It’s another dull Monday afternoon. Welcome to Madina Market, which is, as usual, garnished with filth and polluted with deafening noise from a concoction of loud music booming from speakers, and shouts from street advertisers and traders. Today, the atmosphere is decorated with red dust. Roofs of shops and windows of parked vehicles are coated with thick layers of brown earth. Trotros and taxis are stuck in unmoving traffic, honking noisily at one another, and emitting harmful gases into the air. The stale air is also flavoured with stench emanating from a refuse dump where a concerned citizen stands akimbo, holding a bottle of petrol and a box of matches, ready to set it ablaze. The smoke from the burning waste will infuse the already polluted air and permeate the noses and clothes of passersby, causing them to move swiftly as they guard their noses with handkerchiefs, and with the hem of their clothes.
The Harmattan season has bowed out. Smiles and hope have embraced the faces of residents in Accra, who couldn’t bear the dryness in the air, and the cracking of lips and soles of the feet. Although many had sacrificed a percentage of their incomes to purchase and store large amounts of nkuto, it is currently of no essence as the Harmattan was not as severe as expected. It however will be kept in anticipation of the next Harmattan season. The only thing no one could still not fathom was why nothing seemed to have changed after its exit. Many are earnestly waiting for the rainy season to come, unfortunately, there has not been any positive sign yet. The farmers are the most worried.