When you travel to developed countries, your thoughts are positively influenced but the more our leaders travel, the worst their thoughts get.
The difference between Ghana and the UK are the people in charge of affairs. Whilst leaders in the UK and some other developed countries want to leave behind very good legacies for their people, leaders in Ghana rather prioritise enriching themselves much more than any other thing. Sometimes I ask myself where the love is? No wonder our youths queue at various embassies and some dying in the Mediterranean all on the pursuit of a good future. That doesn’t suggest one cannot have a good future here in Ghana, but with the actions of our leaders, just a few benefit.
We forget that not everyone would be dying peacefully in his/her sleep. We forget that we may be hit by emergencies and there would be no time to fly on chartered flights to seek medical care abroad.
Medical emergencies require immediate attention and care must be intensive until declared medically fit.
Ghana’s health system as it is today takes luck for one to be healed. Many at times health workers are attacked for their ‘negligence of duty’ but a careful study of the situation reveals that the condition associated with your job calls for such behaviours.
When President Atta Mills died, it was rumoured that he was carried in a the bucket of a pickup truck. This may be false but we are tempted to believe after Vice President Paa Kwesi Arthur was somehow given a similar treatment.
The question now is: where was an ambulance?
A country with over 30 million people is served with only 55 ambulances. Carrying the former Vice President in an ambulance means he would have received treatment even before reaching the hospital. Where was the ambulance? It won’t surprise me to hear it was in a different city or may have suffered a breakdown looking at our poor maintenance culture.
When the former Vice President was in office, he may have never envisaged that an ambulance could save his life. Else he would have championed the cause to provide adequate number of ambulances in the country other than looking for strategies to win elections.
These deaths could have been averted but our former leaders die because they failed to do what was expected of them when in power.
Vice President Bawumia was in UK and we were told he was there for “Medical Holiday”. Instead of the Vice President to take a critical look at why he wasn’t able to get the needed medical care in Ghana and fix it, I believe he will again fly out should he taken ill.
Our leaders with all their power, fame and monies cannot get the needed medical attention in Ghana. What happens to the poor who cannot fly abroad? Death!
Instead of our leaders fixing issues affecting the health sector, they are either inflating cost of projects or spending monies on things we don’t need. Bus branding, “Small Dubai”, GhanaPostGPS, Mobile Money Interoperability, Creation of new regions and many others not known to the public.
Politicians, keep ignoring Ghana’s health sector and pray that you are not hit with any health emergencies.
May God continue to protect the poor!
When the former Vice President was in office, he may have never envisaged that an ambulance could save his life. Else he would have championed the cause to provide adequate number of ambulances in the country other than looking for strategies to win elections.
By: Akesse Sanza
