MUSIGA’s Impending Road Safety Campaign In Honor Of Ebony Reigns; Too Little Too Late Or A Step In The Right Direction?

In Ghana, everybody knows what must be done but nobody is doing it. Till tragedy hits way too close to home, we don’t see the need to do anything about impending doom till it hits us and we cry had-I-known. Accidents happen day in and day out in different places and we are quiet about it.

People die every day in car accidents either as a result of reckless driving or poor road infrastructure but we just complain, organize another funeral and move on. It is only when a public figure like Ebony is involved that we suddenly see the need to lend our voices. Those in authority seldom do what is expected of them till there is a mass public outcry, then they come out to give long speeches, blame predecessors and pretend to do something about the situation till another tragedy catches our attention and all is forgotten till something similar happens later.

The death of popular dancehall artist Ebony has once again sparked the need for the public to be educated on road safety. The president of the Musicians’ Union Of Ghana (MUSIGA), Bice Osei Kufuor aka Obour, at the one-week celebration of Ebony’s demise, indicated that the union is about to embark on a road safety campaign in honor of the late singer and others who have lost their lives through road accidents. The union intends to put pressure on stakeholders to provide quality infrastructure and promote road safety practices in order to reduce the number of deaths caused by road accidents.

Obour himself narrowly escaped death through road accident some years back but never saw the need to champion this cause until now. We hope it’s not just talk as usual and the union takes up this campaign and collaborates with the relevant stakeholders in educating the public on road safety as well as put pressure on authorities to fix bad roads that lead to accidents such as the one that led to the demise of Ebony.

Also, we need to monitor drivers, especially those who drive commercial vehicles and make sure they have the right training and discipline to be entrusted with the lives of others. Let’s create awareness every chance we get and not wait for another Ebony to perish before we show up in all red and pretend to be champions of a cause when we could have done what we could with the platform we have to avert such disasters.