The homeless and a burning government house

A GNA colour by Samuel Osei-Frempong

Accra, Oct.22,GNA-The homeless and late travellers who normally throng the Tema and Ho Stations in Accra last night had a rare spectacle to behold-the entire Ministry of Foreign Affairs building entrapped in an inferno.

The late revellers who had turned that part of Accra into a brisk market of food, wine and other forms of convenience normally take a glimpse of that tall building through trees which fight in vain to conceal it from afar.

It brushes the skyline of Accra and would easily announce its importance as the hub of Ghana's foreign policy and home to her diplomats. Many a foreign diplomat and locals have used its well trimmed lawns over the years as it stands hidden from below but exposed at the top due to its height.

"This house will never be what it used to be", an old fellow murmured as he tried to pull his oversized shirt over his thin and bonny chest. His breath spoke of him as a careless alcoholic more that his long drawn face that hid his deep tiny eyes which shone occasionally in the illuminated dark sky.

He lacked the strength to outwit the police who had mounted barriers on all major roads leading to the cul-de-sac that led to the building but he persevered.

He struggled to follow the helpless fire fighters who had only a water truck to fight a blazing fire sweeping several floors up the doomed storey building.

It was a case of a cliff hanger fighting in vain to save a colleague who had slipped from his grip and heading for a crash. Conflicting reports were rife throughout the night as to the actual cause of the fire which has dented the skyline of Accra and offered the nation's top diplomats one of the toughest assignment in their career-getting back information they might have not saved elsewhere. As the dawn approaches, a whole nation stretches to awake to the scars of the horrors of last night.

She will count the cost of the horror not just in monetary terms but may also relish the memories that a building that once hosted the architects and builders of Ghana's foreign policy may hold.

In the dark alleys of the Tema and Ho Stations, people just strolled looking for a sleeping place or solace in a sub cultural environment where very little or no largess stored for the occupants of the huge government buildings around them will ever come their way.