TALKING DRUM: Breman Jamra tragedy- beyond the official rhetoric

Parents and relatives drenched in tears as they see lifeless bodies

When 3FM News Central regional stringer, Perry Baka, hinted a school building in the region had collapsed, I got winced and terrified. 

It was at the Jamra Methodist Primary School in Breman Jamra of the Asikuma Odobeng Brakwa District. Four pupils had been killed on the spot and two others died when rushed to the hospital afters the building collapsed.

It was Tuesday morning January 31, 2017. I had not an iota of courage to download pictures he sent which told the story of the tragic incident. 

‘How would parents of these kids receive this breaking news’? I quizzed myself.

I have read and watched such a story before and I know how sad it feels seeing one’s child, sent to school to become a better person, only to be killed by the very school. In 2008, Joy FM’s Manasseh Azure Awuni, then working as a freelance journalist, filed a horrifying story for Ghana Television (GTV).

The story featured a boy, Kwadwo Njorfuni, who attended the Banda English Arabic Primary School. In November that year, the unfortunate happened when the wall of Kwadwo’s classroom collapsed.

“One pupil, Godwin Ayensu, 11, who sat near the collapsed wall, died on the spot. Another pupil, Sumaila Labil, fell into coma. Ten pupils, including Kwadwo Njorfuni and Sumaila Labil, had to be rushed to safety,’ wrote Manasseh.

The story of the Banda English Arabic Primary School pupils was never nice even afterwards. The injured children had to endure the excruciating pain of having to travel in a rickety car on the deplorable Banda to Krachi stretch of road for treatment. 

Kwadwo Njorfuni, after months of struggling for treatment, lost the battle. He died through no fault of his.

Sumaila Labil, and the other surviving pupils managed to go back to school. They had, however, been abandoned three years after the incident. Sumaila’s case was not anything better. His life was but a disturbing tale to tell. He had been left with mental illness as he was unable to undergo the recommended brain surgery after the incident.

One would have taught that after the Banda English Arabic Primary School’s sad story, the Ghana Education Service (GES) and other stakeholders- who were nonchalant about the pupils’ plight- would have learnt their lessons and worked hard to have at heart the welfare of school pupils across the country. This did not happen.

On February 14, 2014, a school bus carrying 41 pupils, after school, “had a terrible crash injuring many of the school pupils,” reported GNA. It happened at a spot on the Abesim-Tanoso road in the Brong Ahafo region.

Chief Inspector Francis Addo of the Brong Ahafo Motor Traffic and Transport Department told the media the accident could have been caused by excessive overloading. 

He said per numerous complaints received, the MTTD had sent letters to all private schools in the Sunyani municipality to discuss the poor condition of these schools buses. This letter from the MTTD, the Association of Private Schools had not responded.          

 

Two days after this Abesim-Tano accident, another accident happened at the same spot. It involved two school buses. The buses of Preprah-Agyeman Capital Preparatory School [located at Abesim] and that of Emmanuel Preparatory Complex [at Duayaw Nkwanta]. 

An overtaking by the bus of Emmanuel Preparatory Complex caused accident causing parents and relatives of pupils, onboard these buses, to storm Regional Hospital, Sunyani in search of their injured. 

I never heard or read the GES launching investigations into these bus drivers and school authorities’ sheer negligence which led to maiming some pupils. 

In our part of the world, we do what is inspected instead of what is expected. So, I was never surprised when the Ministry of Education and the government] thronged the funeral of the Jamra pupils. 

Coffins were been provided for the families of the deceased pupils to bury their lost. I read somewhere on a news portal the government again footed the cost of the funeral. And this gesture, by government, will probably close the docket of someone’s sheer negligence leading to loss of innocent and precious lives. 

According to media reports, the chief of Breman Jamra had told the Jamra Methodist School to take a critical look at the school’s building since it had cracks. Some other town folks had complained of the cracks too but all to no avail. That Tuesday’s disaster was as a result of collective negligence and a full scale investigation must get some people brought to book.

Living in Africa is like being set before you a lion. The ability to escape it is an individual task.

Living in Africa is like being set before you a lion. The ability to escape it is an individual task. We have been terrorized enough by this ‘lion’ of some of our leaders shirking their responsibilities for far too long. This is the time to get serious. Every single life matters. If no one got punished for supervising the collapse of Kwadwo Njorfuni’s classroom wall, which killed and maimed pupils; that of six lives lost at Breman Jamra must not be brushed under the carpet.   

Nine months of our mothers and sisters bearing the weight of protruded bellies, waking up at night to breastfeed their babies and fathers throwing in cash for diapers and the likes must not j  ust go waste in hands of some irresponsible folks.

