By Isaac Ato MENSAH
Accra – 10 December, 2018.
Friday the 7th December was the national Farmers and Fishermen’s Day holiday.
I joined a group of children in the afternoon at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park in Accra.
The filth and rubbish right from the gate, opposite the Kempinski Gold Goast City was annoying.
I was in two minds about taking pictures, especially of children at play in a park full of rubbish.
Yesterday, I formatted my phone and cleared all the pictures. I did not care.
Why?
Because just like the Independence Square situation, after 30 days I will still go and meet the filth.
In the park are open gutters filled with mosquito breeding stagnant water, rubbish and all.
The railway track in the park had a broken down engine with a child trying to fix something in it.
And just to the back of it, part of the wooden sleeper which can support the track for 70 years before rotting had been burned by human activity.
Whatever was being burned on the spot only heaven knows.
At a point I did not want to do any story. Then I met an old time friend. She was there with her husband working as vendors.
She told me about poor sales and took me to other vendors who had serious complaints.
‘You’ve taken 250 Cedis (USD 50) from us and you’re letting other vendors come in and also sell’, said the first vendor. ‘It’s very bad.’
One vendor showed me five ice chests full of fresh yoghurt at 3pm. ‘I paid 300 Cedis to the organisers’, she complained.
Some said the vendors were too many for the expected participants. ‘They promised us 5000 children will come but the number is far less’, another said.
I could easily have been molested because even though my friend had introduced me as a blogger, others thought I was among the organisers.
Some threatened to give the organisers negative publicity on social media. ‘They promised us Kuami Eugene will perform his live music here’, charged yet another. ‘Look at the time. It’s past 3pm.’
A lady complained about poor sanitation. ‘I’ve been selling at events in America,’ she expressed her frustration. ‘I even brought a container for rubbish.’
‘They will not even come and ask if they should announce anything for you, complained a vendor with a high social media following.
Fortunately, a rep of the organisers appeared and the heat was turned onto him.
‘Didn’t I suggest to you how we should handle the sanitation’, she charged at the rep.
She then showed us pictures of the 30th anniversary of Alpha Beta Education Centre in Dansoman where the sanitation was beautifully handled.
The vendors now left Matthew Essuman, the rep and I alone to attend to their sales, and of course I fired him many questions.
‘We paid for sanitation to someone working at the ministry of children’s affairs’, he responded and readily gave me a name and telephone number when I asked.
The amount paid he said was confidential information.
‘Some of the things go beyond the organisers’, he responded on the vendors space allocation. ‘We arranged everything but the vendors kept moving and taking other people’s tables. We had to bring in military guys to restore order.’
I saw the soldiers in uniform but I did not know their mission.
On the appearance of the musician Kuami Eugene he explained that the organisers had paid in advance for his appearance so it was a simple matter of collecting their monies back.
‘Six thousand children have come here today’, he responded to the poor sales problem. ‘Maybe the kids don’t know your product.’
I pressed him further on the burning issue of charging kids 10 Cedis (USD 2) per head, vendors an average of 200 Cedis (USD40) and allowing other vendors to come in and sell.
‘If we have to compensate some of them we will do that to build a future relationship’, Essuman graciously offered after the lady passionate about sanitation had threatened to report to the health minister whom she claimed to be a brother.
When all was quiet, something very unsafe unfolded.
Every now and then someone will announce that Kuami Eugene had arrived.
The children will then run all the way toward the gate, get the wrong signal and return running with some other announcement.
At 4:13pm the musician arrived.
There was a speeding car on the park with children running around and in front of it. I held my mouth and prayed.
My school kids had been summoned into their coaches earlier and departed just two minutes later.
The organisers from my school had decided that they had had enough.
‘They promised us Kuami Eugene will arrive between 2:30 and 3pm.
It’s now 4:15pm’, explained Alfred Adjetey, an organiser from my school, as the coaches stopped in front of Kempinski for a negotiation with the kids. ‘It’s now 4:15pm. Soon your parents will be calling. And it’s not like Kuami Eugene will be the first to perform. By the time he will be done it will be past 7:30pm.’
Most of the children were so hurt inside. ‘It’s not like he didn’t come’, said one student. ‘We can see him live with our eyes and the bus is moving.’
Others rehearsed how those who refused to pay and attend the event will mock them.
Efua Theodora Sutherland had brought traditional African drama into formal study in academic institutions and advocated children’s parks.
This certainly is not the brand she envisaged and promised. The park was named in her honour by the government of Ghana.
What will you do if the name of your church, school or family is held in vain?
What’s in a name? Have you asked that question before?
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