Coronavirus: Ghana not prepared for lockdown - Ras Mubarak

Member of Parliament(MP) for Kumbungu Constituency in the Northern Region, Ras Mubarak, has opposed the call by some people that President Nana Akufo-Addo should lock down the country to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.

According to him, the government does not have the financial muscle to lockdown the country as the Akufo-Addo government will find it difficult to pay salaries of public workers as well as support the private sector to pay its workers.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Ras Mubarak maintained that calling for total lockdown means that productivity will come to a halt, and without productivity, it will be difficult to pay salaries and eventually people will not have money to buy food, thus, poverty and hunger will set in the country.

“ . . probably your employers cannot pay you and if they can’t pay you, obviously time will come where you will find it difficult to get money to buy food, and if you don’t have money then the government will have to step in with a stimulus package . . . locking down means that we will need not less than probably 100 billion dollars to do the bailout per my own calculation,” he asserted.

With the projected money for the lockdown, Ras Mubarak wondered how the government will be able to raise the 100 billion dollars; reiterating that it is not certain how long the lockdown will last should the country decide to tow in that line.

“ . . the government will have to pay salaries from April to December and government will have to find a way to pay individuals like those selling spare parts and other private workers till the end of the coronavirus, because you can’t pay salaries of public workers and ignore those who are not public workers,” he projected.

He, therefore, advised the country to take it slowly as there is no adequate preparation for the lockdown looking at the current economic status of the country.

He praised the Akufo-Addo government for closing the country's borders; air, sea and land to contain the pandemic.

“It is good that we have closed all our borders, because almost all the COVID-19 cases that are recorded in the country are imported, and so the directives that the President has given is good for the country,” he said.