Former Kumasi Mayor, Sam Pyne, has described many traders in the city as recalcitrant and stubborn, asserting that their resistance to abiding by rules poses a significant challenge to efforts aimed at decongesting the city.
His comments come in response to the recent controversial remarks by current Mayor Richard Ofori Agyemang Boadi, popularly known as Zuba.
Zuba, during a presser suggested that street hawkers and traders who defy orders to vacate unauthorized spaces risk being beaten during a planned decongestion exercise.
Zuba’s comments, which have sparked widespread criticism, were made in the lead-up to a major decongestion exercise targeting traders operating on pavements and in restricted areas of the city.
He said his team, including a group would not hesitate to administer corporal punishment to enforce compliance.
Describing the comments as “unfair” and an act of “undemocratic militarism,” Mr. Pyne emphasized that the Assembly already has bylaws and regulatory frameworks to deal with such situations more humanely and sustainably.
However, speaking on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey, Mr. Pyne acknowledged the difficulty in enforcing the rules due to the attitude of the traders.
He cautioned that while Mayor Zuba may feel compelled to adopt a harsher approach due to the traders’ behavior, such a method lacks sustainability.
Mr. Pyne also raised concerns about the cost and long-term viability of enforcing decongestion through the use of military and police personnel.
He said, “But the biggest difficulty is with the mindset of the people. I met them, we meet them, we educate them, we talk to them but recalcitrant . And it’s honestly, it’s a very big challenge for all of us until people understand the situation. That’s why maybe Zuba feels he use another approach by being brutal on them, but the biggest challenge is that the people themselves are very, very stubborn, headstrong, and recalcitrant.”
“I was talking about sustainability. I mean, all of these that we are talking about, look at sustainability, that you use brute force, you use the military, the police, the special tax force. You say a 10-member tax force. Can the 10-member tax force contain the 200,000 people there? That means you need other hands. And as I told you, if you bring in 10 police officers or military officers and you are giving them a ration of 150 a day, that is 1,500 a day. Times 10 days, it’s 115,000. Times 100 days, it’s $150,000. So the year, you’re going to spend millions. And you look at the resources, so is it sustainable? That is why other means should be used, but not this approach. If you look at the headstrongness of the people and the stubbornness of the people, maybe you may even like to go there, but that’s not the case.”
Source: Ghana/StarrFM103.5FM/Hamdia Mohammed
