Record number of Ghanaians, turned out to clean their communities, as the country marked another National Sanitation Day, last Saturday.
The day, which was initiated by government last year, seeks to encourage people to gather and tidy up their communities.
For the fourth time running, the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), which was heard loudest pounding government for allowing filth to swallow the country, leading to the spread of the deadly cholera and the subsequent death of hundreds of Ghanaians, stayed away from the national event.
It was not clear, where officials of the party, who had in the past spent time at funerals and other social events were.
Their absence, keeps raising doubts about the NPP’s sincerity in matters of sanitation, and its health implications of an unsanitary environment.
To many people, the flagbearer of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo, will indeed, prove his good leadership skills, if he like President John Mahama and his lieutenants, help to clean a place like Nima, where he lives.
One lady by name Abiba Mohammed, who was seen cleaning the Nima market, told The Herald that she was expecting to see Mrs. Samira Bawumia, who was seen in the run up to the last election, cleaning the Nima market, with some NPP activists, to come and help clean the place on the National Sanitation Day.
To Abiba, people must be healthy to vote for politicians, hence the continuous absence of Nana Addo and his wife, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and his wife, as well other party functionaries, speaks volumes about their genuineness.
President John Mahama, Vice-President, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur and the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, at various times joined hundreds of ordinary citizens to participate in the clean up exercise, and took turns to educate people about cleanliness and its health benefits. But copiously missing, has been officials of the NPP, including its legislators.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Local Government Julius Debrah, last Saturday recorded another success when he led the clean up exercise in the Northern Region, where thousands of residents poured out in Tamale to clean the city.
Bukom Banku and Ayittey Powers, participated in the exercise to whip up support in the Northern Region.
Huge number of residents, left their homes and wares to clean up their communities.
Local Government Minister, Julius Debrah, commended the chiefs for the exercise for their efforts to make the nationwide cleaning exercise successful.
In the Volta Region, residents in the Keta Municipality, also turned out in their numbers to take part in the monthly exercise.
The story was not different in the Ashanti Region.
However, the Kumasi Mayor, Kojo Bonsu, vowed to lock up shops that remain open, while the cleaning exercise is going on.
He was particularly appalled by the unsanitary conditions at the fish market at the Kumasi Central Market.
The National Sanitation Day, started on November 1, 2014, as a nationwide cleaning activity to be held simultaneously across the country every month.
In a strategic move, the exercise is now hosted by one of the 10 regions, which according to the Local Government Ministry, is aimed at providing an opportunity for the ministry to know the peculiar environmental challenges in the host regions, in order to deal with them adequately.
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