Stop politicising COVID-19; focus on fighting pandemic – Oppong Nkrumah

Ghana’s Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said the country risks losing focus on the fight against COVID-19 if the growing politicisation of the pandemic is not stopped.

Dr. Bawumia on Monday, May 4, 2020, accused former president, John Mahama, of being ill-informed about the true state of the Ghanaian economy.

John Mahama had claimed that the economy is in shambles less than two months after the COVID-19 outbreak in the country despite government’s

These comments have generated public debate, with a number of people criticising the Dr. Bawumia of playing politics instead of focusing on the COVID-19 fight.

But the Information Minister, speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, said the country risks losing focus on COVID-19 if the situation continues to be politicised.

“Some of the very respected persons who are making these calls today, were very quiet because as at that time, their political leaders and their candidates were championing political agenda but now when the political actors in the government also respond politically, now you are hearing people saying, ‘let’s deescalate the politics’. The nation, in all honesty, stands a real risk of losing focus and degenerating into partisan political banter while the key real issue of COVID-19 and managing it is relegated to the background.”

The Information Minister also indicated that government is appreciative of the collective call for the depoliticization of the pandemic even though government had made similar calls earlier.

“We appreciate some of the recent calls that we are hearing for a de-escalation of the growing politicisation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The calls are calls we [government] started making right here about a month ago, that it is important the country focuses on the common enemy [COVID-19] and the president has been saying same in his speeches. Initially, when we started making these calls for an apolitical discussion of the subject and for us to create more room for the experts to do the analysis, we were mocked. You recall some political leaders were mocking us and making all sorts of comments.”

 

 

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