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Opinions of Thursday, 25 June 2020

Columnist: Yentik Gariba

A letter to the President of Ghana

President Akufo-Addo President Akufo-Addo

AN OPEN LETTER TO NANA AKUFO ADDO, THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA, ON THE OCCASION OF COVID-19

Dear Mr. President,

On the occasion of the much-feared COVID-19, I write you this letter. That you are doing well and kicking, is my utter wish and hope like any Ghanaian. May you find meaning and wisdom in this my write, that it may help in our common resolve to combat COVID-19.

Mr President, that you have received lots of open letters following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is not in doubt. That we have not fought the dreaded pandemic to your ultimate expectation, and indeed, that of Ghanaians, is something you are not oblivious of. That the COVID-19 remains your greatest headache and trouble, is equally an obvious opinion of mist Ghanaians.

That your ability and capacity to combat COVID-19 would remain one of your greatest legacies( if not the greatest) is something I know you would be cherished to have. But the question is how to combat the virus and make that legacy!

You would agree with me that all the science and logic that we as a nation has applied in combating the virus has yielded the much-expected outcomes for as a nation.

It is against the background of the above worrying monumental outcomes ever since we started a national fight against the pandemic that has necessitated me to write you this letter.

In the wake of the unexpected worrying increases with regards to the figures of the dreaded pandemic covid19 virus, we have witnessed series of calls and or voices of wisdom coming from nonpartisan bodies and institutions within the country seeking to bring to light both seriousness of the deadly virus and the need for the government to rethink its position with regards to bringing people together for any national exercise just for the sake of safeguarding the lives and health of Ghanaians.

Undoubtedly, these calls have been frustrated by citizens who tried to make political capital out of them without regard to the potential tragedy that will eventually befall us as a nation.

It is absolute instructive to state that if any attempt to conduct the new register is not abandoned by the electoral commission, the state of Ghana shall not and will never be the same afterwards.

It is unfortunate that as Ghanaians we cannot, at one point, put aside our political lenses and look at an issue from a more nationalistic point of view and get ourselves involved to champion a national course.

In moments like this we expect voices of the likes of our gallant doctors (who are our front liners and are most at risk), and our university lecturers (who are a repository of knowledge and wisdom) whose voices must be depoliticized, Think tanks and civil society organizations, to come out and express their positions to send signals to the powers that be, to know that the call so backed is in the best interest of the nation, and not just to satisfy a few group of individuals championing their private good.

So, for any individual or a few haves, to make statements that seek to undermine the voices and taint such voices as politically motivated without any ocular evidential proofs to the effect that indeed it is a hoax, amounts to a serious national betrayal, which is very unfortunate, to say the least.

Not when the case counts are staggeringly increasing to our utter surprise and thereby causing needless fears, panic and worry to a great good of the people, as the days go by. As we all pray and hope that God intervenes for us, let's equally pray that the powers that be will listen to the clarion call of the front liners and that of our intellectual community to safeguard the people of this public called Ghana.

If a nation cannot recognize these voices in times of pandemics like this which demands that we wage into it with a united voice, then our nation is in a suicide mission which devastating consequences would be more than the tragedies witnessed in ancient Greeks.

Ghana first!
God help us all!