Why We Honoured Dr. Koku Awoonor-Williams - Youth Association

Why We Honoured Dr. Koku Awoonor-Williams—A Press Statement By The Upper East Youth Association

Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, members of the Upper East Youth Association are here this morning to set the records straight on two things: 1) To react to a press release by a faceless group going by the name; “The Concerned Citizens of the Upper East” and 2) To inform the whole world on why we, gathered here, the Youth of the Upper East Region, organized a health walk cum clean up exercise on Monday, the 24th of September 2010 to honour Dr. Koku Awoonor-Williams, the venerable Upper East Regional Director of the Ghana Health services in recognition of HIS STERLING, EFFECTIVE, HONEST, TRANSPARENT AND ACCOUNTABLE LEADERSHIP! And the operating word is leadership, not long service; the two are not the same.

First, our reaction: On Tuesday, October 5, we woke up to read a press release, captioned “The numerous problems caused by Dr. Awoonor Williams of the regional health directorate-UE/R” purported to have been issued and posted on the Ghanaweb.com by some people under the banner of concerned citizens of the Upper East in which the group leveled several spurious allegations, falsehoods and wicked lies against the regional director of health services and accused him of having paid a local organization to carry out a media campaign in his favour.

1. It is false that the event was organized by a local organization, the Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy (NORPRA). The event was organized by us here, the Upper East Youth Association. The membership of this association is drawn from people who work in very reputable organizations, both in the public and private sectors. Thus some NORPRA members are members of the Upper East association and legitimately so just as any other committed youth of the region can choose to be. To jump to a hasty conclusion that the participation of NORPRA members in the event meant NORPRA organized it is an exhibition of share ignorance and an uneducated view. What is worse and betrays the so-called concerned citizens of the upper East group as people who are reckless and non decorous is their assertion, without any shred of evidence that the venerable Regional Health Director, had paid some people to carry out a media campaign in his favour. We state here again that Dr. Awoonor-Williams, as a specialist medical practitioner and a professional public servant will not need to have people singing his praise let alone, pay “60 local youth” to march in the streets in the name of a self help media campaign. The event was funded from members’ own contributions and from the contributions of well respected individuals in this region.

2. It is false that the event was witnessed by “about 60 local youth” as peddled by the so-called concerned citizens of the Upper East. What is true is that over 800 of the youth of this region undertook the procession. And we provide the following as facts;

The youth printed 450 T-shirts with the facial portrait of Dr. Awoonor embossed on them with the accompanying inscriptions of “Leadership by example” Thank you, Dr. J.K Awoonor-Williams, you have demonstrated sterling leadership” among others. In addition, 150 health awareness T-shirts were sourced from other organizations. This brings the number of T-shirts for the ceremony to 600. These had run out by 8:00 am on the day of the event and many of those who took part in the procession, about twice the number of people in t-shirts, had to embark on the procession without the Awoonor t-shirts. It is thus, a palpable falsehood that only about 60 local youths participated in the process.

3. It is surprising that the concerned group could say the regional director did not have the welfare of the people of the Upper East as his priority and that all what he wanted was “to leave here with a legacy of buildings that he has renovated and landscaping that he has done on the premises of the health directorate which he is calling the “White House of the Upper east Region.” We will state here and if the group cares to be educated that health infrastructural development is critical for ensuring quality health care delivery just as any other aspects of development in the health sector. Thus, if the Regional Director after only two years in office has been able to turn around the Regional Health Directorate’s dilapidating structures into ultramodern super structure, benefiting and providing a pleasant working environment for the staff of the regional health directorate, then that is a mark of good leadership. What is even more important is that we did not organize the health walk and clean up exercise in honour of Dr. Awoonor just because of the regional health directorate edifice even though that singular effort is worth celebrating. We celebrated and honoured Dr. Awoonor because his achievements are legendary judging his short stay here.

4. We are also amazed at the zealousness with which these so called concerned citizens have managed to manufacture fear and imposed it on some staff of the Regional Health Directorate by falsely claiming that the Regional Health Director “has put enough fear in the health personnel of the Upper East Region that no one is bold enough to come out and confront his failed leadership.” Whilst we appreciate that this group of people, misinformed by Dr. Awoonor-Williams detractors are desperate in their effort to diminish his towering achievements, we are astonished that they will choose to play the hardworking staff of the health directorate against their boss. Which staff of the Regional Health Directorate did the concerned citizens speak to, to draw such wild conclusions? What we know for fact is that about 120 staff of the service who had worked over 7-17 years as casual workers and were paid meager wages, had no retirement benefits and never enjoyed staff benefits are now happy because they are now permanent employees of the service as a result of the compassionate leadership of Dr. Awoonor-Williams. The group talks of no one being bold enough to confront Dr. Awoonor-Williams on his “failed leadership.” What we want to find out is by what measure are they gauging the success or otherwise of Dr. Awoonor-Williams leadership? What we know is that before Dr. Awoonor-Williams assumed his post here as the regional health director, the doctors and low cost staff quarters were dilapidated, bats-infested and not habitable and that within the short period of his leadership, these have been turned into plush accommodations for doctors and health sector staff. His strides at solving the enormous problems in the sector are there for all discerning people to see. To talk of him having failed only goes to expose this group as people who are ignorantly playing to the bidding of Dr. Awoonor-Williams’ detractors and we know.

