Death trap in Adabraka

Adabraka is a city located in the heart of Accra within the Accra Metropolitan District. It is seen to be one of the busiest cities in Accra because of its proximity to the central business centers like Makola, Tudu and Kantamanto. It is also surrounded by some of the busiest cities and towns like Kaneshie, New Town and Osu.

Being the city most close to the center of Accra and closest to the business areas clearly reveals how populated it is; full of pedestrians, men and women, children and business officials, both government and non-government workers, sport personalities and students. The streets are always full of both private and commercial vehicles running to and from Accra.

It houses major head offices and branches of companies, government departments, universities, business ventures, religious institutions and entertainment centers. A lot of these personalities who work in these institutions and departments as well as business men and women prefer accommodation around the Adabraka vicinity because of its location. It is a beautiful city to live in. In the night, the street lights gleam charmingly to compete with the hanging stars.

In fact, to claim to live or have lived in Accra without having a communion with Adabraka is not knowing Accra. It is indeed a city worth living in. Despite its indisputable bloom and blossom, it is still faced with its own problems, one of which I will be unveiling in this exposition.

I have being living in Adabraka for the past three years and there is this problem which remains persistent throughout my years of stay. Less than a kilometer from the direction of Circle to Accra, before Glico, there is a fuel filling station that belongs to the company of Total and just directly opposite the filling station is a huge aged neem tree on the verge of falling off any moment from now as I write, should there be any great windstorm or heavy downpour to trigger the disastrous effect.

This aged tree is seen to have stretched and swayed its branches across the road near it as though it would fall off now. Its root is seen even from a distance unearthing from the ground. Perhaps as a matter of age, the earth that supports the root has gradually been washed away, rendering the venerable tree bare and vulnerable to its fall. Should this tree fall off at the wrong time, I bet Ghana will witness one of the devastating accidents in history. I wonder why the appropriate authorities are not doing anything about it.

Sometimes I wonder if the Accra Metropolitan Assembly has not seen the danger this tree poses to residents and passing vehicles. I wonder if the National Disaster Management Organization has not seen this threat to have it rectified by now. Since the main road heading from Circle to Accra is a busy one, I wonder what would happen when this tree suddenly falls.

Any time I walk around that area, the mere sight of the tree makes lot of thoughts run through my mind; what if all of a sudden as I pass by, the tree just falls on me? What if on a Monday morning, which we all know is a busy day and the roads get busy because workers who resides outside Accra speedily drive to their workplaces to beat the clock. After a long stay in traffic waiting for the greenlight, we all know how drivers speed up whenever they get off a traffic, what if just after the traffic this tree falls, will it cause a chain of accident?

What if this tree falls across the road suddenly on some passing vehicles? What if one car crashes into another, then another and another? What will happen? What will be the news of the day? How many people are we going to lose? Can we count the atrocities or account for the devastation of properties? Definitely not. Sometimes it is very soul-troubling to be conceived of such thoughts as it goes against my faith to think in such mannerism, nonetheless, it is very necessary to know the realities.

We have had lot of scenarios in Ghana where trees crashed into cars and across roads, on buildings and into waterfalls. Being a student of University of Ghana, I witnessed one of these kind of disaster when a huge tree fell across a main road on campus, falling on a parked car in August 2016.It was so fortunate that there was nobody in the car by then. Also, there was another one which occurred in October 2017 on the road from East Legon to Shiashie, just a round KFC, where a very huge tree fell off unto a vehicle. Kintampo waterfall disaster was also caused by a fallen tree. For this reason the issue of a falling tree in Adabraka must be taken seriously.

One thing that baffles me at the sight of this falling tree and the prospect of disaster it poses should it suddenly fall, is the people who sit under it. There is a lottery kiosk and another wooden shop with owners busily working to make ends meet right under this falling tree. I wonder if these workers do not see what I see. Maybe I will understand because where I come from, a man must make ends meet by himself even if by hook or crook. But in a real sense, it is too dangerous than anyone sitting under it.

I therefore call on the appropriate authorities like the AMA and NADMO to quickly get to the scene and see how best they can solve this problem. Perhaps the tree can be cut down or uprooted for a seedling to be planted and watered to grow in its place, since we all know the role trees play when situated along our roads; their importance are countless.

I trust the aforementioned authorities will work hand in hand to rectify this approaching disaster and bring calm to the locality where we will walk freely without fear of disaster and businesses flourishing under healthy trees in Adabraka!