Dear President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo,
I have been compelled to write to you in such a short time since I last wrote. Today, I will be very brief. My decision to be brief is not because I do not have much to say, but I am writing with anger and disappointment at your behaviour, your vice, and your ministers of state.
Our elders have advised that a man should not speak when he is angry. But I cannot keep quiet over this serious issue which has put you and your ministers at your irresponsible worst, so I will mitigate any harmful effects of my words by keeping them short.
Mr. President, since afternoon, I have been watching you, your Vice-President and what appears like an entourage of all your cabinet and 110 ministers at the funeral of the late queen mother of the Asante people. This week, this is the second time you and your Vice President have found time to mourn with Otumfuo and Asanteman. I don’t have any problem when you have the time to be at the funeral every day of the week. Apart from showing respect to the dead and honouring custom, Asantes are the largest ethnic group in Ghana so it makes political sense to be seen at the biggest gathering of Asanteman when it matters most.
But there is something I find very irresponsible, to put it mildly, about your visits to Kumasi this week. It is your failure to visit the students and teachers of Kumasi Academy. Eleven students of that senior high school have died in the last 8 months. In the past one week, four students of that school have died while about 16 of them have been hospitalised. The most worrying part of it all is that pathologists, medical doctors and health professionals say they do not know the cause of the death. They say the disease is yet to be diagnosed and it may be the first of its kind.
Harrowing television footages of distraught parents and traumatised students running around the campus, like a flock that has been attacked by bees, should not only worry us, but alarm us. There are close to 3000 students in that school and nobody knows what will happen next. We don’t know who else is living with the strange sickness.
Mr. President, the least you could do as the father of the nation is to spare at least five minutes of your time to address the students and help calm them down as school authorities and health personnel try to convince them not to go home for the fear of spreading the unknown disease. Elsewhere in the civilised world, the nation would have paused and paid attention to Kumasi Academy and call for external support in order to save the lives of the young ones. But it is sickening to admit that we don’t value human lives here and your attitude has confirmed it.
When the seven students died after the first disease outbreak in the school in March this year, the school appeared more interested in planning its 60th anniversary celebration than taking steps to safeguard the lives of the remaining students. Last week, when two of the students died, the school downplayed it. In the words of a source, “the school did not want the death to mar the anniversary celebration that was happening over the weekend so we hid news of the deaths.”
Mr. President, you were in Kumasi Academy for that 60th Anniversary programme last weekend, but your speech did not mention the deaths. I don’t blame you because my sources say the school authorities hid the news about the deaths from you. Elsewhere, the deaths and hospitalisation was enough reason to call off the celebration of the anniversary. This week, after the 60th anniversary event, two more students died and many more were rushed to the hospital.
The mysterious deaths at Kumasi Academy have been the main news item on all media platforms that matter in this country. Granted that you did not know about the deaths last week, can you also say you have not heard about the deaths this week?
Or are you telling us, through your attitude, that the death of 11 students in 8 months is not big enough to attract your attention and that of your ministers while you’re in Kumasi? The Minister of Education, I am told, was in Kumasi but he has not visited the school. The senior minister and all those who matter in your government are all in Kumasi, fighting hard to be recognised at the big funeral. But Kumasi Academy is yet to catch your attention.
Your excellency, going to Kumasi Academy will not automatically stop the deaths. But it will be a psychological boost to the students and the health personnel working to determine what is killing the young men and women of our republic. It will show that we are a serious nation with serious and responsible leaders. It will show us that at least our leaders value human lives. It will show the children that their leaders care about them. It will help boost their sense of patriotism.
I’m sure if a lunatic had gone to an American senior high school and gunned down five students, you would have gone on Facebook and Twitter to show your support. Why are you quiet when your own are dying? I left high school not very long ago, so I still remember the trauma that greeted us for months when one of us died. In their case, they have buried 11 students in eight months. Their school has not been fumigated. What would qualify as a national emergency centre seems to escape the attention of all who matter in our country.
Mr. President, exactly a year ago, millions of Ghanaians queued to vote for you. A majority of those people were young people. Some of them do not have big names. They are not prominent enough to attract you to their funerals, but when they die in groups, it should concern you.
