When Hawkers & Human Windscreen Wipers Make You Lose It!

Last week as I was heading home from work I happened to find myself waiting for the red light at the Legon-Okponglo junction to turn green. Those of you familiar with that road must be aware of the human windscreen wipers who take you unawares and start to wipe your sometimes already clean windscreen with hopes of getting some loose change.

On this particular day I was tired and in a bad mood when this guy just appeared. I asked him to stop but he wouldn't listen. After performing the unwanted service he started tapping at my window and asking for money. I told him I didn't have any and the next thing I heard him say was "Wo maame twɛ".  I looked at him, laughed and said "You are still not getting a pesewa from me" as the light turned green and I drove off.

What annoys me is the worn out "wiper" they use when  they are supposedly cleaning your windscreen. It mostly does more harm that good if you ask me.

Things Are Falling Apart...

Sigh! They are waiting for that hanging part to drop on an innocent pedestrian or driver on a windy day. 

Deadly Billboards...

One only needs to walk along the streets of Accra to see that outdoor advertising has become a very common means of exposing brands and products in the nation's capital Accra. Huge billboards advertising cars, mobile phones, banks, rice etc. can be found all over the city but it is those by the roadsides that command the attention of the viewer, due to their sizes and bright display of colours and creative flexibility. And, considering that it is always there 24hrs a day with no interruption, it is therefore no wonder that many advertisers who can afford it prefer this mode of advertising.

My problem with these billboards however, is how they are mounted and maintained. Have these billboard constructing companies forgotten that we are talking about tonnes of metal that could instantly create havoc if not handled with utmost care and responsibility? Anytime I'm going to the Legon Total Filling Station I say a little prayer as I drive underneath a billboard structure which used to advertise the Huawei range of tablets 

(would have taken a picture but the road does not really accommodate parking). The thing is literally falling apart! I sure hope that a piece (or the whole) of it doesn't decide to come crashing down when someone is driving by; it would be catastrophic! And that isn't the only faulty one I've seen!

AMA, AAG, DDP and the rest of you who work in the billboard construction and mounting industry, I beg of you, our lives are too precious to be risked by ignorance and incompetency.