the municipalities and instead of the MCEs working hard to complement the effort of the president their out put is below par and cannot measure up to the effort of the last NDC mayor who was in charge of the whole Accra Hon Adjei Sowah could not live up to expectation as he was office bound all the time infact during his tenure residents of the city don't even know his name now we have Hon Elizabeth kwatsoe sackey and we all have high hopes when she was appointed last year but I must say that I am highly dissappointed because since she assumed office she has not stayed in the country for a full quarter before, she is always abroad and this week is no exception when her citizens are reeling under the onslought of rains and floods I thought I will see moving to makola, Agbogbloshie, Okaishie, Abbossey okai, Kaneshie are suffering she is outside the country.in times like this we expect the mayor to be around to console those who have lost properties and to spear head the relief effort but no she is no where to be found. For God's sake she was the immediate past Deputy Minister of Accra, why is she not performing.

And I thought the president has put a moratorium on foreign travel by government appointees. I expect the city to be better managed but with leadership lacking at this point in time, I don't think the prospects look good for the city. Accra deserves better, we are not yet in June and we have already been abandoned by our mayor? I wonder where we will run to when the rainy season starts properly.

I make a humble appeal to the president to call the A.M.A MCE he has given us and ask her to come and do her job by leading the relief effort in the city.The mediocrity must stop.Stop letting the president and the New Patriotic Party down