Anchoring Democracy Advocacy Movement Ghana (ADAM-GH) a civil society group has call on the electoral commissioner Madam Jean Mensah to disregard the unfortunate suggestions made by no less a person than a council of state member at the presidency and former president of Ghana bar association. According Azubila Salam Emmanuel executive secretary of ADAM GH, Sam Okudzeto who supposed to know better and advice the president in the national interest has rather all of the sudden lost his long standing credibility due to political power. This is what Lawyer Sam Okudzeto said and I quote: “Our cases of the Coronavirus is not as dramatic as it is in many countries which means that we only have few pockets in the two big municipalities and few of the smaller ones. So since the lockdown is not the whole of Ghana, the EC should start the registration in the areas there is no lockdown and that would have covered a large chunk of the country,”.
This ill and dangerous advice from a prominent statesman and advisor of the president has come at a time when the President and the entire nation is focused on dealing with the threat of the Coronavirus pandemic which poses the greatest threat to our very existence. As it stands now, the community spread of the virus keeps increasing to the extent that infections have been recorded in 10 out of the 16 regions and further spread to other regions cannot be predicted.
If this is the kind of advice a member of the Council of State is giving the President to put elections ahead of human lives, then no wonder we are where we are today due to government negligence for not locking our airport and boarder cities from beginning when many nations were closing their boarders and other entry points.
While calling on the Electoral Commission to totally disregard Lawyer Sam Okudzeto’s dangerous advice, we are calling on the President to remove him from the Council of State as he is serving no useful purpose to promote the well-being of Ghanaians.
We further call on Ghanaians to be prepared to resist and disregard any illegal directive by any person or institution that seeks to break world health organization’s (WHO) protocols and expose humanity to the spread of this deadly Coronavirus. Anchoring Democracy Advocacy Movement Ghana ADAM-GH express our disappointment on the senior citizen who don’t see how dangerous this Corona virus is despite the world health organization (W.H.O) calling it “a pandemic”. The covid 19 cases were recorded in 12th March 2020 with only two cases in Greater Accra Region, exactly a month ago Ghana we have recorded six hundred and thirty-six (636) cases with eight (8) deaths. The senior citizen Sam Okudzeto failed to realize that ten (10) Regions in Ghana has so far recorded the covid 19 cases. People are starving in their rooms in the Lockdown areas and even non lockdown areas which is posing danger to us as a nation and it could have been appropriate for the senior citizen Sam Okudzeto to suggest good measures to his government to save the situation and not to be thinking about December 2020 elections.
Sam Okudzeto can gamble with his life because of his age but it will be unfair on his part to expose the next generation our future leaders (youth) of this country to this deadly virus because of his party interest. ADAM-GH is calling the NPP government to disassociate it self from the suggestion of the senior citizen and Lawyer Sam Okudzeto because he has exhibited heartlessness and hatred against the next generation. From ADAM-GH findings, it is evidently clear that, the Eastern Region where we recorded one case a week ago, has risen to 32 confirm cases and 373 under quarantine with their samples taken for testing. The covid 19 cases has risen in a fastest rate due to the NIA exercise in the Eastern Region when covid 19 cases were recorded in Ghana and yet they NIA defy the president directives. The man who first recorded the covid 19 case in the Eastern Region, the Indian expatriate and project manager working at the Akosombo-Tema railway project was in the Region at a time the NIA registration was ongoing in the Eastern Region. The likelihood that the workers of this Indian expatriate who also tested positive recently were taking part in the registration of Ghana card is high. This is a period most expertise are calling for Nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the Corona virus it’s very unfortunate Sam Okudzeto to be calling for opening of new voter ID cards registration at non lockdown areas. ADAM-GH is so disappointed because this can cause disaster in Ghana where we can no longer contain the spread of the deadly virus.
It is unfortunate a person of his stature who is privileged to be among several advisors of our President and on whose counsel the Presidency will rely on particularly in critical times like this to provide solution to this “global pandemic” will make such reckless and irresponsible suggestions. ADAM-GH is discouraging politicians from any attempt to reap political capital out of this Emergency Health Situation. Such statements should have been left to ” Political Serial Callers” whose commentary on national issues in recent times in our candid opinion have seen much improvement when it comes to relevance and objectivity.
We are therefore, calling for the immediate removal of Sam Okudzeto from the presidency as council of state member as he is not serving the country’s interest.
Signed
Azubila Salam Emmanuel