Be thankful – Ablakwa fires shameless Nana Addo and Bawumia

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Member of Parliament for North Tongu has lashed out at President Akufo-Addo and his vice Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for being too shy to acknowledge that they ‘begged’ for vaccines from Ghana’s neighbours.

Ghana received consignments of childhood vaccines from her West African neighbours Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria after running out of supplies.

However, neither the presidency nor the Health ministry has acknowledged the kind gesture of the two neighbours, prompting the outspoken lawmaker to call them out.

In a post on social media, the young but experienced NDC legislator criticized the government for feeling too “embarrassed to admit” that it received support from the country’s neighbours with a promise to return the vaccines when things get better in the country.

According to Ablakwa, “The Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government should not be embarrassed to admit that it reached out to Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire for urgent bailout on Ghana’s avoidable and indefensible shortage of childhood vaccines”.

“Yesterday’s consignment came in from Nigeria as a benevolent gesture which the Ghanaian government has promised to replace when it finally puts its house in order,” Ablakwa revealed.
There is absolutely nothing wrong saying THANK YOU to a neighbour who exhibits superior public health policies, better prioritization, and who responds positively and swiftly when you come begging.

Ghanaian officials should not be concealing this fact and therefore appearing ungrateful within the comity of nations even though I acknowledge that an honest and transparent narrative from government will further expose false claims by President Akufo-Addo during his Message on the State of the Nation last week that childhood vaccine shortage was a global phenomenon.

Ghana’s childhood vaccine crisis could have been prevented if the Akufo-Addo government had not ineptly ignored WHO stock-out warnings since July last year.

We must be profoundly grateful to Nigeria for their kindness, however, I do hope the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration will find a permanent solution as the Nigerian donation can only last for 6 weeks.