John Dramani Mahama
The women’s wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Loyal Ladies, have described former President John Mahama’s attacks on the government over the coronavirus pandemic as irresponsible.
According to the Loyal Ladies in a statement, it is unacceptable for Mr Mahama to seek to make political capital on the pandemic.
The Loyal Ladies made this known in a statement signed by eight of them including Ellen Ama Daaku, Florence Boatema, Ahmed Sherifa Tiyumba, Doris Dzifa Kaledzi, Lawrencia Entsuah, Cindy B. Mwinlakpeng, Salomey Asiedu, Yayra Agbeehia.
According to them,
the coronavirus pandemic is a worldwide health crisis that, in living memory, is unprecedented.
Across the world, they in the statement, it has put governments on the backfoot, hitherto never having had to confront a pandemic of such virulence.
“It therefore ill-behoves any opposition figurehead, let alone an erstwhile president, to make political capital from a catastrophe which has spared no nation in its malevolence, claiming thousands of lives.”
“Former president John Mahama’s behavior has been nothing but irresponsible.”
“This is not to say that constructive criticism is not welcome. Any government should welcome ideas on how matters can be handled better, for now and the future.”
“However, there is a marked difference between constructive criticism and playing a game of political football for electoral gain, especially when a former president predicates that game on exaggeration, lies and a stating of the obvious.”
“When all stakeholders – traditional, religious, political and civil society leaders – have come together with the government in an effort to fight coronavirus, Mr. John Mahama seeks to make political capital by accusing the government of “failing the people of Ghana”. This accusation is risible as much as it is false. One would do well to examine the facts.”
It is acknowledged that Ghana, on a per capita basis, has implemented the widest testing regime in Africa, they claimed.
Out of about 120,000 people traced, Ghana has been able to test 100,000 people, they said in the statement.
It should be noted that consistently through the period of testing, the positive tests have remained stable and the death rate has been relatively small, according to them.
As of May 10th, about 4,263 people had tested positive, 378 recovered and 18 had died.
“Majority of those we have unfortunately lost to this insidious virus had underlying health conditions.”
The data collected as a result of the hard work of health professionals and medical experts indicate that the footprints of the virus has been felt mostly in the two urban hotspots of Accra and Kumasi, they said.
“Hence, government is able to identify the geographic footprints of the virus and concentrate testing on where it is needed, thus being strategic with the deployment and allocation of limited resources. This also arms government with enough information to implement measures to arrest the spread of COVID-19,” according to them.
“Alongside this, the wearing of masks is being actively promoted and most importantly, so are basic sanitation measures all of us can take. Thus, when Mr. John Mahama claims he wants to “encourage you, yet again, to protect yourself. Regular hand washing with soap and water under running water is a must”, he is stating the obvious as well as patronising Ghanaians. A man of his supposed stature should be adding something more insightful to general public discourse.”
” But it is evident he lacks the capacity or the will to do so. For him, every utterance is couched for maximum political advantage, which is evident of how devoid of integrity he is.”
“He has ignored the facts, only seeking to pontificate whilst offering nothing constructive. He achieved nothing as president and it is evident that he has achieved nothing in opposition as well.”
“We admonish former president John Mahama to emulate the statesmanship of past leaders such as H.E John Agyekum Kuffour and put a stop to the irresponsible spectacle he is subjecting Ghanaians to,” they said in the statement dated May 10, 2020.
By Melvin Tarlue