The government of Ghana led by the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has suddenly failed under the pretext of lip-service approach in the fight of the novel coronavirus pandemic where the precious lives of our young girls and boys are being mischievously traded with politics.
President Nana Ad do’s ”robot and go-it-alone style” has symbolized his response to the COVID-19 crisis, of which he has reflected his focus on politics instead of the crying Ghanaians who solemnly invested the sovereignty of the country into his hands. In a seeming attempt to deflect from his own widely criticized handling of the pandemic…which has led to the death of over 139 Ghanaians to date, Nana Addo turned health experts and civil societies including well-meaning Ghanaians into ”teddy- birds” in his bid to cover up the widespread of coronavirus in the Senior High Schools with the sole aim of achieving political agenda.
A clear vision of robust leadership has been sorely lacking in the Nana Addo administration’s response to the covid-19. Indeed, throughout the crisis, the president did not only fail to stand up for vigorous core principles to end the spread of the virus but rather actualized grounds to increase it spread.
The adamance of the health ministry, the Education Ministry and the covid-19 team even though their best have been exhibited, their recent egocentric approach to the virus is eventually collapsing the trust of Ghanaians. The cogent influence in the health community is an undeniable fact that politics are not playing a key role in the fight of the covid-19…the president and his administration have suddenly taken an entrenched position to facilitate their parochial interest which tends to put the lives of students in danger. ‘We cannot wait to hit by the face with increasing death tolls in our schools before”. Mr. President closed down the school and cancelled the WASSCE and BECE.
Several civil organizations, political parties, the parent-teacher association are all calling on the government to consider the level at which the virus is gradually spreading in the schools and give a thought to it closer and cancellation. The president and the Ministry of Education, however, claimed that experts’ advice has it that requisite facilities have been provided to mitigate the spread of the virus in our schools. Thus, there is no course for alarm.
”Such self-centred expert analysis has failed to arrest the situation. Barely a month since the schools reopened, close to 14 Senior High Schools are said to have been affected with the virus and out of the 14 schools, over 130 students tested covid-19 positive. That notwithstanding, another student from Gwirama Senior High School in the Western Region, Nathaniel Yankey loss his life believe to be the Covid-19
Mr. President, the signals do not look good and the lives of our wards matter most to us. Our concerns as parents and the position of the government are unparalleled and there is no clear cut solution to address the problem in the affected schools. If the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education, the Cocoa board, and the Ministry of Health are said to have been closed down due to the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic, what are our children still doing in the schools?
The key legitimate questions that many parents continue asking are pertinent; The president of the land has gone into self-isolation, the Education Minister, is self-quarantined, the Health Minister is self-quarantined at the time whose presence matters most. The safety of students and the entire country are sitting on tentacles.
Mr. President, have you and your education experts thought of how students who tested positive will be writing the exams if their conditions permit them to do so? All these are legitimate concerns matters to the parent, the invigilators and to how if the infected students are to sit for the exams. How will their papers be marked considering their health stigma?
If we are to consider the discrete response of the Director of Election at the EC who was answering some questions in one of the radio stations, stated equivocally that people who tested positive are considered to be people who are sick and would not have time to think of registration. And if this is applicable in that context, it means that statement applies in the students’ case. Hence the government should not offer the lives of our children for a political game and do the needful thing where it’s applicable.
The Chief Executive Officer
Damak Sanitation Watch & Health
(Mr. Akgri Mbabugri Daniel)
0248998510
CHOICEMEDIANETWORK 