Akufo-Addo urges ‘free education’ on Ebola

Two-time presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has urged government to undertake intensive public education on the deadly Ebola virus.

He lamented that the duty of public education seems to have been left to the media “with no policy direction or deliberated support from government”.

“There appears to be no comprehensive nationwide programme to give the people of Ghana proper information on Ebola,” Nana Addo stated in a release on Monday, August 11.

The New Patriotic Party’s flagbearer aspirant has been on a nationwide tour since Tuesday, July 29 but took a break to monitor the ongoing nationwide limited voters’ registration exercise.

“In the last few weeks, in my travels across the country, I've used the opportunity to have conversations with ordinary people on issues of public concern, including the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in some neighbouring countries,” the opening of the release indicated.

Read the full release below:

In the last few weeks, in my travels across the country, I've used the opportunity to have conversations with ordinary people on issues of public concern, including the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in some neighbouring countries. I have been disturbed by the lack of public education out there. There appears to be no comprehensive nationwide programme to give the people of Ghana proper information on Ebola. It is as if the work of public education has been left entirely to the mass media with no policy direction or deliberate support from Government.

Key to preventing and controlling this outbreak lies in the hands of public officials in the form of public education programmes. We need to see and hear more about how to prevent, detect or deal with the disease in our efforts to stop it from spreading to Ghana and beyond.

Lack of public education fuels panic and the consequences of public ignorance could be disastrous.

It is better to spend wisely now to educate the public than to spend more later to deal with the predictable, potential consequences of being hit by the pandemic because we did not prepare well enough against it.

Join me in urging Government to do a lot more to increase public education about Ebola. It is imperative in preventing and containing this unprecedented outbreak. Prevention awareness education is the best cure.

God bless you.

......signed......

Nana Akufo-Addo