‘Missing’ baby is not missing

: KATH and Ministry of Health are gimmicking

The baby of Madam Abdul-Mumin Suweiba, delivered on 5th February this year, remains to be seen by its bona fide parents. Its pseudoparents are probably keeping it somewhere abroad. I’ve argued evidentially in several of my write-ups that the said baby is never missing.

Madam Suweiba’s baby is never missing. The reasons are numerous. One thing that is known to most Ghanaians about this bouncing baby boy is that he was delivered ALIVE at KATH. The authorities of KATH including its shameless CEO and PRO have both publicly confirmed that Madam Suweiba delivered at their hospital. Undeniably, records about the delivery of the said baby are archived there. The hospital too is well fenced and there have been no records or complains of any baby-eating creature in and around the hospital. Therefore, declaring the baby missing as done by the hospital authorities makes sense to only them provided they heard themselves.

Something that is missing is one whose whereabouts are unknown. As described above, Madam Suweiba delivered at a hospital whose authorities claim it is of international standards for which they are striking on hourly basis to press home for international salaries. Can they (KATH authorities and Ghana Medical Association) mention any hospital where up to 5 babies can go missing without the hospital itself immediately arresting and prosecuting negligent staff? Surely, the baby is with the hospital. What makes the hospital authorities valiant enough never to return the baby is the extreme leniency with which law enforcement agencies have thus far dealt with the matter.

The dearth of information regarding the baby’s whereabouts is well calculated by the baby thieves (i.e., KATH). Apart from the contradictory records inked by the doctor and the nurse who monitored its delivery, no other records about the baby exist at the hospital. Even if the baby was stillborn as the hospital is claiming, at least there would have been records of the exact cause of the death. And if such records were shown to the family upon their request for the baby, there would have been no reason for them to continue searching for their baby. Furthermore, no other records exist as to where the ‘corpse’ was taken to: the lack of these other records makes the case a criminal offence. Therefore, what the Ministry of Health is doing is unnecessary gimmicks. It is only giving the baby thieves more time to prepare to defend themselves at the law court. Also, public interest on the matter is waning.

Although the wheels of justice grind slowly, it is also known that delaying justice is an attempt to deny it. Every bit of evidence gathered by amateur investigators such me points to baby theft. Merely recording the mother’s name as Suweiba, the baby thieves knew that she is a Zongo person and therefore most likely less enlightened—making her an ideal victim of their business. The time of the day when she delivered—around midnight—also favours works of evil people; all the other four missing babies were delivered between 12 and 4 a.m. on the said day.

Ah! It is just luck that ran out! The baby thieves should have been quick to realize that Suweiba is a Muslim and that Islam prohibits cremation. This religious issue should have informed the baby thieves that any claim of having incinerated/cremated the baby will be met with serious protest. This write-up reminds the public that the ‘missing baby’ story covers all 5 babies unaccounted for on that single day and not just that of only Madam Suweiba.

The gimmicking of Ministry of Health will likely come to pass on its so-fixed Tuesday 25/03, two days extension of its own original 14-day ultimatum. The public already ‘expect’ nothing positive out of the non-awaited report. The Ministry’s claim that its report is the ‘final decision’ on the matter makes its action self-mocking. Evidence of the ‘sweet nothingness’ of the Ministry’s gimmicks is its failure to enforce its own deadline. The Ministry claimed that the Nursing and Midwifery Council delayed in submitting its report for which it (the Ministry) must extend its ultimatum. It might just be asked, ‘Didn’t the Ministry specify the date on which the Midwifery Council must submit its report?’ If indeed the Ministry did and yet the council was audacious enough to disregard it, which other group can the Ministry order to comply with its directive? Only time will tell.

The Midwifery Council claimed it would submit its report on Monday 24th March; the specific time not mentioned. Assuming it summits the report just some minutes before the close of work on Monday and it is lengthy, how will the Ministry of Health be able to scrutinize this report, factor its contents into own report and then deliver it on Tuesday 25 March? Or has the Ministry already prepared its report without receiving and accounting for the findings of the Midwifery Council?

Also, the Ministry promised releasing its report at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. The time to release the report shows how the Ministry itself attaches no value to its own action. At and around 3 p.m. when most people will be rushing to get home after a hard day’s work and will surely be having problems with traffic, the Ministry will busy itself releasing such a high-value report to only the press! The posture of the Ministry of Health is, therefore, perfectly misplaced. By now, the CEO and the probably the doctor(s) and nurse(s) on duty at KATH during the delivery of Madam Suweiba et al. should have been in remand facing charges amounting to baby trafficking. The said case should have been between the Republic and the baby thieves.

All is not lost yet. We expect the State to take over the case and organize a public hearing. Testimonies of mothers will assist the govt to fix this problem once and for all. The extreme silence of the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection is likely the most surprising development of the first quarter of 2014. The Gender, and not the Health Ministry should have been spearheading the case.

God save us in Ghana. The life of the average Ghanaian, including our chiefs and men of God, is now reduced to politics: only issues concerning NDC and NPP do generate heated debates extending far into churches and mosques. These ‘missing’ babies’ story borders on our core traditional and moral values. I expected several chiefs to have called on the authorities of the hospital and the govt to force the culprits to return the babies long ago. (For now, no hope exists for getting the babies, alive or dead. It’s now impossible for the baby thieves to either recall the babies probably from the West or to find any badly decomposed bodies anywhere else and claim that they found them.) Imagine your wife or mother or sister is pregnant for NINE MONTHS and only to give birth to a missing baby! Oh! KATH!

This is an issue the public most likely expect men of God to show up. It affects our lives both here on Earth and in the hereafter, typifying what men of God must be speaking on. Instead, both chiefs and men of God want their names to be mentioned for only political reasons. Many ‘mallams’ and ‘pastors’ have now converted themselves into election forecasters, creating unnecessary tension during electioneering campaigns and elections.

It’s still hoped that the good God will show His miracles to our mothers especially the overtraumatized mothers particularly the 42-year-old Madam Suweiba. She’s just nearing menopause and if not due to God’s miracle, I wonder whether she can conceive again. Despite all these, the baby thieves are still enjoying their salaries from our taxes and are relaxing comfortably with their families. God is watching.

Long live our mothers! Long live Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana.
Idris Pacas: 020 910 153 3