The writer is a broadcast journalist with 3FM 92.7. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect 3FM’s editorial policy.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: Freddie Blay & the marauding brigade!

Acting National Chairman of NPP, Freddie Blay

At the Passport Office, here in Accra, a police man stood on his feet giving orders. He was commanding stranded passport applicants to move back, a bit away from the premises.

“No one must stand here! Massa [referring to a gentleman] go, go,” he said.

It was January 10, 2017 hours after some thugs of the New Patriotic Party stormed the passport office demanding a takeover of the facility. Asking why? Their government is now in power.

This barbaric behaviour is not the first to be orchestrated by these NPP hoodlums. On January 9, 3news.com reported: “Persons believed to be supporters of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) on Monday seized the official vehicle of the Chief Executive of the Nzema East Municipal Assembly.”

On January 10, it was again reported that the “Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in the Trobu Constituency, Kwame Ofosu Adjei is in the grips of the Amasaman Divisional Police for attacking a police officer on duty at the Pobiman tollbooth.” It was alleged he was on a mission to seize the tollbooth.

Many discerning Ghanaians including some NPP MPs have since condemned the incidents.

Reading about the police’s arrest and seeing the officer, at the passport office, act the way he did to ensure sanity prevailed, I wore radiant of smiles. At last, the police have been brave enough to prevent these incidences from reoccurring.  

Little did I know, however, that the officer I saw driving away people who stood idle at the entrance of the passport office was exhibiting but the power vested in a child over a tethered he goat.

“We are here working in fear,” said a worker who wanted anonymity.

“Those the police arrested, yesterday, are back here [passport office]. At the security post and at the reception, these NPP supporters are today on a silent mission all in an attempt to take over the facility,” she said. 

Really? And that police officer was ‘showing off’ at innocent persons? I asked myself. This woman’s claim pricked hard in my ear the way the penis does to the wall of a bell. It pushed me to probe further.

“How sure are you concerning your claim, Madam?” I asked.

 “I am not supposed to tell you this, you know. But …” she said, looking a bit frightened.

“The truth is that we are privy to information that a high official, in government, ordered the release of these thugs.” 

Checks at the security post of the passport office, indeed, confirmed the allegation. Some civilians were seen assisting the police in manning the facility. At the reception, too, I was fortunate to have had a security man, who wore mufti, waiting to collect his passport, to also confirm how serious the situation was. 

This is certainly an affront on our democratic credentials as it has become a ritual that when there is a change in government the winning party’s supporters do the unthinkable. One would hear NPP serial callers and some party communicators say ‘the National Democratic Congress (NDC) did same in 2009. So, the situation repeating itself after the Electoral Commission declared the NPP winner of the 2016 election is but equalization of what the NDC supporters previously did.’

It, however, becomes very shameful when leading party executives, the elderly of course, endorse these nefarious acts of their supporters. When I heard the Acting National Chairman of the NPP speak to Ghanaweb and 3FM saying these party supporters are only protecting state properties, I buried my head in my palm. 

“At the harbour, people are stealing cars. People are carrying away items that should attract duties and so forth, containers being taken away without going through the right process.

“If we see people stealing cars from the harbour, are you suggesting that we should wait and go and call the Police?” said lawyer Blay to Ghanaweb.

Burnt Fiapre Tollbooth, in B/A

Citizen vigilantism is commendable but one does not do so by going beyond their limit. Do citizen vigilantes burn down tollbooth as it was seen and heard at Fiapre in the Brong Ahafo region? When did Mr. Freddie Blay’s brigade realise that some people were stealing at the Tema Habour? Where were these hoodlums when Anas Aremeyaw Anas caught on tape some officers at the habour taking bribe? In protecting state property, would it not have been ideal these NPP supporters went there to arrest these corrupt officers? Shaking my head!

Interesting, isn’t it? Their government is in power and they have big men behind them. They have the effrontery to explain why they attack and burn down properties. I vehemently condemn the NDC’s 2009 attacks and it could have only been reasonable the NPP supporters acted with a sense of maturity this time.

The Mighty Eagle in the movie Angry Birds said it right that “wisdom is not something that is given. Wisdom is attained.” I only hope and pray that these political parties’ supporters attain wisdom with time to understand that none of the politicians, they follow, will push their children to go seize toilets and tollbooths.

When I left the passport office on that Tuesday, I wondered which top official in government could have possibly called the police to release these NPP thugs. There seem to be an answer to this question now. Nonetheless, this is the time the police must prove that they are independent and deal with outlaws.

The writer is a broadcast journalist with 3FM 92.7. Views expressed here solely remains his opinion and not that of his organisation.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba