Coronavirus: Mahama calls for urgent ECOWAS meeting

The flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr John Dramani Mahama, has called for an urgent meeting of the Authority of Heads of State and Governments of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to discuss and take decisions on a sub-regional response to the growing COVID-19 pandemic across the West African Region.

Speaking during a Friday Muslim Prayer service to end three days of prayer and fasting called by the NDC, Mr Mahama, who is a former Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State, argued that the meeting of the sub-regional leaders is important and urgent to help in curbing the spread of the disease across the neighbouring countries.

“It is important for the ECOWAS to arrange an urgent teleconference of our Heads of State to coordinate a subregion-wide response to the COVID-19 disease. This might include restriction of movement between our countries”, he noted.

The prayer service, attended by the National Chief Iman Sheikh Nuhu Sharabutu, the Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in Ghana Maulvi Mohammed Bin Salih, the Head of the Ahl-Sunnah al- Jamaat Sheikh Umar Ibrahim and other Muslim leaders followed a Christian service held on Sunday. The NDC declared the three days of fasting and prayers to seek God’s intervention in the wake of the outbreak of the coronavirus in the country.

Mr Mahama also urged the government to, as a matter of urgency, strengthen public health management procedures, and provide the needed resources and logistics for managing the pandemic.

This, he said, is critical if “frontline healthcare workers are to have the confidence to continue to battle the disease.”

“As has been outlined by our COVID Technical Team in its engagements, in addition to a concerted effort to provide regular, accurate and timely information, the government must work extra hard to ensure the implementation of adequate community mitigation measures”, Mr. Mahama added.