Veteran journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr has lashed out at Ghana’s Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for ordering that the Kejetia Market, which portion got burnt, should be opened for business in the face of the risk the facility still poses to the general public.
The Vice President’s directive comes three days after the management of the market closed down the market for extra one week after the fire outbreak that affected scores of shops.
“I think we should stop populism in decision making. Populism in decision making is not in our interest, it’s not in the interest of the people,” Mr. Pratt stated on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana on Wednesday.
“This directive that the market should be opened is clearly populist, absolutely populist not backed by science, not backed by the evidence, not backed by anything.”
Even before the intervention of Dr. Bawumia, some traders’ associations at Kejetia had vowed to ignore the directive by the Kumasi City Market to close down the market, in obvious mistrust of the ability of management to fix the root cause of the fire outbreaks.
The Interior Ministry had also given the Fire Service one-week to complete investigation and submit report on the fire incident.
However, Vice President Bawumia, who visited the affected areas on Monday, March 20, said per engagement with the management of the facility and experts, particularly the Ghana National Fire Service and the National Disaster Management Organisation, the traders can reoccupy their stalls the following day.
“If anything affects you, it affects me and everyone,” he sympathised with the teeming traders.
But Kwesi Pratt, who is the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, insisted that, “Whoever briefed the vice president must have misinformed him. The directive the vice president gave is hugely problematic and if we do not take care we will exacerbate the problem of the Kumasi central market”.
In his assessment, the fire could have been averted but for the “absolute administrative recklessness” of persons in charge of the facility.
Reading copiously from a risk assessment report presented to management of the market, 11 clear months before last week’s fire incident, the veteran journalists supported the initial call for the market to be shut down, until issues raised in the report are properly addressed.
“When the vice president was instructing that the market should be opened, was he not aware of this report?” he asked.
The report found out among other things that the market lacked accessories and firefighting equipment; smoke detectors there were damaged and needed substitution, blown fuses as well as removal of fire hydrants.
Nevertheless, the Member of Parliament for Afigya Kwabre North, Collins Adomako-Mensah, who was with the vice president when he toured the market said he “disagrees” with Kwesi Pratt that the vice president was “misled”.
He said the vice president was properly briefed about the immediate cause of the fire, noting that Dr. Bawumia’s directive was based on information received from the fire service that “the electrical work at the entire market has not been affected”.
But Kwesi Pratt chipped in that the populism he referred to has nothing to do with the immediate cause of the fire, “it has everything to do with the safety of the market…this report shows that the whole of the market has defect”.
He asserted that the report contradicts the position of the Vice President that those not affected by the fire do not run any risk, “this report says that that is not true”.