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Daughter of the late playwright, Efua Sutherland has revealed that the children’s park which is named after her mother was almost given to private developers six years ago.
Prof Esi Sutherland-Addy in an interview on JoyNews’ AM Show revealed that successive governments have had financial constraints in keeping the park running.
As such, some individuals decided that leasing the land out for private development, including office spaces among others, would solve the problem.
Prof Sutherland-Addy indicated that it took the intervention of the family to halt the takeover.
“I think that without making public, there have been some moments in which the Park was almost going to be built on by various entities and we [the family] have been able to get in and say ‘Look, this is just wrong’.
“So there were going to actually take the park and her name to Achimota Forest and we said we are not playing ball on this one,” she told host Benjamin Akakpo on Monday.
According to Prof Sutherland-Addy, with the support of the President of the day, the operation to take over the Children’s Park was halted.
“Interestingly, everybody who was supposed to have been involved on this, when questioned by the Presidency denied having a hand in it,” she noted.
Considering the location of the Park, Prof Sutherland-Addy was of the view that the country would generate a lot of revenue should the government invest in the area.
She also called for stringent legislation in governing parks.
According to her, preserving national parks should not be a convention but one that keeps the adjudicated grounds for eternity.
“I mean there have been near misses. So it is very important for parks to have legislations that make it a park in perpetuity so that it is not just convention.
“We also have to have a board that involves the public and private sectors, suitable NGOs who know what to do with these things and just oversee the development of the park,” she suggested.
Source: myJoy
