When Authorities Fail: Ghana’s N6 Gridlock And The Collapse Of Public Order

What occurred on the Accra–Kumasi Highway (N6) at Asankare on New Year’s Eve transcends mere traffic mismanagement. It constitutes a serious failure of state institutions, bordering on dereliction of duty, and demands accountability at the highest levels of Ghana’s security and public order administration.

The Chronicle understands that the Philadelphia Church is located just a few meters from the N6 at Asankare and the huge volume of vehicles attempting to enter the premises resulted in a mind-boggling tailback along this critical stretch, going across Atwidie, Juaso, Konongo and adjoining areas. Thousands of commuters were stranded for up to 24 hours. Flights were missed, medical appointments abandoned, businesses disrupted and families separated at a time meant for national celebration.

This outcome was neither accidental nor unforeseeable. The Philadelphia Church’s crossover programmes are annual mass gatherings known to draw worshippers from across the country. Any competent security assessment would have identified the obvious risk of holding such an event in close proximity to Ghana’s most critical highway. That it was nevertheless authorised points to either gross incompetence or willful disregard for public safety.

The key issue is authorisation. The Chronicle asks – Who approved this programme? What intelligence, traffic modelling, or risk analysis informed that decision? If no proper assessment was conducted, officials responsible for granting the permit failed in their statutory duty. If such assessments were conducted and ignored, then the matter escalates from negligence to reckless endangerment.

Equally incriminating is the response or lack thereof from the Philadelphia Church leadership. Almost week after the incident, no public apology has been issued. Leadership entails responsibility. Silence in the face of national disruption reflects a troubling indifference to the hardship inflicted on thousands of ordinary Ghanaians.

This was not an act of God. It was a foreseeable consequence of poor planning, weak regulation and inexplicable official approval. The Chronicle reiterates that it upholds freedom of religion and recognises the important role religious leaders play in Ghanaian society.

However, freedom of worship does not extend to the obstruction of critical national infrastructure. No responsible state permits a mass gathering of this magnitude to be held along its most strategic transport corridor without watertight traffic, safety, and emergency-response arrangements.

President John Mahama’s response at the New Year School at the University of Ghana also raises questions. Instead of addressing the institutional failures that permitted such disruption, he merely noted that a church activity along the N6 caused traffic on the eve of new year, without probing why a mass gathering of such magnitude was allowed on a critical national highway. The Chronicle asserts that Ghanaian citizens deserve leadership that confronts failures, not skirts them. This discourse is not an attack on religious freedom. Freedom of worship is constitutionally protected, but it does not supersede public safety, national interest, or the rule of law.

No institution, religious or otherwise, is above scrutiny. Scripture itself demands foresight and responsibility; Luke 14:28 teaches the necessity of counting the cost before embarking on any undertaking. That principle appears to have been ignored by both organisers and regulators.

The Chronicle maintains that this incident warrants more than public outrage; it demands accountability. An independent inquiry must be instituted immediately, with oversight from the Ministry of the Interior and Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, to determine culpability.

Officials who authorised this event without adequate safeguards must be sanctioned. Any police officers found to have extorted motorists must face disciplinary and criminal proceedings.

Ghana now faces a stark choice: will our highways, institutions, and laws function under order and accountability, or will they be surrendered to influence, negligence, and impunity? The Philadelphia gridlock is not just a traffic story, it is a test of governance, of the rule of law and of the moral compass of those in power.

The rule of law must not end at the Church gate. Ghana cannot afford to let it.

 

 

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