On November 4, the Ghanaian Times published as its banner headline ‘K’dua Jubilee Park in ruins.
The story painted the picture of how the Ghana@50 monument in the New Juaben South Municipality inthe Eastern Region of the country had been left to deteriorate to the extent of it becoming home to stray animals, lunatics, ‘wee’ smokers and other miscreants.
Just about three weeks after the publication of the sad state of the park, the New Juaben South Municipal Assembly (NJSMA) has announced the first phase of renovation works in an attempt to fix the national facility. (See our story today).
The works, to be carried out before the end of this year, will include re-roofing of the daises, re-painting of the entire place, and the renovation of the entire lighting and sanitary systems
Proving its seriousness to fix the park, the NJSMA told this paper on Wednesday that a team of quantity surveyors and engineers from the assembly had been sent to the park to assess the extent of damage caused by humans and natural occurrences.
What is more assuring is that even before the assessment would be done, the Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Isaac Appaw-Gyasi, says “fortunately, for the first phase, we have got the financials together and are going to put our heads together to get the place fixed as quickly as possible since the place is now a centre of activities in the town,” stressing that that logistics for the second phase of renovation works would be included in the Assembly’s 2021/2022 budget.
The Ghanaian Times is happy with the response from the New Juaben Municipal Assembly because if it fixes the deteriorating facility, it will have rendered an invaluable service to the immediate people who want to use the place to organize events.
It is evident that like all other urban areas of the country, Koforidua cannot boast large-enough spaces for holding big events, so the Jubilee Park is a sure place for events that would not give organisers stress as to where to organize their activities in the regional capital.
And while giving event organisers the opportunity to have things easy, the assembly, obviously, would charge them, thereby recouping the money spent on fixing the facility and even going beyond to make profit.
The response also encourages reporters and their newspapers to do more to call attention to problems of society for solution.
After all, the media is the mouthpiece of the people, especially where they cannot find it easy to have interactions with the powers that be.
This paper, therefore, wishes to commend the NJSMA for not ignoring the publication but has responded to it in good time to, at least, assure stakeholders, especially those who would like to use the place to hold events, that their hopes would not be dashed.
Sometimes, it becomes difficult to get heads of organisations to speak to problems, much more get them to act by way of solving them.
These people hold the view that the media is always in to expose or harm them, while in fact, the media is a principal partner in development and always seeking to identify problems for solution.
The move by the New Juaben South Municipal Assembly is worthy of emulation, but its leadership should note that failure to fix the facility within the stipulated time would be another banner headline.
