Don’t divert attention from COVID-19 fight to electioneering - Frimpong-Manso urges politicians

An elder of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Mr Robert Okyere Frimpong-Manso, has appealed to politicians to focus on the fight against COVID-19 instead of diverting public attention to issues of Election 2020.

He reminded politicians that there would be nobody to vote for them should the electorate die from COVID-19 or if the country was not able to overcome COVID-19.

Speaking in an interview with the Daily Graphic, Mr Frimpong-Manso expressed worry that since President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced plans to build 88 district hospitals and six regional hospitals, the focus on the fight against COVID-19 had shifted to the politics of equalisation of which government or party had built more health facilities.

That, he said, was not needed at the time the global community including Ghana was struggling to deal with the pandemic.

“We have to focus on fighting COVID-19 on all fronts. Let us wait till we win the battle against COVID-19 and then we can talk about politics,” he stated.

Health facilities

Mr Frimpong-Manso admitted that Ghana was behind in the provision of health facilities, hence the need for serious attention to be paid to that sector.

While commending President Akufo-Addo for the bold initiative to build the 94 hospitals, he appealed to the President to complete all the uncompleted health projects before starting new ones, stressing that “let us find the resources to complete ongoing or abandoned health facilities”.

He said the provision of health facilities should be the priority of any government, thus, the need for all ongoing projects to be completed by successive governments.

COVID-19

Mr Frimpong-Manso said Ghana started so beautifully in the fight against COVID-19 with the scientific community but was losing focus with the introduction of partisan politics into the campaign.

“We must join hands again in the fight to help scientists including our herbal practitioners to find a solution to COVID-19. That should be our focus,” he said.

He appealed to the media to shun politicians who might want to divert the attention of the country from the COVID-19 fight to electioneering.

Mr Frimpong-Manso also called on religious bodies and civil society organisations to stand up against politicians using COVID-19 to campaign for votes instead of helping the country in the fight against the disease.

Currently, Ghana has recorded 2,074 confirmed cases of COVID -19 with 212 recoveries and 17 deaths.

Background

In his eighth address to the nation on the COVID-19 pandemic last Sunday, President Akufo-Addo announced plans to construct 94 new hospitals across 88 districts and the six newly created regions.

The new health facilities, he said, were intended to complement the existing ones and fortify the delivery of health services to individuals with various health challenges.

Since the announcement, there have been calls from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the government to focus on completing abandoned hospital projects in the country instead of starting new ones.

The party has also called on the government to focus on winning the fight against the pandemic instead of repeating unfulfilled political promises.