88 new hospitals rehash of 'pretentious' Akufo-Addo's 2016 campaign promise - Akandoh

Member of Parliament for Juaboso Constituency, Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has chastised President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for taking advantage of the COVID-19 situation to rehash his 2016 campaign promise.

Government, will this year, begin the construction of 88 Hospitals in districts without such facilities, according to President Akufo-Addo.

Delivering his eighth televised address to the nation on the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus in the country on Sunday, April 26, 2020, the President said: "There are eighty-eight (88) districts in our country without district hospitals; we have six (6) new regions without regional hospitals; we do not have 5 infectious disease control centres dotted across the country, and we do not have enough testing and isolation centres for diseases like COVD-19. We must do something urgently about this. That is why Government has decided to undertake a major investment in our healthcare infrastructure, the largest in our history. We will, this year, begin constructing eighty-eight (88) hospitals in the districts without hospitals."

But the Ranking Member on Health is doubtful of the president's words and commitment.

His lack of conviction is premised on the fact that the promise made by President Akufo-Addo is not something new as he (Akufo-Addo) identified this particular problem - inadequate healthcare infrastructure - in the party's 2016 manifesto.

To him, it is thus pretentious on the part of the President to make it seem like a new challenge, which has arisen due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“What he said is not something new; it is a rehash of his campaign promise in their manifesto and the reason also is that before Nana Addo became President, he identified this problem in their manifesto and so he is not now realising this problem. He deliberately refused to address them because he has already said that every district without hospitals will have one and this is captured in their manifesto”, he chastised.

Speaking on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Hon. Mintah Akandoh, noted that per the President's last address to Ghanaians on COVID-19, he has opened the floodgates for the politicization of the fight against the pandemic, and entreated him to limit his address to only finding immediate solutions.

“The President should know his status as a President when addressing the nation on the state of the COVID-19. We are obliged to listen to the President and help him fight the COVID-19, but the moment he switches into political promises then there will be issues because when it comes to political campaign promises, the President has a certain pedigree....



“So, if the President comes to paint a picture as if he has now seen the need to build district hospitals due to the COVID-19, then it is not true, the President was not truthful to us because there was no COVID-19 in 2016. He should prove me wrong if he didn’t promise this to Ghanaians in the party's manifesto”, he chided.