Containing COVID-19: A Clear Test for Leadership

Ebola could equally have become a pandemic if the world had leaders like Donald Trump and Akufo-Addo. On the other hand, COVID-19 has become pandemic because we don’t have world leaders like Barack Obama and John Mahama. You may disagree with me because of your political affiliation but there is only one truth.

Just remember how Obama rallied world leaders to ensure that Ebola was quickly brought under control. Do we still remember the role John Mahama played to energize the African Union and ECOWAS to ensure that Africa was not disgraced? When Obama took Ebola by the horn and fought it, Trump said COVID-19 is fake and called it a Chinese-Virus. He would have called Ebola as Guinea-Virus and would have said it’s a joke. When John Mahama stayed in Ghana and helped rally African leaders, Akufo-Addo was in Europe visiting space cites and taking pictures. At that time, COVID-19 was all over in Europe with about 99% chance of entering Ghana. Leadership failure.

I will leave Trump alone because almost all the State Leaders know he has failed and they are taking individual steps to protect their citizens. Let’s talk about Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo.

Nana Akufo-Addo in his first televised speech told the world that he has set aside a cedi equivalent of $100 million to fight COVID-19. That was over a month ago but the money has still not hit the treasury. This means at the time he was speaking, he didn’t even know where the money was going to come from. He was misled again.

Akufo-Addo said they have ordered 50,000 testing kits. Over two weeks now, the hospitals are still telling us they don’t have enough testing kits. Which means the 50,000 testing kits have not arrived. Ghana has so far confirmed 204 cases of COVID-19 because there are not enough kits to test Ghanaians to know who is carrying the virus.

The NDC COVID-19 Response Team asked the government to tell Ghanaians where their Regional Isolation Centers are but it looks like the government is not treating that as an emergency. The government only describes something like “emergency” when it is to create,  loot and share and also when it is a reckless bill going to parliament.

Akufo-Addo without thinking through closed the airspace and partially locked down the country within 48 hours of making the announcement. It was very clear that he wrongly copied the directives of some countries to the detriment of the people who voted for him. Today, under Akufo-Addo, Ghana is more than under a military dictator. Do we now know that what happened at Ayawaso was planned and calculated?

Now you know even if you hated John Mahama to death, under his leadership, you had a Ghana that was Ebola-free and that gave you the opportunity to enjoy your freedom and your rights. Work harder to bring him back. He is the President you need. He is the President for you.

The Author, Dr. Lawrence is the Founder of the Diaspora Progressive Movement based in the USA

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