Contrary to views that the national capital, Accra has been without a plan, veteran politician, Enock Tei Mensah has traced back to a document revealing that the capital city has had a development plan since 1958.
“Accra was a council and they put in place the first interim Management Committee. Wing Commander Osabokle of Airforce, C.S. Botwe who was in charge of the Accra Community Center and myself were selected to constitute the Interim Management Committee. They agreed to make me chair of the committee
“On a visit to the now AMA, the building was shaky and in a complete mess; we counted 738 huge mounds of refuse and the available 129 public toilets at the time were overflowing. I suggested we consulted for ideas. That was when we chanced upon the plan for Accra. The whole claim that Accra does not have a plan is a fallacy. There is a plan, I was given the plan.”
The longest serving Minister for Sports under Rawlings regime and a one-time Mayor of Accra revealed this when he recounted some aspects of his life in a hearty interaction with host of Sunrise Morning Show, Winston Amoah recently.
He noted that the Forward of the Plan for Accra signed by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah read: “Ghana became independent on the 6th of March, 1957 and from that day our efforts to improve the standard of living for all who live and work in Ghana has been intensified. Great strides have been made and there is everywhere a spirit of dedication and endeavor. It is fitting that we should improve our main towns along our rural and industrial development and that our capital city should offer improved amenities and standards of living. I therefore have great pleasure in taking this opportunity to offer a word of encouragement to all who in the future will have in their hands the task of molding the shape of our cities, towns and villages throughout Ghana”.
It was an interesting revelation as he named many of the current programmes and projects that were captured in that plan some sixty years ago.
“During the June 4th when the Makola Market was demolished, we didn’t know that in the Nkrumah’s plan, Makola was supposed to be demolished and a Civics center along the lines of what has been constructed at the Rawlings’ park was to be built.
“At the time, where you currently have the 31st December Market was the Omnibus Services main Yard and the PWD offices; that whole area was to be cleared. As you may know, the PWD area started building a Hall of Technology where you have the Highways.
“I’m telling you the Lavender Hill, Sodom and Gomorrah and all those projects are captured in this plan,” he emphasized.
An obviously surprised host, Winston Amoah asked, “Do I get the impression every project was captured in the plan sixty years ago?” to which the veteran politician answered in the affirmative
Source: 3news
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He said they chanced on a plan that was prepared in 1958 when they came into office after the revolution. If Dr. Busia and his government had also continued with the plan we would not have been here by now in our developmental issues. What is killing us is the discontinuity of projects started by preceding government all in the name of politics. If every government continues the projects of the predecessor like Ghana would have been the best country in the sib region. I wish this current government would not disappoint us by going down that lane.
he must tell us what he did with the plan in his tenure as the AMA boss/ as far as i could remember, Dr Busia and the Israelis had a major plan for sewage in Accra to be drained underground to a central treatment plan, what did he do to improve on this and the sanitation in Accra?
Very 'interesting' revelation by 'Veteran' ET Mensah. So you were so grown and out of school by year 1958 to be part of that 3 Member Commitee, to formulate plans for Accra's development? Ei, ei, eiiii !!! And yet in 1981 and after you were still a young man in Rawlings PNDC. Baffling still, as a mayor of Accra, under your 'authoritarian' government when you pulled down numerous structures in the name the'revolution'you could not influence 'your' people to execute your Accra "Development blueprint". In fact 'i just cant think far'.THIS IS JUST 'TOO MUCH'. This "air" of too much importance cannot 'fly'.
I can not undestand why of late this hypocrate ET Mensah seem to display somekind of importance about himself because the next minute he is castigating this small boy Sam George ;the next minute he wants to be a member of the council of state ; the next minute people in the NDC should go and beg JJ Rawlings ; this time it is this grand plan about Accra ; the question is ; with all the number of years in power with the PNDC/NDC in parliament and as a patriotic Accra man what did this GREEDY BA-ST-AR*D do about the plans by Kwame Nkrumah ; did he push for the plan to be used to develop Accra as a city ; he was even the Accra Mayor so what did this idiotic donkey do about these plans ; today the full is out of power and scrubbing the base of the barrel to gain some fame ;today the charlatan is dancing that he knew about a PLAN ; so WHAT DID ET MENSAH DO TO HELP IMPROVE ACCRA AS A CITY ; today he claims Nana Addo is the best thing that ever happened to Ghana ; that may be true but what did the donkey do for Ghana does he not know that there are respectable people who are older than him and know Accra better than him because merely having grey hairs does not mean you have any sense in your head ;does he think people in Accra does not know about his EVIL ways in Accra ; why did he promote the murder of Col Kotei by JJ Rawlings; ET Mensah is just like JJ Rawlings as soon as they know they will be exposed they try and divert attention but ET do not forget law is a long train jaurggnout and starts slowly and when gains momentum it clear everything in its path -TIME WILL TELL !!!!!!!