THE ARCHITECTS OF NEGLIGENCE.

 

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

0244198031.

In the beginning of time, when the old world order operated without chains, actors take responsibility for what is yet to happen. Conversely, in this New World Order, in view of the fact that politics has become the opium of the masses, NEGLIGENCE has become the piece of cake for the consumption of those who have a duty to take responsibility for what is yet to happen. And they take refuge in the wrong hands of politics. That is it when the politics goes wrong, and indeed, it has gone wrong. 

In conformity with the third law of motion as Newton captured it—forces always occur in matched pairs, indeed, there is no such thing as an isolated force. So nature will always respond to the actions of man. 

For what has been happening in recent times relative to the floods in Accra, Ghana, let the heavens bear witness to the grave offense that triggered same. And let the trembling earth recoil in mute and just defense.

Let it be known through ages, borne upon the restless wind, that, “The Architects of Negligence” have raped our nation, Ghana, without pay. When will the pay day be? 

Who are these rapists (The Architects of Negligence)? Need I mention, explain or just let you engage in wild guesses? Indeed, they are the contractors who skipped the drainage plan,

because some officials (technical & political) might have pocketed the part of the budget meant to build it.

They are the traders who built stalls upon the floodplains, because no safer path was offered to them. Neglect wears many faces, yet bears one consequence.

The Architects of Negligence are those who chose to build on wetlands, waterways, and indeed, the officials who approved those acquisitions. They are all who tossed wrappers and plastic bottles into the drains, believing the river was someone else's keeper.

We are all tributaries feeding the flood. When the waters rise to swallow market stalls,

cars, women and children alike; When lifeless bodies drift before our eyes, it is not punishment from a furious heaven. It is simply the work of our own hands.

Cities do not flood. We flood them. The Odaw River, once a living vein, is now a clenched fist; breathless beneath sachets, foam plates and the wrappings of a thousand small conveniences.

Every act is another vote cast against nature. Every careless choice is a verdict against our own wellbeing. By every heaven, by all that is just, I cannot rest nor sleep while hypocrisy and failure still hide within our pockets.

Indeed, June 3 still haunts the city's bones. A day when fire and flood embraced in tragedy.

Yet we paved her wounds with greed, and left her grief behind.

No single hand may bear this guilt alone. For all who watched, negotiated deals, supervised corruption, refused to fund, littered, and failed to act, we all share equal blame.

We; you, he, she and I— all of us, are THE ARCHITECTS OF NEGLIGENCE.