Coronavirus: CPP outlines observations after presidential encounter

1. Thank the President for the show of candour in the decision to meet with Political Parties in this crisis period. It is a reminder of the simple but sophisticated pattern of living among our forebears in precolonial Africa.

Better still if this could become a regular platform for all political groupings towards politics of CONSULTATIONS and CONSENSUSES than confrontation, bickering, insults, defaming, fighting, maiming, persecutions and death etc.

2. This pandemic, catastrophic nonetheless, may be our opportunity to turn years of self-destructive tendencies into a constructive people different from the ‘crab theory’ of black people credited to Booker T. Washington by Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

Information and Communication management among the populace as well as self-discipline in the wake of crisis are key ingredients to war fare and Ghanaians must embrace that reality. Accuracy, validity, verifiability and authenticity of what is put out must be jealously guarded.

3. Thus far, Government has been up to task with a very high-level show of concern and interest as we rank among the top 10 countries in Africa with the highest number of cases. The provisioning of treatment/isolation centres with daily update from technically competent Health/Medical personnel under the auspices of the Information Ministry must be applauded.

We applaud the authorization from the Minister of Health to use already existing drugs: hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin plus Vitamin C for treatment though not approved, but have demonstrated to be effective in many patients in France, USA and Italy.

4. The urgency and agency of Research in our national life has been highlighted by this pandemic and serious attention must be paid to the committal of an appreciable budget to it. How housing is planned, overconcentration of national resources in Accra with little going to a few other places like Kumasi have been flagged.

There is a serious warning in the skewed kwashiorkor-like nation building efforts we have made. We can learn better from the growth-pole theory of Francois Perroux which appear to undergird the audacious 1D1F programme. We need to pay particular attention.

Could the nation also consider some bailout or hand-out for the masses of our suffering people who fall below the basic poverty line? These hard times are going to be hardest for the vulnerable and marginalized among us. Can government do something about them?

5. Our health professionals in the field have also asked that we communicate the need to get more Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health workers who are directly in the frontline and in touch with patients. Already one doctor got infected at the LEKMA hospital leading to his isolation and treatment.

We must also get more ventilators because the Experts have said that we do not have the minimum requirement. The major cause of the deaths in countries like Italy and USA were as a result of the lack of ventilators to support breathing in most of the affected old patients.

More reagents need to be procured for testing. We can expand the centres of testing beyond Noguchi in Accra and KRCC in Kumasi.

6. Personal and public hygiene which must be part, compulsorily, of basic school curriculum has become imperative now than ever before. We need to stick to the social distancing, hand washing, alcohol-based sanitiser use, etc. to reduce and/or stop the infection spread since our hospital beds are limited to accommodate large numbers. It will be chaotic and disastrous if we fail to join the efforts of the government in this fight.

While asking the civilian population to be law-abiding and observe strict adherence to the directives given by the President in the lockdown of parts of Ghana, we admonish the joint Police/Military task force to give a human face to enforcement. No one should dare the capacity of the men and women in uniform in these trying times. And as much as possible, they should also comport themselves with the highest level of restraint. No abuses/excesses.

7. Lastly, we wish to reiterate the call earlier made that there should be more of such encounters regarding our joint efforts to national reconstruction. Ghana must always be OURS in the collective NOT "some versus others."

May God bless our homeland Ghana and make our, rather self-undermining nation, great and strong. May we learn to eschew petty partisan divisions which have been the bane of our progress right from the foundations. That assured, there is Victory for US!