By Fadi Dabbbousi
When a Presidency is reduced to the challenge of lies and propaganda, guess who suffers? The unfortunate masses who have no support, hence the Akan proverb, “Aboa ni dua Nyame pra neho”, which literally means, “the animal without a tail, GOD fans it (ref to the tail of an animal that fans troublesome flies off its body)”.
The 25th of February 2016 was a very sad day in the life of this nation. President John Mahama stood before the August parliament of Ghana and spoke the unfathomable. He tried unsuccessfully to polish his image by touting non-existent achievements. The lies he spoke have triggered the impending launch of a book to expose the chicanery of his government too.
Lie No. 1
He spoke about the much improved Medicare system when barely a week ago, a disastrous crash at Kintampo took the lives of 71 people. The injured were huddled up in tight taxis and sent to the ill-equipped Kintampo hospital where the overwhelmed Doctors and Nurses were helpless due to lack of medicines and other necessities.
Let me state that it is the same President and his propaganda mongers who told these professionals that they their plights would not be listened to. Nurses till today await postings and those who already have jobs are not being paid.
The ambulances that were procured were nothing more than delivery vans for dead bodies (hearses). They do not even have the basics of paramedic equipment for life saving practices, except for the blasting sirens that screech into the ears of the public causing pain and temporary deafness.
Lie No. 2
There are hundreds of thousands of school children who have no access to decent uniforms, sandals, stationery, and other school necessities, yet President Mahama peddles the 10,000 shoes as if he had achieved something. The quantum of shoes he touted to have ordered from a Kumasi shoe factory do not make up 2% of the shoe needs of students.
The universities that he promised building remain ideas in limbo. The few institutions that he converted to universities hardly have the appropriate professionals to instil in students the excellence he referred to. Some of the academicians at those tertiary institutions barely know their stuff. The salaries of some have not been forthcoming, hence the insouciant attitude with teaching that most have adopted.
Lie No. 3
The Electricity situation remains unsolved. The ECG has turned into a monster, overcharging customers and telling foreign clients to go to their countries if they found the electricity tariff too expensive. Such foolish indifference to modesty and disgraceful attitude is not exemplary of Ghana’s hospitality.
Factories and industries have shut down, while some have relocated to the Ivory Coast and other more business-friendly locations. Last year’s electricity consumption was something like 2200 MW, but as at now, it has reduced to approximately 1200 MW. Instead of addressing the crisis, the propaganda machinery of the braggarts at the Presidency and the NDC government go around flexing their tongues in a show of shrill lies telling the nation that John Mahama has solved the electricity crisis. Little do Ghanaians know that the measure of electricity that they are supplied is nothing more than that that they would have been denied were the industries in full production or existent at all.
Lie No. 4
The NHIS is as the dead as the “Dead Goat” we all know. In fact, it got to a time, not too long ago, that NHIS card holders were turned away from hospitals and denied Medicare because the government was not paying the bills that had accumulated like nauseating mounds reminiscent of the rubbish dumps that have taken over everywhere.
Doctors remain unpaid, and the University course for Doctors was reduced by a year so that they can be used at the short-staffed hospitals. There they continue their training using live dummies who queue for hours to be misdiagnosed and wrongly treated. I dare John Mahama to treat his sick family members in Ghana at any of the hospitals he claims are excellent. I heard that his brother, Alfred, had a serious accident, but he was flown abroad for treatment, as is discussed in the public circles? If he touts such excellent Medicare why did he fly his brother to the UK, then!
And Mr President John Mahama continues to dance to “Y3nti Obiaa”.
We shall continue in Part II
