Former CEO of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Sylvester Mensah, has urged Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia to offer an unqualified apology to former President John Mahama for ‘his ill-advised rhetoric.
According to him, the weird comparison of the country’s energy crises to a global pandemic that is still ravaging states just to score political points is misguided and shameless.
He argued that for the Vice President to be so misguided and insensitive as to dare to brazenly exploit the COVID 19 pandemic in ‘his illogical reasoning’ to play politics is pathetic.
In a post on his Facebook wall Mr. Mensah argued Dr. Bawumia could have appeared smart if he had compared EBOLA to COVID-19 as they are both virus and health-related.
Dr. Bawumia, he said, failed to do that comparison because under the leadership of John Mahama Ghana did not record a single case of EBOLA during the entire period of the epidemic.
“This fact would have shot right through his argument. That is why he conveniently avoided a like for like comparison and resorted to this spurious, illogical and downright dishonest one,” part of the post read.
According to him, the Veeps misguided reference to the Coronavirus pandemic has exposed his abysmally poor judgment in shamelessly capitalizing on a global tragedy.
“The timing of this ill-advised rhetoric could not have been worse — right in the heat of the unfolding tragic events when for those variously affected by the pandemic, the pain is raw and unmitigated.”
“Furthermore, the interventions which Dr Bawumia is touting as ‘the hallmarks of good leadership’ are paltry, as yet untested and inconclusive at best!”
“No leader worth his salt would yield to the temptation to brandish this shaky response to a global pandemic with no end in sight as a measure of their leadership mettle,” he stated.
The Vice President’s presentation, he noted, is deeply disturbing because such poor judgment is going to feed into key government decisions that affect millions of lives.
Red the full text of the statement below:
Vice President Bawumia should apologize to Ghanaians!How in one’s weirdest reasoning should a country’s energy deficiency become a comparator to a global pandemic such as coronavirus?Dr Bawumia could have appeared smart if he had compared EBOLA to Covid19 as they are both viruses. But wait a minute, who and who were the first to bring coronavirus to the shores of Ghana after globetrotting and hobnobbing with infected individuals? Tetteh Quarshie first brought Cocoa to Ghana on my mind.
A story for another time. Having said that, could the vice president really dare to employ a comparison with EBOLA anyway? I don’t think so. Why? Because under the leadership of John Mahama, Ghana did not record a single case of EBOLA during the entire period of that epidemic. This fact would have shot right through his argument.
That is why he conveniently avoided a like for like comparison and resorted to this spurious, illogical and downright dishonest one. For all his supposed intellectual capacity, I listened to the non-intellectual content of his pronouncements ostensibly directed at the slogan-shouting bunch of NPP converts.
Dr Bawumia by his misguided references to the Coronavirus pandemic has exposed his abysmally poor judgment in shamelessly capitalising on this global tragedy of such catastrophic proportions for cheap political points scoring. Whereas frontline health workers are risking and in some cases losing their lives in the fight against the disease, scientists racing to find alternative treatment protocols or an antidote, men and women of faith fasting and praying, organisations and individuals donating their widow’s mite to help mitigate this disaster of our times, the whole Vice President of the Republic of Ghana should be so misguided and insensitive as to dare to brazenly exploit the COVID 19 pandemic in his illogical reasoning to play politics.
That is pathetic!The timing of this ill-advised rhetoric could not have been worse — right in the heat of the unfolding tragic events when for those variously affected by the pandemic, the pain is raw and unmitigated.This is deeply disturbing, particularly for a Vice President whose poor judgement is going to feed into key government decisions that affect millions of lives.
Dr Bawumia has remained in a perpetual campaign mode even after December 2016 with his porous and hollow arguments for the electorate to entrust him and his boss with levers of decision making, again. An apology from the Vice President for this grave error of judgment would be in order. But don’t hold your breath.
He is a representative fibre of a callous bunch in government whose only motivation and ambition is to hang on to power at all costs.Such ill-advised expressions flow from a mis-alignment with the nation’s pulse, betray the trust of the people, cause disenchantment with politics and politicians, promote apathy and undermine the democracy we claim to be building.
As for dumsor, any honest and knowledgeable person who has lived in this country long enough would know that it was a perennial problem going back to the 1980s that came to a head and was solved under the Mahama administration before the 2016 General Elections.
That was leadership that produced a solution to a crisis. Any other twist to this fact is a blatant lie. Plain and simple. Furthermore, the interventions which Dr Bawumia is touting as ‘the hallmarks of good leadership’ are paltry, as yet untested and inconclusive at best! No leader worth his salt would yield to the temptation to brandish this shaky response to a global pandemic with no end in sight as a measure of their leadership mettle.
Be reminded that Dr Bawumia is the Vice President of a Government that imposes a lockdown when the country registered 132 Covid19 cases and lifted the lockdown when positive cases inched above 1000. Currently Ghana is recording an average above 100 cases a day.
Ghanaians would not be surprised if the government’s data and science dictate the opening of our borders and curtailment of their imposed social distancing and wearing of nose masks policy.
The government has become more dangerous than the coronavirus!It is reassuring that we are in God’s hands rather than in the government’s hands in this pandemic.
#StopTheSpread
#WeShallOverCome
