The Major Mahama road, named after the late Major Mahama who was tragically lynched in 2017 at Denkyira Obuasi while on guard duties, is not only known for its popularity.
The road also leads to major areas in Accra including East Legon, Spintex road, Teshie, Nungua and Burma camp.
Despite the road being classified as a security zone and having a military cemetery, the road is covered with total darkness at night due to non-functioning streetlights.
Although the National Road Safety Authority has stated that inadequate street lighting contributes to over 30 per cent of road crashes, none of the streetlights on the Major Mahama road works. The poles are just mere white elephants decorating the stretch with total darkness at night.
Any motorist plying the route would dread experiencing a mechanical fault at night but David Tetteh, a student at UniMAC IFT was unlucky. On his way from lectures, his motorbike developed a fault right at the roundabout.
He expressed how fearful he was for his life. “I know there are some potholes here but because it is dark, I couldn’t see whether I am close to it or not. As I am stuck here, I don’t know whether someone will come and stab me, or someone will even pick my phone.”
Road users lamented the insecurity regarding non-functioning streetlights and appealed to the authorities to fix them.
Gideon Agyei said “If you don’t have a vehicle or a lady is using this road, it is unsafe for them. It is our wish that the streetlights are fixed.”
“If someone is being attacked, no one can save the person. I have witnessed people being robbed of their belongings but because of poor visibility, we couldn’t even identify the person”, Obeng Abraham expressed.
There are also concerns of the utilisation of the 1% levy on domestic electricity consumption to maintain streetlights. Richard Azu, a road user added that the levy should be utilised. “If your car is faulty on the road, within 5 minutes, you could be attacked. We plead with our leaders to use the 1% levy we pay for streetlights to fix them.”
