Officers and men from the various units of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) who were assigned to join the national sanitation day campaign held in Takoradi last Saturday did not undertake the exercise all by themselves.
They made sure lazy residents in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) dropped the usual Ghanaian attitude of standing by and starring to join the exercise.
However, enforcing the military disciplinary code did not come cheap during the five-hour campaign.
First to be forced into the exercise were truck pushers and other residents who usually pass the night at Market Circle, the central business district. They were all fast asleep at the time the soldiers arrived at the scene, and they were pulled out of bed to participate in the exercise.
The soldiers forced them to sweep and desilt the gutters around the area where they were sleeping and also undertake other menial jobs.
At Old Accra Station, the military officers broke into ‘wee’ smoking ghettos, where energetic young men were hiding and smoking whilst the exercise was in full session.
One of them, who had his bicycle parked around the area, upon noticing the presence of the soldiers, quickly jumped onto his bicycle and rode away with all the speed at his command.
A soldier who spotted the move gave the rider a hot chase, but as determined as the soldier was, the rider widened the gap and headed towards the traffic lights around UBA.
The Member of Parliament for Takoradi Constituency, Okyere Kobinah Darko Mensah, and many others who were involved in the exercise could not help but take a temporary break to watch the drama unfold.
That was not all. Commercial vehicle drivers were also compelled to park and join the exercise. When it ended at mid-day, they were allowed to go about their normal business.
Commercial vehicles that were also coming into the city from various towns and cities were blocked at the various barriers and checkpoints.
Generally, the turn-out was massive and the exercise was very successful. Alhaji Collins Dauda, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, who led government delegation to the region, could not hide his joy following the response the exercise received.
Collins Dauda and his entourage, including Western Regional Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo, and many others, monitored the exercise from start at the Central Business District (CBD) to finish.
They visited all the major storm drains in the city and advised residents to stop dumping plastic waste into drains.
Also in the thick of affairs was the Member of Parliament for Kwesimintsim, Joe Baidoo Ansah.
Hip-life group, VVIP, who were in town to grace the occasion, thrilled their participants with melodious tunes during and after the exercise.
At Gomango in Amanful, the trio of Zeal, Prodigal and Rockstone treated participants to various songs as the exercise gathered momentum.
A group that calls itself Salam Youth Association (SYA), an independent voluntary organisation based in the oil city, also featured prominently in the five-hour exercise.
They took charge of desilting the gutter opposite Edzee filling station around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Takoradi.
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