Road signs are very important. They provide valuable information to road users that help maintain orderliness; thereby reducing road accidents.
In Ghana, election years come with a lot of campaign posters designed for presidential and parliamentary candidates who are contesting for political positions.
During such election seasons, most political campaign posters are usually seen pasted on fence walls, trees, pavements and so on.
In the Upper East Region however, some of these posters by political actors are found on road signs along major streets in Bolgatanga, the regional capital.
A1 News on a visit to Bolgatanga township last week sighted a campaign poster of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on a pedestrian crossing sign near the Upper East Regional Police Headquarters.
Moving some meters away towards the central part of the town, the News Team again sighted a campaign poster of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) pasted on a traffic lights sign near the MTN main office.
These and many others sighted on the streets of Bolgatanga by A1 News clearly show scenes of defaced road signs.
Now one may ask; how do you expect road users to duly observe road signs when these road signs have been covered with political campaign posters?
This inappropriate action poses a serious danger on the road as drivers and other road users are unable to see the road signs which are meant to communicate valuable information to them.
In this case, commuters especially those who are not familiar with the town are left to their fate; and could be found unintentionally disregarding road signs; resulting in casualties.
Some road users in an interaction with this reporter expressed worry over what they described as failure of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) to show concern over the road signs being defaced with campaign posters; adding that the posters would have been removed if the Authority was concerned about the situation.
Some also blamed presidential and parliamentary candidates for not educating their members to observe best practices when pasting their campaign posters.
The concerned road users therefore appealed to politicians to call their members to order.
They further called on the NRSA to take action towards dealing with the situation to help reduce road accidents in the regional capital.
Responding to the situation in an interview with A1 News, the Upper East Regional Director of the National Road Safety Authority, Dennis Yeribu, noted that “If someone has blocked the meaning of an informatory sign, it goes to the detriment of the road user because the road user needs the information to access the road at a certain time.”
He did not only blame political parties but also religious denominations, business owners and other companies.
“People advertise their programs and products; and they just paste them on the road signs thereby rendering the road signs useless.” He lamented.
Mr. Yeribu went to admonished political parties, religious denominations as well as business owners and other companies “to be a bit observant and very educative of their boys who they send out to go and do some of these things {pasting of posters} so that when they are well trained they will also do the right things on the road.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHZ|Nana Yaa Mensah|Ghana
