Let’s invite Europeans to help us manage traffic – Konadu

Ghana can seek help from Europe in managing the road traffic situation in the country’s major cities, former first Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings has suggested.

“You can even manage traffic. The Europeans do it. They helped us to do it in 1986, 89, we can call them to help us,” she said in an interviewed with TV3’s Nana Aba Anamoah aired on Christmas Day.

“You need to engineer traffic and redirect traffic,” the former first Vice Chair of the governing National Democratic Congress said.

She believes the Government and authorities in charge of traffic management must not throw their arms in despair over the bad traffic situation in the country, but rather seek pragmatic assistance in dealing with the problem.

“We don’t just say: ‘Oh! So many people have cars that’s why we are suffering’. No.”

Traffic jams and gridlocks are a regular feature in Ghana’s major cities – Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi. The situation gets worse during festive seasons.

Former President John Mills (late) once described the traffic situation in Accra as a “major headache”.

Some areas noted for traffic jams in the national capital, for example, include the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, which is undergoing major overhaul, the Spintex road, the Central business district among others.

The gridlock sometimes becomes unbearable to the extent that the Mayor of Accra, Alfred Oko Vanderpuije turns himself into a traffic warden to help the situation. He was seen directing traffic on the eve of Christmas, at the Makola market within the Central Business District.