… As traders, drivers have field day
… Residents want tough MCE to take charge

THE CITY of Kumasi is ungovernable. Traders have taken over the streets, especially in the Central Business District of Adum, while drivers stop and park anyhow and at will with impunity, making nonsense of previous attempts by the authorities to decongest the city. Not even the police and the city guards have control over the defiant drivers and hawkers.
Sanitation is worsening, as the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) is indebted to contractors engaged to provide waste management services, and the problems continue to compound on a daily basis, as ZiomLion Ghana Limited is managing to grapple with the mounting filth in the city.
Observers, including members of the Assembly, have attributed the situation to a breakdown of assembly structures, and lack of political will on the part of the city authorities to address the situation.
They also pointed to an act of sabotage, saying the problem had to do with deliberate attempts to manipulate the system by past chief executives, who made sure assembly structures, as provided by Local Government Act 462, did not work effectively, thus depriving the assembly of its deliberative, legislative and executive powers, rendering Kumasi into the status of a district, instead of a metropolis.
During a radio talk show on Angel FM recently, the discussants, including Mr. Peter Anarfi, a former District Chief Executive (DCE) in the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime, Mr. Kwabena Senkyere, a government appointee and former Assembly Member for the Dichemso Electoral Area, and Nana Kofi Senyah, a former Presiding Member of the KMA, called for the appointment of a Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) who is courageous, bold, and has the political will to take decisions, and correct the situation in the interest of residents and development.
Their position was corroborated by callers who phoned into the programme, hosted by Kwame Adinkra.
Referring to a letter, purported to have been issued in September last year by the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC), which instructed the KMA boss not to elect a PM until the Decembers elections were over, the panelists accused the RCC of contributing to the current state of affairs in Kumasi, saying, “it is unfortunate that the RCC, which had no mandate or executive powers, could issue such a directive, as if the Assembly was run on a partisan basis.”
It was indicated during the programme that in spite of the provision of Local Government Act 462, which regulates Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, and make them corporate bodies with perpetual succession, the KMA had been rendered ineffective since January 2008.
The withdrawal of 30% government appointees of the House, said to be in breach of Act 462, had created a vacuum in the operations of the KMA.
Since October last year, the KMA has gone without a Presiding Member, and there is no indication that it would have one soon.
Mr. Anarfi suggested that the KMA needed somebody to promote popular grassroots participation in the running of the Sub-Metro Councils, while Mr. Senkyere nominated Alhaji Sanni Mohammed, Ashanti Regional NDC Vice Chairman, to head the KMA.
Sanni’s nomination was endorsed by Nana Kofi Senyah, who defended his choice, in the fact that as a former Assembly Member and one time Chairman of the Manhyia Sub-Metro Council of the KMA, Sanni Mohammed was in the best position to implement Local Government structures.
Nana Senyah also vouched for Sanni’s experience, saying he was best suited to wield political authority, and bring sanity to the KMA.
The former Presiding Member cautioned the government against the imposition of an MCE on the KMA, because the reconstituted Assembly would not tolerate any MCE who would run the authority on partisan lines.
He said the choice of the people would be more preferable, in order to enhance development of Kumasi.
In the face of the situation, residents including, the Assembly Member for the Krofofrom (New Tafo) Electoral Area, Mr. Patrick Frimpong, have called on the government to appoint someone who had the experience, and was conversant with the District Assembly concept to make things tick in Kumasi.
Meanwhile, residents have called for the intervention of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to institute an interim body to ensure the orderly running of the metropolis and restore sanity in Kumasi, before a substantive MCE is appointed by the government.