Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director, Media Foundation for West Africa
Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa( MFWA) Sulemana Braimah, has in a passionate social media write up, appealed to the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to distribute ambulances parked in order to save the lives of the poor who, unlike some of his appointees, cannot fly abroad to give birth or receive medical attention.
“I read over the weekend that two of your appointees had delivered in the US, not all women can afford that, Nana,” he pointed out.
The President at his recent media encounter explained that because the full complement of the ambulance was in place, for fear of being accused of favouritism, he would only distribute them when all the ambulances arrive in the country.
But Mr Braimah finds the President’s explanation untenable.
“Nana, the reason you gave for not distributing the ambulances is untenable. In fact, it is just for political expediency and for thoughts of how you bolster your chances of winning the 2020 elections.
Nana, would you have been comfortable if this was happening under the NDC government? I know you would have made a lot of noise about it and rightly so. So why do it yourself,” Mr Braimah wrote.
Mr Braimah went further to use evidence from the President’s own pronouncements to demonstrate that his argument is untenable.
“You said during the media encounter at which you announced your reason for ordering the ambulances parked, that 2020 will be a year of roads. But you quickly admonished Ghanaians to know that all our roads cannot be fixed in a year. This means that some roads will be fixed while others will have to wait as must be the case.
Nana, you did not say that when you fix some roads in some areas other people who have bad roads will complain and so you will wait till you have money for all roads before you start fixing roads.
If your reason for not distributing the ambulances was legitimate, then you may as well have said you will not fix any road until you have money to fix all roads in one year to prevent some people from complaining.”
The decision of the President to not distribute the ambulances has been met criticism and condemnation by a cross-section of Ghanaians spawning a #ReleaseTheAmbulanceNow on social media.
