Atomic gas explosion: 100 promises; 1000 more lives

It’s a country characterized by lots of talk but very little or no action at all. Close to a thousand if not more lives have been lost in all 4 explosions that have happened in 3 years; June 3 twin disaster, Ashaiman explosion, Labadi explosion, Atomic explosion, and yet the mediocre attitude of “talk for a period and let sleeping dogs lie” still remains.

The severity of the issues make the headlines for several days with various persons giving promises, offering solutions and recommendations, threats being issued and just months on, we see a similar situation.

Who suffers?, the lay man who really doesn’t have a voice, the trader whose goods were burnt but received some meagre ‘compensation’ from government in the name of interventions for victims, the mother, the kid who has to live the rest of their lives with scars that remind them of a traumatizing event, the …….reminder of an innocent soul lost as a result of negligence and carelessness.

Akufo-Addo commiserates with victims of explosion, Mahama mourns with explosion victims, several ‘pity’ messages to the families of the departed and injured persons emerge shortly after such events. They make the news, the blame game continues, arguments and counter-arguments flood the media airwaves and yet in no single circumstance has anybody or institution been castigated and chastised for starting the fire, for neglecting their responsibilities leading to such events etc.

Sheer disregard and disrespect for the lives of precious human beings, this must stop!

Everytime the issue of bodies responsible for dealing with such matters arise, it almost immediately is followed by accusations of corruption and bribery and how prevalent it is in institutions such as the EPA, National Petroleum Authority, and other related institutions such that they turn ‘blind eyes’ to the many wrongfully sited petrol and gas stations in the country because they are either ‘bribed’ to or side with some ‘big men’ who happen to be owners of these stations, at the expense of several innocent lives.

We have seen promises come and go in the past particularly after the June 3 flood and fire disasters, reports that were ‘supposedly’ being written from which solutions will be generated, nothing is happening and yet people keep dying, getting injured, losing their properties.

President Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia have following Saturday’s tragedy have given assurances of immediate steps to generate policies to deal with such issues moving forward, that’s a bit consoling but then I say again that it’s one thing generating policies to deal with an issue and it’s another getting the appropriate persons who will diligently and without favor or fear, implement these policies, dealing with violators in the course of their duty.

We need to move from the talk, the promises, the assurances to measurable solutions which will end these tragic incidents and make Ghana a safe haven for all its citizens.