Simone Osei Mensah and Osei Asibey Antwi
The Kejetia Market is a beautiful edifice to behold and even celebrate. Beneath the beauty, however, is a worrying reality: a no-love-lost relationship between the Ashanti Regional Minister and the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) of Kumasi.
These are two persons holding two critical positions germane to the progress of the new market.
So much dust was generated in the build-up to the demonstration and construction of the market and just when eventually that settled down and we thought it was going to be smooth-sailing, we have this maelstrom.
After spending so many funds to put what could pass for the most imposing market structure in the West African sub-region, the people of Kumasi and the rest of the country have cause to fret.
A couple of days ago, the regional minister was reported to have said he would stand against any attempt at having former occupants of the market pay extra money to have their shops back. He was obviously calling the bluff of the MCE.
While we are appreciative of his goodness towards the former occupants of the facility, we would have wished that his subtle outburst did not have to take this form. Various interpretations could be given to this, all which are anything but acceptable.
The many incidents of government appointees at the regional and even district levels unable to subdue their frosty relationships and so often the subject of gossips by the people they are both expected to serve should be stopped forthwith.
We do not know the cause of the unacceptable trend in the Ashanti Region but suffice it to call on the duo to consider mending their fences for the general good of the people.
Even before matters got to this bend, radio stations in Kumasi were awash with various stories about the new market. The twists and turns appear to be continuing as many former occupants have to endure constantly mutating conditions for the re-occupation of the facility.
One of the first stories was that former occupants should pay a certain amount of money beyond the GH¢10,000 mark. When that proved rather too difficult for the former occupants, the conditions were varied with a bank loan dangled in front of them for accessing.
The frustration was getting out of hand something we think should not have been the case. After satisfying the basic conditions, it seems most of the former occupants still have obstacles in their way, leaving the market not halfway full yet.
We ask that the KMA and the regional minister find common grounds which would, of course, inure to the interest of the former occupants.
These are men and women, breadwinners of their families, who have been off their occupations for as long as the construction period lasted. They should be spared the effects of the misunderstanding between the two important persons in the region and the outrageous conditional payments.
We shall humbly call on the intervention of the Otumfuo who has always insisted on fairness in such matters. The former occupants look up to him for his fatherly intervention at such times through firstly an amicable resolution of the impasse between the two appointees and secondly the return of former occupants to the facility under soft conditions
