Decongestion (Part 1)

Congestion—who isn’t aware and who isn’t involved!

We hear the call to decongest our roads, markets, and sidewalks. The noise of eviction notices rings loud when hawkers flood the walkways, when traders abandon stalls for quick cash by the roadside. We blame them, we chase them, we drive them out.

But who will decongest the hearts of power? Who will clear the corruption choking the arteries of our institutions? Who will face the quiet but dangerous traffic in our governance, in our systems, in our souls?

Decongestion should not end with the streets, it must begin at the top.

When the Business Committee of Parliament becomes a congestion of deals rather than a planner of progress, the nation stalls. When those meant to streamline our lawmaking instead create bottlenecks of favour-trading and partisan schedules, who clears that path?

What of the Appointments Committee? Is it not heavily jammed with political traffic, where merit is often pushed aside for loyalty, where competence is slowed down by connections? How can the nation move forward when clogged filters screen our future?

And the Public Accounts Committee tasked with accountability but riddled with hesitations. Files pile up like abandoned traffic at a broken traffic light. Voices rise in committee rooms but fall flat on action. Funds go missing, but findings gather dust.

Then there is the silent congestion of ministerial lobbying, where agents roam the corridors like hawkers, only their goods are names, cash, and influence. The stalls are now leather chairs, and the goods aren’t tomatoes but titles. Who will clear them out?

Members of Parliament, chosen to serve, often find themselves in gridlock between pleasing their constituents and pleasing their party. When government policies wait in queue behind private interests and backdoor negotiations, who gives the green light?

Even at local levels, District Chief Executives and elected Assembly Members navigate roads of compromise. Campaign promises turn to dead ends. Community development is gridlocked between family favours and political survival. The grassroots cry, unheard in the jam.

Congestion has entered our state enterprises too. CEOs of government agencies often carry the burden of party loyalty more than national duty. Recruitment becomes clogged with nepotism. Projects stall as procurement becomes a detour for personal gain.

And then, the most ironic congestion, party primaries. Candidates flood delegates with gifts, money, and manipulation. The roads to leadership are narrowed to those who can pay their way through. Votes, once sacred, now change hands like loose change in trotro buses.

Everywhere, there’s gridlock.

It’s a shame, everyone is aware, yet we act honorably.

Decongestion is not just a matter of clearing streets; it is a matter of clearing consciences. You cannot evict a roadside hawker and ignore the cluttered greed in your office. You cannot claim order in society when disorder is our governance language.

Let us speak with urgency. The country is choking not from market women selling tomatoes but from leaders selling integrity.

And we, the citizens, are not guiltless. We often cheer the very people who block our future, so long as they throw crumbs our way. We accept the jam, the delay, the decay so long as we believe we might one day join the convoy of the privileged.

But the nation cannot move when its engine is jammed by hypocrisy.

This is a call to action.

Let Parliament clean itself before cleaning pavements.

Let appointments be decongested of nepotism before we decongest bus terminals.

Let party leadership unclog the path to power before we unclog storm drains.

Let us all realize decongestion is not just physical; it is moral, systemic and spiritual. If the nation must move, we must all move with truth, with courage, and with sacrifice.

Let those who sit in offices know that we see the jam.

Let those who talk of reforms know that we feel the delay.

And let those who wear titles know that titles do not clear traffic, they often cause it.

Until we decongest the systems, every eviction is a lie. Every campaign is hypocrisy. Every honourable is dishonourable.

Decongest the soul of this nation. Begin from the top.

 

Decongestion (Part 2)

Congestion—who isn’t aware and who isn’t involved!

Last time, we laid bare the jam in our corridors of power. But the truth runs deeper. The congestion is not only political, it is cultural, habitual and disturbingly accepted.

It’s in the ordinary, in the everyday, in the things we all do and pretend not to notice.

At the trotro station, when the rains come or the sun burns too hard, the mate quickly adjusts the fare. No receipt, no warning, just congestion of conscience. The logic? “We’re suffering too.” And so, we trap each other in a cycle of justified exploitation.

We do it at fuel stations too. There’s a sudden shortage and just like that, prices climb. Pumps slow down. Queues form. Then the whispers: “there’s fuel, but you have to know someone.” Congestion is no longer on the road, but in the truth.

And what of those trying to travel or register a business? The line is long but someone who “knows someone” walks in, gets what they need, and leaves. The rest? They wait or pay or return tomorrow. Another system choked not with people but with bribes and shortcuts.

Even the media, once a channel of clarity, is congested with bias. A politician can pay for silence or a smear campaign. Truth now negotiates airtime. Integrity competes with patronage. Public trust is stuck in a jam of paid headlines and filtered stories.

Let’s not forget the government offices; passport, license, permit, you name it. The congestion is not just from demand but from the gatekeepers who slow things down to create black markets. A signature that should take minutes can take weeks unless money clears the way.

Congestion is no longer about movement; it’s about mentality.

We are a nation gridlocked by favour, by fear and by greed. From high offices to household levels, we have normalized the traffic of injustice.

And yet, we shout when hawkers crowd the road.

We send task forces to remove them, as if they are the only disorder we can see. We act like congestion is an urban problem and not a national one. We blindfold ourselves to the truth that the real chaos is in our conduct not our kiosks.

It’s a shame! Everyone is aware, yet we act honourable.

So what is the way forward?

We must begin with repentance, not just reform. Policies without principles are like roads without direction; they may be paved but they go nowhere.

Let those who control transportation stop taking advantage of struggle. Let the passengers who fuel the corruption by offering “top-up” to skip queues, stop justifying it with “everybody does it.”

Let the fuel station managers know that manipulating supply is not smart business, it’s national sabotage.

Let the public officers know that every delayed document is a denied dream.

Let the journalists know that every twisted story is another jam on the road to truth.

Let the influencers, social commentators, artists, and spiritual leaders stop entertaining dysfunction and start confronting it.

Decongestion is not just about clearing the streets. It is about clearing the excuses.

It is about unclogging our values. About removing the unseen blockages in our ethics and expectations. About realizing that the system is slow not because it’s large but because it’s clogged with complicity.

This is a call to self-purging.

You don’t need a title to clear your lane. You just need truth.

You don’t need a badge to stop corruption. You just need to stop feeding it.

You don’t need a revolution to change the nation. You just need to refuse to participate in the congestion.

If we all stop bribing, stop skipping lines, stop cheating, stop praising those who cheat, the system will move.

So before we send another taskforce to remove market women, let us send truth to remove the rot in our ranks.

While we chase hawkers off the sidewalk, let us chase dishonesty from our systems.

Because until the people decongest themselves, the nation cannot breathe.

Decongestion starts with you. Right where you are.
Not on the road but in your role.

Written by; Alice Frimpong Sarkodie

MsSark Lifecoach

Director: Nobel Heights School

Ex. Sec. Women’s League Platform

Co.founder: Women Leaders International