The concerned citizens of the Tema Metropolitan have backed down on their decision to sue the Tema Metropolitan Assembly for an alleged attempt to sell the Tema children’s park.
Earlier, the citizens threatened to sue the authorities over the alleged sale, which would have seen the park develop into a casino.
However, they have since backed down on their decision after receiving an assurance from the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) and the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) to stop construction work by a Chinese developer on the 6.2-acre land and to ensure that the facility continues to be used for its existing purpose.
Derek Laryea, a lead member of the Concerned citizen group in an interview with Citi News on Wednesday, 25th October 2023 mentioned that the group rescinds its decision on the law suit based on claims of arbitration and mediation.
“Nobody is excited about going to walk in a law court. If we go to court today and the authorities are adjoined to the suit and they come and say they are willing to do what we say, there would be no case. We will be asked to go and mediate so before you go to court, you’ll obviously mediate, and mediation and arbitration is part of legal processes.”
He added that stop signs have been put up on the park by authorities to stop the ongoing project.
“You’ll see a stop sign; we didn’t put this up. It was put up by the municipal assembly to say that going forward, we are stopping any work that is going on here. This place is demarcated for Childrens park, recreational purposes, as it was intended many years ago.”
In an exclusive interview with Univers News, an educationist, Daniel Fenyi, emphasized that recreational facilities are key in the development of a child. According to him, the selling and buying of a recreational facility for children is a sign of negligence.
“Recreation is a very important part of the child’s development. If you take it away from them, you’ve practically deprived them of one of the most important things they should know in their lives. The idea of selling the children’s park is a sign of disrespect and negligence to children. It means that, you don’t value children, children are properly nurtured if you want them to become responsible adults.”
Mr. Fenyi further added that, it was about time that the government paid keen attention to recreational facilities by allocating funds to improve on the state of the facilities, inculcating a culture of maintenance as well.
“The government should find a way of allocating funding for these facilities. There are a lot of NGO’s and international organizations that are particularly interested in generally vulnerable people including children, I feel that it’s about time initiatives are taken to talk to some of these associations to commit some attention to these recreational centers. However, maintenance is also key because after getting all arrangements in place, you would need a very high maintenance culture which is generally a challenge in this country.”
He called on those in charge of these recreational facilities to make it their core duty in properly maintaining the facilities.
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Story by: Zaghe Amey Mwinsongma | univers.ug.edu.gh
