Osu Oxford Street, I call it Osu Oxford Street Boulevard, it just adds a little bet more of a class to the name, or wouldn't you agree? Just let it sink in for a minute, you will see what I mean.
A country is like a house, the capital its living room and all the other rooms form part of the countryside, the other towns and villages. When one gets a visitor, they are welcomed in the living room, the presentation of the living room tells the visitor, the kind of pride one has in their own house and what the rest of the house is going to look like, as such more effort is placed on the living room, this makes Osu Oxford Street our best seat in the house (one of) and this parable of notion stands.
Osu Oxford Street is the street that never sleeps, if in Accra and you feel like going out, but not sure what for or where to go exactly, then Osu Oxford street is your safe and best bet. Be it on your own and needing crowd company or with a group, Osu Oxford Street will always provide the best feel of a night out.
In the day time too, with all the shops opened from jewelry to clothes, coffee bars and restaurants Osu Oxford Street has always got the answer to the question you do not know you are asking.
For most expatriates Osu Oxford Street just feels right, you go there and you are bound to bump into another expatriate, start a conversation and you have an expatriate friend in Accra. Ghanaians are just as friendly if not the friendliest in Africa and so you are never alone is Osu Oxford Street.
As a location in the tourism industry, Osu Oxford is highly featured in Accra. The Republic Bar and Container are among the places that have really made a name for themselves when it comes to a night out.
The trouble here is as with all other places in Accra, the lack of bins around, truth is you will be lucky to find a single public bin on the Osu Oxford Streets or its side streets. This begs the question, where do people dump their refuse and waste, and the answer is to be found in the gutters; from used car tire to plastic bottles all sitting comfortably in the gutter.
The recent addition of the shopping mall has added to the human traffic and thrill in Osu Oxford Street with the increase in pedestrians on the roads there hasn't been a rethink of the demand on the already inefficient and un-managed system in place.
If there was one place that needed to be project well in Accra it is Osu Oxford Street and yet all the stakeholders are slow to take on the responsibility. The city council can be blamed for a lack of effective policies and implementation, but so too will the shop and restaurant owners in the area, after all it is their products and services that are patronized and largely it is their image that is at stake, but in totality it is the image of Ghana that is at stake and our investment into the growth and sustainability of our tourism industry.
Again here the solution is simple, if the city council has not got the will power, the business community can come together and set up a local consortium that then contracts out the cleaning of the streets, provision of bins and any repairs that may be needed to a third party. It is a simple matter of owning one's own environment and addressing the problem that all stakeholders are uncomfortable with.
The consortium locally funded by the business community gets to stipulate into the agreement performance review measures and hold the third party tasked to manage the Osu Oxford Street, road and gutters accountable, doing away with the long process of chasing the local council with all the bureaucracy and limited resource to manage the hygiene issues on the Osu Oxford Street.
As it stands of cause Dey-Innovations Limited is more than happy to take on the role with a detailed program to help develop the necessary structure. It is about time we not only complain of the hygiene problems that face the city, but also take locally engineered and financed steps to deal with the issue for the collective benefit of the whole community.
A look at the current state of the gutter in Osu Oxford Street, Accra
A general look at Osu Oxford Street and the feel and excitement of experience one gets visiting the place
The definition of a civilized society is not just to do with affluence and buying power but also is to do with its ability to control its environment to prevent a health hazard.
Think safety, hygiene and welfare, act now..
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