Ghanaians are now dying 5 years early

Poor health indicators on the rise, economic hardship creating enormous stress And quality of life on the descendancy among Ghanaians

If the NPP government were asked to account for their stewardship of Ghana for the past 7 years, one would be sure to read a tall list of achievements: inflation at single digit, capitation grant, school feeding programme, Kufour dining with the queen at Buckingham, and what have you.

The reality of all this is that, all this wild and unfounded speculations have not helped the ordinary Ghanaian in anyway. According to the immediate Past Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Professor Agyeman Badu-Akorsah, the Ghanaian is now dying 5 years early than 7 years ago. Statistics at the Ministry of Health (MOH) indicate that life expectancy at birth was 54 years between 1985 and 1990. This increased to 57.24 years by the year 2000, showing a marked improvement in the quality of life of the Ghanaian. But figures released by the immediate Past President of the health institution (Daily Graphic, Saturday, June 16, 2007) show that the life expectancy of the Ghanaian man is now 50 years from 56 years in 2000 as a result of decreasing quality of life.

Infant mortality and HIV/AIDS prevalence rates which all saw significant reductions, implying an improvement in the quality of health of the Ghanaian are all on the ascendancy now. Infant mortality rates have shot up especially in the 3 Northern Regions where health worker population is nothing to write home about. HIV/AIDS prevalent rates are on the ascendancy from 2.7 back in the region of 3.5 with the propensity to reach the 4.0 mark by the close of the year.

I took the trouble to question some ordinary people in the street about these statistics, but in fact they were completely oblivious about what these statistics mean. One 57 year old standard 7 leaver I spoke to intimated to me that long life is a gift from God, so not everybody can live very long. When I referred him to the average life of the Japanese, the American, the Cuban, and a host of countries where people live well into their late 70s averagely, he woke up from his slumber. He came to the realization that God does not love those people than he does Ghanaians. He came to accept the fact that one’s quality of life certainly determines how long one lives on the planet earth. This is in total variance with the assertion he held before the interview, assertion that is common among Ghanaians.

The implications of such knowledge gaps among our population is that, our people are unable to read between the lines to determine which government has served them better in terms of policy relating to their quality of life. it is therefore imperative for all the political parties-the NDC, CPP, and the numerous others to draw up programmes to educate the Ghanaian public on how the country has fared in the last 7 years, if they are to make any serious inroads in the forthcoming elections.

I heard on the radio this morning, the President making a lot of noise about oil discovery in commercial quantities in Ghana. I think the issue is not about discovery of natural resources but how we manage them and the opposition parties must make our people aware of that.

The questions remain that: what did we do with our gold over the years? What did we do with the HIPC fund, what did we do with all the loans we contracted over the years? And many more questions.

Stand up and fight to redeem this country from the claws of white-collar criminals who are on the loose to deprive even the unborn of what is legitimately theirs. Reduction in life expectancy is a serious concern for all Ghanaians.

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.