Opinion
Brogya Genfi
2. Ghana records 1st case of COVID-19 on *12th March
3. 13 days of public outcry would not stop the Presidency from stopping the NIA registration until a High Court injunction stopped them on 21st March
4. EC starts Recruitment of Registration Officials for 10 days – 20th – 29th March
5. The TUC writes a letter to the President asking for a lockdown of Greater Accra and Kumasi on 23rd March at a time Ghana had recorded only 24 COVID-19 cases.
6. The GMA also issues a statement demanding for a lockdown on 25th March when the GHS had reported 68 cases of COVID-19.
7. The President calls the TUC into a meeting on 26th March explaining to them that, any lockdown would have negative impact on the vulnerable in the society.
8. Remember that by this time, the EC was 7days into their 10 days recruitment operations. They had 3 days to complete.
9. Surprisingly on 27th March, the President appears in a nationwide broadcast announcing a lockdown of Greater Accra, Greater Kumasi and Kasoa. Note that this was a day after he had convinced the TUC that the country was not ready for a lockdown. Again, the announcement was to take effect from 30th March, a day after the EC would have completed their recruitment exercise.
10. On 10th April the President announced an extension of the lockdown by 1 week.
11. The EC starts another wave of preparations towards the voter registration by seeking for security clearance for their agents. In a memo to “The Security agencies” on 16th April they requested for clearance for a company called INNOLINK Ghana to operate because they are not classified as essential service.
12. On 17th April in another memo, the EC plans for a large meeting in spite of the lockdown. The meeting is to take place in Prampram from 24th – 29th April.
How could the EC schedule a meeting in a lockdown area (Prampram) at a time the partial lockdown was in force, if they had no inside information that the partial lockdown will be lifted before the meeting date????
. . . especially given the fact that, the EC was not part of exempted essential service providers.
13. The GMA calls on the President to escalate measures from the partial lockdown to a total lockdown on 18th April.
14. On same day of 18th April the Director General of Ghana Health Service in an interview on TV3 revealed that “they” have recommended to the President to extend the lockdown. This was the time Ghana had recorded more than 1,000 cases of COVID-19.
13. But in an address on 20th April the President shocked the entire country by announcing the end of the lockdown with a caveat of a possible future lockdown.
After a careful analysis of all events, I wait to be convinced that the President is NOT working hand in hand with the EC.
Brogya GENFI
