Rebranded Reports, Disastrous Deaths and Gruesome Galamsey: Weekly Wrap-Up from the Morning Man

Right, let’s do a quick wrap-up of the week.

The NCA and the bid process for the Interconnect Clearing House was on our minds at the beginning of the week, as we all heard the Deputy Communications Minister on Newsfile admit that the fabled “final report” he was reading from had no signatures on it.

Meanwhile, the panel members all confirmed during their press conference last week that they all signed the document. So we called Felix KwakyeOfosu on Monday, to ask how his unsigned copy could be the final one. He said the copy he had was an electronic soft copy and that was why it had no signatures.

Confusingly, the NCA released what THEY called the final report on their website that same morning, while we were on air with the Deputy Minister. It was also a soft copy, but unlike the Deputy Minister’s Soft copy (which he claims he got from the same NCA) THEIR soft copy had the signatures of the panel members on it. Strange, isn’t it?

IMANI continued to dispute the authenticity of the rebranded report, but the NCA declared on Wednesday that they legitimately awarded the contract to Afriwave in spite of their rather poor financial performance in the bid process. They even went as far as to say they will not reverse the process under pressure from any source. Personally, I wonder how Parliament feels about that statement, since toe law that would make it legal for the entire process to be carried out is yet to be deliberated on by them. I also wonder what the NCA intends to do about the fact that the temporary licence they granted to Afriwave after declaring them winners has now lapsed. Interesting times ahead.

The biggest story this week however, was the tragic accident at Kintampo on the Kumasi-Tamale road which has so far claimed 63 lives. It happened when a Metro Mass Transit bus travelling from Kumasi crashed into a truck carrying tomatoes at about 8pm on Wednesday night? It’s weird how many terrible things tend to happen on Wednesdays in this country – the Melcom disaster, the June 3 flooding… Anyway, the MMT bus disaster has so far claimed 63 lives and dozens of injuries. Survivors have told investigators that the bus driver stopped at a mechanic’s earlier, reporting problems with the brakes. The mechanic was unable to repair it, but the driver chose to continue the journey, in spite of the late hour. He had over 80 people on board the government-owned bus whose total capacity is 56!

When the accident occurred, the survivors were taken to the nearest hospital, which was the Kintampo Government Hospital. The hospital’s ambulance could only carry two patients at a time, so most of the seriously injured survivors were taken to the hospital in the beds of pickup trucks and in the backs of taxis. Those who made it alive to the hospital were told there were no beds, so the injured were made to lie on the floor. A doctor at the hospital described how a shortage of emergency drugs and a total lack of oxygen made them incapable of saving many lives.

Meanwhile, a bunch of ministers flew in to the hospital on board a helicopter to … honestly, I don’t know what they went there to do. They didn’t bring any drugs or oxygen with them. If someone had been thinking properly in Accra, they could have loaded that chopper with doctors and drugs and even mattresses to go save lives in Kintampo. Instead, someone thought it would be more helpful to fill the helicopter with fuel and a bunch of flaming politicians, fly them over to stare at the sick people, stroke their chins and come back home.

Also this week, there have been serious water shortages in some parts of the country. The extended dry season has caused water levels to remain lower than usual, but the real threat to our water bodies is Galamsey, or illegal mining. This is a real menace. The illegal miners – many of them Chinese who are not permitted by law to engage in artisanal mining in Ghana – are digging up our water beds and dumping dangerous chemicals into what’s remaining of our scarce water resources. It’s got so bad that the people of Winneba are being forced to go without water for days on end. Schools and hospitals are struggling under the strain of this shortage. And you know what’s going to happen next, don’t you? Food sellers are going to fetch water from gutters and other dubious sources to cook their food, just so they can make a living. Next thing you know, Cholera will be raging across the nation again, and our already strained healthcare facilities will fail to prevent thousands of needless deaths. All in an election year…

My name is Kojo Yankson, and it’s been a week of Rebranded Reports, Disastrous Deaths and Gruesome Galamsey.

GOOD MORNING, GHANAFO!