Stories by Sebastian R. Freiku
The popular Paul Sagoe Lane in Kumasi in honour of the Kumasi-based businessman, Nana Paul Sagoe alias Nana Kofi Enu V, Tufuhen of the Ekumfi State in the Central Region and Member of the Nkosuo Division of the Kumasi Traditional Council, has been renamed under the street naming project being undertaken by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA).
Paul Sagoe Lane now has two names. A part of the Lane is now Aburatiaso Walk, and the other Akyawkromhene Walk.
The late Asantehene Otumfuo Opoku Ware II and the Asantehemaa, Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem, had bestowed that honour on the Fante indigene for being able to singlehandedly transform the once stinking area in the Central Business District of Kumasi to a desirable place, by financing the construction of the first Kumasi Improved Ventilation Pit (KVIP) in the whole of Kumasi, to improve the sanitation in the area at the time he established Sanbra Hotel there.
In January 2002, the KMA contracted ASI Zipcode Systems Limited to embark on a street naming and house numbering project with a contract sum of GH¢1,200,000 to establish the orientation system of the City of Kumasi .
The project is using demarcations of the Land Valuation Board as a guide to identify areas in the Kumasi Metropolis, and to produce and install 100,000 house numbers and number all vacant plots for easy identification of areas, places, businesses and homes.
It would also produce and install 6,000 street name signage poles with two street names for easy direction, faster delivery of letters/mail, and quick response to emergencies by the Fire Service, police and ambulance service.
Mr. Owusu Bempah, Managing Director of ASI Zipcode Systems Limited, the project contractors, told Ashanti File that the decision to rename the Paul Sagoe Lane emanated from deliberations of a committee by KMA, upon recommendation of Manhyia to name all streets, avenues and walks in the Central Business District of Adum to the original 77 townships that constitute Kumasi, and that save those named after Colonial masters like Guggisburg Road, streets bearing the names of indigenes should be changed.
A proposed Paul Sagoe Street at Adum, for which Nana Sagoe contributed GH¢1,500.00, cannot materialise because of the decision, according to Mr. Owusu Bempah. He said however, that a Street at Patasi where Nana Sagoe resides has been named Paul Sagoe Avenue in recognition of his contribution.
Nana Boakye Ansah Debrah, Asokore Mamponghene, who heads the Manhyia Committee for Street Naming, corroborated Mr. Owusu-Bempah’s explanation, adding that Nana Paul Sagoe had done a lot for Kumasi.
Traders at the Paul Sagoe Lane were not happy because the change would affect business addresses and directions.
Some of them are angered that a decision by the late Oumfuo Opoku Ware and the Asantehemaa, in honour of an illustrious resident, had been reversed in like manner as Dr. Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, the Accra Mayor, unilaterally re-named the Theodosia Okoh Hockey Stadium after the late John Evan Atta Mills recently.
Oko Vanderpuije’s decision has since been reversed by His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama on seeing the impropriety of the decision.
Nana Paul Sagoe could not be reached for his reaction. “Sorry, Nana is out of town” came an answer from the other end, when the paper called his landline of his Patasi residence.