Review Of Presidential Address On Lockdown - Update No.5

Yesterday we were privileged to have His Excellency, Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo-Addo address the nation the 5th time on the ongoing lockdown presidential directive in some communities in Ghana. Areas under lockdown currently are ; Accra, Kumasi, Kasoa and Tema. The following are some of the highlights of what the president said :

Summary Highlights:

1. 10 COVID-19 cases in the Northern Region are citizens from other West African countries who entered the country illegally after borders had been closed.

2. Over 800 persons under mandatory quarantine have been released and reunited with their families.

3. Contact tracing efforts intensified as majority of persons who had come into contact with infected persons have been identified and undergoing tests.

4. Ghana Health Service to receive reports on 15,384 persons who were identified following contact tracing efforts.

5. The results would determine whether or not the 2-week lockdown would be extended or not.

6. Appreciated donors of the National COVID-19 Trust Fund.

7. Total amount of Ghc8,750,000 and US$600,000 have been accrued so far.

8. Food being provided for about 400 households in Accra, Tema, Kumasi and Obuasi.

9. ECG and GWCL directed to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity and water in these trying times. In particular there will be no charge for water supply in the country and tankers have been charged to supply water to areas in need of water. However electricity tarrifs are still in force.

10. More PPEs being procured and Health Minister will ensure all health workers nationwide get enough PPEs.

11. 3,600,000 face masks to be manufactured locally.

12. Insurance sum of Ghc350,000 set aside for all health workers.

13. Contact tracers to receive an allowance of Ghc150 daily.

14. Health workers will not pay taxes on their emoluments for the next 3 months.

15. They will receive a 50% allowance on their basic salary for the next 3 months - April, May, June.

16. MMDAs outside the affected areas directed to carry out similar sanitation exercises in their various jurisdictions.

17. President appreciates the citizenry, health workers, security agencies and all frontline actors in the fight against Coronavirus.

18. Assures govt will work hard to provide all necessary support to aide in their work.

19. Reports indicate that the Police, Military and other security agencies have discharged their mandate professionally.

20. IGP, Chief of Defence Staff to investigate cases of security abuse on innocent civilians. Officers fund culpable will be taken of duty.

21. President warns against the circulation of false videos of military officers abusing people alleging them to be officers of the Security agencies.

22. Security agencies have vowed to uncover the source of all such videos and persons responsible for them.

23. He thanked all Ghanaians and sought for us to be patient in this trying times. He hoped that soon we should return to our normal lives. He expressef notice of how the lockdown affects our normal lives but said it's all in our best interest.

24. He urged Ghanaians to practice personal hygiene even after the pandemic and spoke about military efforts to make the cities clean by distilling gutters during this lockdown period.

25. He also congratulated some students who had come up with some inventions that will help fight the coronavirus in Ghana. 

I must say I was almost getting excited till I realised we still have to pay for electricity. Someone gave a statistics that less than 30% of people in Ghana have access to good drinking water so what's it's use? Another person said they can dig a well for water if the need be. They think government chose the cheap part of utility which is water. Power is what we need most. Now that people are locked down they will use more electricity than before.

Again because businesses are closed down power use will be less so we believe the government can give the citizens free electricity too. Even in France and other European countries  rent, taxes, transport fares are all waived by government in addition to stimulus packages for businesses. We can do better. Congress has approved $2 trillion as a stimulus package to support businesses, unemployment and the economy generally in the USA.

In this very address not much has been put in place for businesses like airlines, hotels, restaurants, companies etc have employed permanent staff they are suppose to pay them monthly whether they are on leave or not. Companies and individuals have borrowed loans from the bank and interests on them will be piling up, we expect the president to have said something on it by way of making provisions for interest on loans and capital cost. What is the role of the banking sector during this lockdown? We expect government to ask the banks to freely give personal loans to individuals and companies at very low interest rates to help them manage themselves and their business operations like payment of salaries and certain fixed costs.

In terms of food distribution, how is deprived communities ascertained? There are poor people in every community in Accra. I have not seen any food van where I am or around my area either. We appreciate government effort but we encourage government to extend it's tentacles the much further to cover the needful and project equity among all and sundry.

Provisions made for health workers is good and we applaud government for that but what about those in the private hospitals and clinics? The president did not categorically state who are the frontline health workers. Even the cleaners in the hospitals are most at risk so they should also have insurance and a 50% payment of their basic salary. We need specific clarification on who this frontline workers are.

On the issue of security personnel and brutalities I believe not all videos being circulated on social media are false. Some are actually true happenings. You could see the Kasoa footage and how civilians were made to be squatting up and down, some received lashes. There was this video of a policeman seriously beating a civilian as people spoke Twi in the background. One person who could not endure the corporal punishment from the military officer slapped him in return. All these are true footages and we urge government to look into it as promised. In my area at the start of the exercise I heard some civilians were beaten by security forces.

Concerning closure of the borders for another two weeks I think it's a step in the right direction. I believe we acted too late in closing our borders as almost cases of covid-19 were imported by travellers to Ghana. At that time community cases in Ghana was just 3. I suggest the border remains closed until this whole pandemic is over. The government must use this opportunity to rid ourselves of excessive imports and make packages available for local producers to produce essential commodities for the country. By the time the ban is lifted we could be self sustaining.

The way provisions are being made for 3 months for everything, it stands to think that we are not returning to our normal lives anytime soon if even after the 3 months period this pandemic will be over.

I also wanted to hear what the president had in my mind for those who will lose their job because of this pandemic. Is there any package for them because surely companies will lay off their staff because they cannot pay them within this period as they are not running or making any revenue.

I also wanted to hear government plans on our school children and University undergraduates, we did not hear much in that regard. I believe students need some form of assurance and plans from government the way forward in all this  I heard SHS students will write University entrance exams in designated universities they want to enter instead of writing the normal WASSCE this time around. We needed clarification on that one two.

What should we also expect of fuel prices and how are the fuel companies also being managed now that mobility has been restricted for most vehicles. Certainly companies like Total and Goil will record low sales and that has the tendency of affecting fuel prices.

All said and done, we congratulate government on its efforts to fight Covid-19 but we believe they can do better. The payment they have promised to frontline workers should be forthcoming, they shouldn't administer it like the problems that came with the NABCO allowances sometime back. What are the provisions for teachers who will also be at home during this pandemic? Mr. President should have also made provision for teachers too both public and private.

This and more I will be talking about. Keep reading my posts for interesting articles and mind boggling facts on issues pertaining to Ghana and the world at large.
God bless you as you read. I am Emmanuel Quayson, a writer and a servant of God.