5. Another spurious allegation by this faceless group is that the regional director had pressurized district health directors to “release the little funds they have as a contribution towards the construction of a conference centre” whilst allowing district health facilities in the region to survive on “very low budgets” with some even having difficulties in providing community health nurses with fuel to deliver health care services to people at their door step. This is totally false. Some of our members are community health nurses and some of us are civil society activists who have worked closely with Community Health Officers, the CHPS compounds, the District Health Management Teams (DHMTs), the regional health directorate and other stakeholders in the health sector and it is based on the evidence we have about tremendous progress that have been chucked in the sector in the region within the short period of effective leadership offered by the Regional Director, that we have all rallied to recognize him. There has never been shortage of fuel for CHOs for field operations! If the group may oblige an education; let us indicate to them that fuel for the management of district health centres and facilities are not administered by the regional health directorate. Each facility has separate budgetary allocations for fuel, managed independently of the regional administration. It is rather a mark of good leadership and foresight, not the reverse, for the Regional Director to initiate the construction of a conference facility in the region with contributions from the DHMTs. We all know how much of our resources is wasted in hiring venues and conference facilities to hold meetings and roundtable discussions on pertinent development issues. Thus if the regional director adopts a cost saving strategy by initiating the construction of a conference facility for the health sector in the region, he deserves to be commended, not vilified.

6. The refusal of doctors and other health staff to accept postings to the Upper East Region and the resulting effect of inadequate and poor health care for the people of the region is not a new phenomenon. What is new is that unlike the past, where doctors who accepted posting to the region were shabbily treated and handed with student mattresses and directed to stay in leaking and bat-infested houses, those who would be coming to the region now, will be housed in well furnished and secured bungalows, befitting their training and sacrifice. It is not true that these challenges are lost on the Regional director. As we speak, four new doctors are presently in and are undergoing the recruitment process. These four and others yet to come will stay if groups like the so-called concerned citizens and their sponsors, will stop playing the primitive, negative ethnic card.

7. BONABOTO: The concerned citizens, as they choose to call themselves, in their desperate bid to mar the sterling achievements of the regional director, have waded into sacred territories with their dirt, by dragging in the well respected BONABOTO group and consequently coming across as a confused bunch. In one breadth, they claim that BONABOTO is divided in its endorsement of the achievements of the regional health director and in another, they accused BONABOTO of having formed alliance with the Regional Director “to force the transfer of Dr. Amiah.” So which is which? What we would want the group to know is that some of us here, are loyal members of the non partisan political BONABOTO group and appreciate the tact with which decisions are arrived at BONABOTO meetings. Though we are not the mouthpiece of BONABOTO, we can state, without fear of contradiction that BONABOTO never had any hand in the transfer of Dr. Amiah as the medical Director of the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital. BONABOTO is not ethnic; it is development oriented and will work with all well wishers to bring development to its people. The group should therefore steer-off and desist from the temptation to rope in BONABOTO in their pettiness.

8. We recognize and applaud the efforts of others, including Dr. Amiah and Dr. Anongura among other natives who have stayed and helped out. What would however want the so called concerned citizens to know is that we did not honour Dr. Awoonor-Williams for accepting his posting and staying with here for the past two years.

Why we honoured Dr. J.K Awoonor-Williams

1. We honoured him because, prior to the arrival of Dr. Awoonor Williams, critical infrastructure and logistics necessary for meaningful and quality health care delivery in the region were in serious deficit. The health sector in the region started seeing visible signs of transformation within days of his coming into office. The two-storey administration block housing the regional health directorate had deteriorated and without functional communication systems, but today that building is a sight worth seeing from inside out. It has been renovated and refurbished to the admiration of all and now referred to us the “white house of the Upper East.” What is even more important is that, reconstructed that structure from internally generated funds. Unlike his detractors who engaged in ‘the create and share’ syndrome and fattened the pockets from such greedy practices, he chose to spend the resources for the good of every one.

2. We honoured Dr. Awoonor-Williams because under his leadership, 14 staff bungalows and low quarters houses at Soe and the regional hospital area, have been rehabilitated and expanded, while new ones have been constructed at Zebilla, Bongo and Paga in the Kasena Nankana West district. The doctors’ bungalows, which were in serious disrepair and unfit for doctors’ habitation have been rehabilitated and fully furnished for our doctors to stay comfortably and take care of the health needs of our people. This has helped eased the problem of staff accommodation which has been a key reason why medical doctors and other health workers run away from the region.

