News Desk | voltaonlinegh.com|
The Volta Region branch of the National Democratic Congress, is demanding the region’s share of the 88 hospitals promised by President Akufo-Addo in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
In one of his televised addresses on government’s response to the global pandemic on Sunday, April 26, 2020, the President announced plans for the construction of hospitals in 88 districts with no government hospitals, nine of which were in the Volta region.
“There are 88) districts in our country without district hospitals; we have six (6) new regions without regional hospitals; we do not have five infectious disease control centres dotted across the country; and we do not have enough testing and isolation centres for diseases like COVD-19. We must do something urgently about this. That is why Government has decided to undertake a major investment in our healthcare infrastructure, the largest in our history. We will, this year, begin constructing 88 hospitals in the districts without hospitals,” President Akufo-Addo announced at the time.
However, more than a year after this announcement, the government is yet to commence work on the projects.
On the back of this, the NDC in the Volta region has through a press release, dated May 4, 2021, demanding the nine district hospitals promised the region.
The release issued by the Communication Officer, Sorkpa K. Agbleze and his deputy, Delali Bright Kugbeadzor, stated that, ‘As a major political party in the region, we have taken the pain to monitor the promise made by H.E. the President. Our search in all districts without hospitals in the region, has revealed that absolutely no work has begun to build any hospital, not even a block has been laid anywhere to show any semblance of commitment to the promise made by H.E. the President.’
The party is therefore, ‘reminding H. E. President that, a promise is like debt and so long as he has made the promise to build the hospitals, he is indebted to the region and we will continue to remind him till the hospitals are constructed in fulfilment of the promise.’
Read the full statement below
PRESS RELEASE
BY: VOLTA NDC
DATE: 4TH MAY, 2021
VOLTA REGION DEMANDS THE NINE HOSPITALS PROMISED BY PRESIDENT NANA ADDO.
“A time has come when silence is betrayal, that time is now” said Dr. Martin Luther King decades ago.
It is the resolve of the NDC in the Volta Region that it will be a great betrayal on the part of the party to remain silent after a year has elapsed since H.E. the President promised to build nine district hospitals in the region to help improve health delivery infrastructure to mitigate the Covid -19 pandemic.
As a major political party in the region, we have taken the pain to monitor the promise made by H.E. the President. Our search in all districts without hospitals in the region, has revealed that absolutely no work has begun to build any hospital, not even a block has been laid anywhere to show any semblance of commitment to the promise made by H.E. the President.
Volta Region is reminding H. E. President that, a promise is like debt and so long as he has made the promise to build the hospitals, he is indebted to the region and we will continue to remind him till the hospitals are constructed in fulfilment of the promise.
The Volta Region has some districts with district hospitals and those without these facilities such as Adaklu, Akatsi North, Ho West, Afadzato South, North Dayi, North Tongu, Agortime Ziope, Anlo and South Dayi people have to move long distances to access health care. There are various instances of how people die as a result of their inability to access health care and the truama expectant mothers go through to deliver their babies.
We don’t want to believe national development is spread along the number of parliamentary seats won by the NPP as Mr. Freddie Blay, the NPP National Chairman wants the people of the Volta Region to believe that Voltarians are being punished for producing one MP which was reflective in the ministerial appointment by the president. This theory espoused by Hon. Freddie Blay is unpopular and was profoundly condemned by the Volta Parliamentary caucus. If the Blay theory is what will underpin the development agenda of H.E Nana Addo, we dare say it is unscientific, ill-informed and retrogressive to Ghana’s forward march to self-actualization.
‘Ian Smith’, the last Prime Minister of Rhodesia, said in his book, ‘The Great Betrayal’: “A statesman thinks of the next generation, a politician thinks of the next election.” The NDC in the Volta Region is reminding H.E. the President of his promise and what he makes of his own promise, to enable us conclude on whether H.E. the President is a statesman or a politician.
Signed:
Sorkpa K. Agbleze
(Volta NDC Regional Communication officer)
Delali Bright Kugbeadzor
(Deputy Regional Communication officer)
Source: www.voltaonlinegh.com
