The ‘White House’, one of the iconic buildings in Tema, is rotting away.
The building is falling apart and steps must be taken immediately to refurbish it to provide the needed office accommodation for the various decentralized departments under the Tema West Municipal Assembly (TWMA).
The two-storey building which looks solid and attractive from afar has not seen any major renovation works since its construction many years ago.
Checks from the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), the mother assembly of the TWMA, revealed that Tema ‘White House’ was named after the USA White House to mimic its importance and power when the revolutionary officers hijacked it in the early 1980 after it was built to house the TMA.
The cadres of the 31 December Revolution used the space for summons, adjudication and other revolutionary activities.
Mr. Frank Asante, Tema Metropolitan Public Relations Officer told the Ghana News Agency that, the edifice was constructed to house the TMA, as part of the Tema Ministry Enclave concept.
He said the area also had the offices of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Audit Service, Labour, Rent Control, Health Directorate, Ghana Revenue Authority, Environmental Protection Agency, and Agric Department, among others.
He said Nii Armarh Ashitey opted for the construction of the current office of TMA at the business central area to house the Assembly.
When the revolutionaries vacated the building, some decentralized departments were accommodated in it.
In 2010, the then Tema Metropolitan Security Council (MESEC) toured the building and took the decision to relocate the Electoral Commission, and the Tema Magistrate Court from the second floor which had serious structural cracks with the concrete ceiling falling off on workers.
Thirteen years after, when the Ghana News Agency visited the ‘White House’ which is now under the TWMA, it was observed that even though the first and second floors have been vacated, the ground floor still houses the Tema Metro offices of the National Service Secretariat, Non-Formal Education, and Co-operative Department.
Two of the offices have also been recently painted ready to house the Tema West Office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
Climbing to the first and second floors of the ‘white house’, deep structural cracks and fungal-infested walls were what greeted the GNA. The offices have been long abandoned.
Deep holes have been created in the ceiling as large parts of concrete have fallen off after long years of neglect. The iron rods holding the concrete roofs, are exposed and very rusty, an indication of corrosion due to contact with water, leaking from the roof.
One of the offices had household items with the door locked with a small padlock. The GNA gathered that a lonely woman who was ejected from her room around the area took over the place and made it her home.
Yousif, a Burkinabe haulage truck driver’s mate, who the GNA spotted charging his mobile phone in one of the most corroded and algae infested rooms which used to house the Magistrate Court, said the woman often goes out in the morning and returns at night to sleep.
Ms. Afia Mansa, a food vendor, operating on the compound of the ‘white house’, said she was the unofficial caretaker of the building as she updates officials of the TWMA whenever they visited the place.
Ms. Mansa said day in and day out prospective tenants came around to look at the possibility of renting the place.
Meanwhile, checks at TMWA revealed that the Assembly’s engineers recently visited the White House.
Source: Ghana News Agency