By Napoleon Ato Kittoe
Accra city authorities are grappling with a myriad of challenges, among these the incidence of pavement encroachment by traders. However, animals in open spaces, be they controlled or straying, also provide disturbing evidence about the city’s unpreparedness to stand up to one more criterion of judging urban modernity.
Roaming herds of cattle are too conspicuous due to the size of cows, and their weird presence is a sure bet that the bylaws that seek orderliness in the Ghanaian capital have been trampled by this animal.
Some examples of how cows roaming the street corners could go wrong.
A cow deviated from the course of its group or the cattle herd and went a bit wild, for it knew not which way to go. The animal ran into items on its way like a mechanical force, disorganizing social order and road traffic flow on that occasion.
In another instance, vehicular traffic came to a standstill in the night rush hour when the herdsman lost control of the cows. The animals numbered about eighty or more. They barged into a busy section of human and vehicular traffic in the city, forcing movement gridlocks and humans to dive for cover in all directions. In taking to their heels, frightened traders instinctively abandoned their wares at the mercy of thieves.
In the city of Accra, one of the bizarre but common scenes is bumping into cows in the streets. At times, the animals could be visitors in residential compounds, pointing their long, conical horns, whose piercing could prove fatal.
On the beachfront of the city, where wooden structures serve as government offices, a cow that went on the loose, or perhaps berserk, entered offices and threw off gear for the official businesses being conducted.
It was quite a scene as workers made haste to remove window covers and jump out of the windows.
The cow stayed put at the exit door, not moving an inch, testing its physical strength against the unfriendly but abstract by-laws.