Mr Daniel NiiKwartei Titus-Glover, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, has called on the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCES) to be proactive and not limit the performance of their duties to the comfort of their offices.
According to a story we have carried today, Minister Glover is arguing that there is more work to be done on the ground, yet the MMDCEs are not being active, giving the regional minister more work to do.
Speaking to journalists after paying a working visit to ECOMOC, a slum near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, as well as cattle market on the Kanda Highway in Accra yesterday, the Minister said he was compelled by the circumstance to perform certain tasks that are preserved for the MMDCEs, just to ensure that things are done as expected.
Mr. Titus-Glover referred particularly to how stray animals – cattle, dogs, sheep and others – have taken over the streets of Accra, yet the MMDCEs are not working to address the problem.
“It is not the duty of the regional minister to be coming round in these things. It is the work of the MMCEs, and from here I’m going to summon them to my office and give them my final warning,” he said.
To him, cattle being left to move freely is not good for the image of the city of Accra and it does not speak well of the people. He recounted calling the MCE for Ayawaso West Assembly to act on cattle grazing on the lawns in the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange just last week Saturday.
“When you sit in your office, you will be in your comfort zone. The president did not give you the office to sit in the office. Even the President himself, once in a while, travels round the regions to get things for himself. So when he is reading the reports, he will say I have been here. I was in Saboba. I was in Tatale. I was in Zabzugu. He knows what he is talking about”, he said.
For us at The Chronicle, the regional minister hit the nail right on the head when he inferred that the MMDCEs are sleeping on their jobs. On Friday June 7, 2024 we carried a front page story about how cattle have been allowed to move freely in Accra, our national capital. We mentioned specifically the Tetteh Quashie Interchange, where these animals are seen grazing. We also mentioned Adenta SSNIT flats as another spot where the cattle are roaming, sometimes without human escort.
If these MMCEs were serious with their work, they would have acted promptly on our publication by stopping the bad practice. But alas, that did not happen. Now the minister himself has gone to see the animals grazing in a strategic place like the Tetteh Quashie Interchange. Is Accra a village to allow this nuisance to be happening on our streets?
Clearly, both the Ayawaso West, Adentan and other MECs are not doing the work assigned them and we expect the regional minister, Titus Glover, to rein them in as he has promised or refer their conducts to President Akufo-Addo to fire them from office.
As the regional minister admitted, it is not his duty to be going round doing the work that MCEs are supposed to do, but sadly that is the situation.
There is no way both Ayawaso West and Adentan MCEs can convince The Chronicle that they have not seen these animals, sometimes very dirty, roaming our streets. Indeed if they have not seen them, then they do not deserve to serve their people as MCEs.
