What a difference a road makes

My old man bought his house in Teshie-Nungua back in 1970. Back in those days, Teshie-Nungua was the original Domeabra, where only those who really cared about you, dared to make the journey to visit you. However being only 15km from the Centre, it was not really that far. I started driving to Teshie-Nungua back in 1983. In those days, we used to live in Labone  and Teshie-Nungua was only a 20 minute drive away from Teshie-Nungua. It was an interesting drive, where one would drive, past the coastline dotted with the canoes of the fishermen, then over the bridge across the Kpeshie Lagoon, past the shooting range where the images of past leaders being tied to the stake and executed, would flash briefly through my mind. Finally the drive would take one through the fishing town of Teshie, and then finally into the "Estate" as it was then called.

Back to the present and to the subject matter. In recent times, a drive to Teshie-Nungua was synonymous with a drive through hell. Traffic would begin as far as La Palm and stretch all the way to the shooting range. The 20 minute journey now took a minimum of an hour. And to compound it all, hawkers darted in and out of cars, while mosquitoes generated by the stagnant waters of the Kpeshie lagoon, clamoured to have a go at depriving you of a few sips of blood.In a desperate bid to escape the traffic, we would resort to bush roads. These would reward our bravery with huge bills for repairing damaged vehicular suspension components. We couldn’t organise parties and invite our friends over because they would politely refer to the traffic.

Well it has all changed. A project to widen the road into a 6 lane highway has been partly completed. One day after my usual rounds in town, I visited my classmate Wakefield Ackuaku in Osu and hung around until 8pm. With apprehension, I pointed the car in the direction of Teshie-Nungua and floored the pedal. As I approached La Beach hotel I wondered why there was no traffic. I crossed the Bridge over the Kpeshie and sped towards the Military Academy. Still no traffic. I begun to wonder whether something was wrong. As I sped past the Military academy the road suddenly widened and road markings suddenly appeared on the road. It was a brand new road and I just sped along it without any traffic in sight.

There was something surreal about it all. In 12 years of horrible traffic along that road, there simply was none.I remember asking myself . ."was that all it took?" A portion of a road, partially complete, could make such a huge difference to traffic and to the general well being of commuters to that part of town. Thats how bad things had become.I remember feeling sad. If only our leaders would focus on doing what they are supposed to do, the quality of our lives would improve dramatically. The road is not even finished and yet is making a huge difference. That’s how bads thing are. Or were.

Going home never felt so good, getting home never felt so cool . . . God bless Ghana.