3. We honoured Dr. Awoonor-Williams because when the flood disasters struck the Northern and Upper Regions in 2007-2009, a number of health facilities including CHPS Compounds were affected; some to the extend that they could not be used. Currently , 8 of the flood affected CHPS compounds have been put back to good shape and under use in Navio, Kajelo, Pindaa, Mayoro, all in the Kassena Nankana West District; Kaljiisa in the Builsa District, Gorogo in Bongo District, Kpatia in the Garu-Tempane District and Teshie in Bawku West. Other infrastructural projects structures whose construction has come to boost the health sector in the region are the PMTCTs at Namoo, Tanga, Pwalugu, kajilo, Yua, and Sumburungu. The eye unit at Chiana, expansion of the maternity wing of the Paga health center, the construction of the ultra-modern regional cool room with offices and fence wall for disease control unit as well as the extension and refurbishment o f the regional medical stores.

4. All the nine DHMTs in the region have been provided with brand new utility pickups and tri-cars to facilitate and ease the transportation of medical supplies to hard-to-reach communities and health facilities.

5. Again if one has been following development in health sector closely in the region then one must be conversant with the plied of health training institutions in the region. Interestingly what others could not do after so many years as directors has been done by Dr. Awoonor in two years. As it stands, the Health Assistance Training School which had existed in a rotten structure all its life has been relocated to Zuruangu and now operates in a splashy environment. At the nurses training school in Bolga, the forgotten boys’ hostel has been renovated and at the Community Health Nurses Training School in Navrongo, an assembly hall complex is being constructed. In fact, the list of physical structures renovated or raised from scratch by Dr. Awoonor in his two year reign in office is very tall. Soon, the dream of an ultra-modern regional hospital, a polyclinic and three district hospitals for Garu Tempane Talensi Nabdam and Kassena Nankana west only makes tomorrow a better day for the people of the region.

6. Medical supplies have more than tripled since the arrival of Dr. Awoonor-Williams and we now have a delivery van for drug distribution. The Navrongo Hospital has also been equipped with theatre equipment to the admiration of all.

Conclusions

We honoured Dr. Awoonor-Williams for very good reasons based on sound judgment and after an examination of the leadership inertia that has been responsible for the sorry state of development of the Upper East.

We warn that those who perceive themselves as tin-gods and flaunt around in town with exaggerated importance should stay clear off the attempt to cut down people who are sacrificing and innovating to build this region; because we will come after them. The youth have not come together to do what we are doing for nothing. Regardless of their efforts at using their ill-gotten wealth to sow seeds of disunity and prey on some of our unwity brothers and sisters for their selfish reasons, we have dared to stick together to correct the wrongs of the past.

We condemn ethnicity and despise it as evil, ungodly and primitive.

We caution those who are desperately scheming to diminish the towering achievements of Dr. Awoonor-Williams and get him out of this region to know that their fall will be steeper and painful.

We humbly request on the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service to take steps to clean the system and allow Dr. Awoonor-Williams to offer his best for the good of this region and the good of our people. We are tired of poverty, underdevelopment, backwardness and mediocrity. We are tired of the appalling health conditions of our people and we have sworn to resist evil and ye that worship it!

Look at what we are doing to celebrate our 50th birthday; white-washing patching @50!

Long live, Ghana!

Long live, Upper East!

Long live, Dr. Koku Awoonor-Williams!!

Signed: 1. Jonathan Adabre 020 3023 178, adabre2000@yahoo.com

2. Mike Zuri, 020 7519606, zurimike@yahoo.com

3. Stanley Abopaam, 0208520770

4. Ayorogo Bismark, 0209313630

5. Hon. Noble Alagskomah, 0248977818

6. SIMMS, 0208238888

7. Evans Dinko, 0202527080,edinko2@yahoo.com

8. Modesta Asolemna 0200330421

9. Madam Angel

10. Pastor Isaac Yen 0246281844

11.Adingo Francis 0268355841

12. Daniel A, Sulley 0261377227

13.William Abambire 0208441551

14.Azobre Imoro Atare 0209779096

15,Adamu Nafisah 0247400249

16.Apuakasi Joseph 0201241266

17.Akamegre R. Apayagle 0209041805

19.A. K Ayamya 0208075699

20.Amallam Yakubu A 0248745805

21.Bananzi Charles 0249283434

22.Abanbana George 0242349123

23.Karim Seidu 0208725518

24.Feli Noslemah 0208820810

25.Cletus Akurugu A 0246298396

26.Cynthia Bawah 0249246400

27.Ayemyou Isaac 0246111842

28.Pastor Moses 0541595668

29.Agana B. Rashid 0208075439

30.Dangmaa Felix Lambert 0242773771

31.Godfred Tanam 0246772911

32.Sophia Ackumey 0264717821

33.Alaskoma Asakeya Noble 0248977818

34.Abopaam Akamiri Stanley 0208520770

35.Akuribire Dominic 0208740628

36.Ksim Azika 0208385582

37.Mike Zuri 0243149118

38.Mariam Yayaha Adam 0208270126

38.Abongo Grace 0540587999

39,Aneeba Ernest 0207931074

40.Awuni Apuko 0542119255

41.Ayangri Thomas 0243843990

42.Mac Anthony 0244059007

43.Samuel Abani 0274351446

44.Musah Lansah 0206661050

ETC....ETC....