If you can find time to be in Kumasi two times this week and spend hours sitting at the final funeral rights of the late queen mother, then you surely have enough time to spare at least five minutes to speak to the young men and women of Kumasi Academy. You surely have enough time to assure them, their teachers and parents that the nation cares about their plight.
Anything short of this is an act of irresponsibility on your part and on the part of your key sector ministers who should have been there. It is not too late to do what is right.
Until I come your way again,
This is Manasseh Azure Awuni. I am a citizen, not a spectator!
The writer, Manasseh Azure Awuni, is a journalist with Joy 99.7 FM. He is the author of two books “Voice of Conscience” and “Letters to My Future Wife”. His email address is [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are his personal opinions and do not reflect, in any form or shape, those of The Multimedia Group, where he works.
Source: manassehazure.com
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If it were to happen in France guess what Akuffo Addo will post on his face book page. KUMACA duo no agyimi And no koraaaa, by the way where is the first lady still in china. the Vice president, hearing about this embarrassment and shameful neglect visited the school after this write up. Haha ay3d3d3d33
Whilst in opposition, the first lady to be would always rush to go and sympathize with market women whenever there was fire. We saw it at Medina, we saw it at the Central Market. Where is the first lady now, the parents of the dead students need their sympathy. Lets face facts
NPP DEIR DERBIDERBI......NPP HYPOCRISY IS LIKE BOB MARLEY AND GANJA.....INSEPERABLE
A Critique Please, pardon me for critiquing your piece entitled A Memo To Akufo-Addo And His Irresponsible Ministers. In fact, I don’t think I deserve your attention let alone critiquing a ‘known Saint’. Again, I’m sorry for my poor ‘brƆfo’ (English language) especially my spellings and concord. Don’t worry because I attended ‘saaito’ a.k.a ‘aban sukuu’ and didn’t get opportunity for quality education like you got. But before I proceed, in paragraph 2 line 3, quote “…but I am writing with anger and…..” May I request that you read Ecclesiastes 7 vs 9 and Proverbs 16 vs 32; who knows, they may be antidote to your anger. I am quoting Biblical verses because I am aware your marriage was blessed by a pastor I’ve so much respect for. Hmmm!!!, I hope I’ll not suffer the wrath of your anger? If I read well and understood you correctly especially in your concluding statements, you assume it’s irresponsible on the part of the president, his Vice and ministers to have gone to Kumasi twice in a week for funeral ceremony but failed to visit KUMACA; “there is something I find very irresponsible, …… your failure to visit the students and teachers of Kumasi Academy”. Again, the president’s refusal to mention or acknowledge deaths in his speech during the school’s 60th anniversary amounts to irresponsibility. Okay, let’s look at the concept of irresponsibility and responsibility and the definitions of ‘irresponsible’ and match them against your claims. ‘Irresponsible’ according to Collins dictionary means criticising someone because he/she does things without properly considering their possible consequences. Synonyms include thoughtless, ***barred word***, reckless. According to Webster’s New World College Dictionary (2010) irresponsible means lacking a sense of responsibility; unreliable, shiftless; not showing or done with due care for the consequences of one's actions or attitudes; reckless. From the dictionary definitions, irresponsibility is the failure to recognise the implications or consequences of one’s action. With these definitions, where do you draw the line of ‘irresponsibility’? Is it their failure (their inaction) to visit KUMACA, the consequences of their actions or what? On the other hand, responsibility in management means, a state of being accountable or answerable for any obligation, trust, debt or something (PATHAK, 2016). Meaning, not being accountable or answerable to obligation is a mark of irresponsibility. With the KUMACA situation, has the government been responding to it or not? Do you see any lackadaisical attitude brought to bare on this unfortunate public health crises? Has the government left to their own fate? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then you’ve a point tagging them irresponsible. But if your responses are no, then I’m afraid you misused the word or maybe you’ve unjustifiably abused it. Philosophical discussion of responsibility focuses on two main theories; responsible agency, whereby a person is regarded as a normal moral agent and retrospective responsibility, when a person is judged for his/her actions, for instance, in being blamed or punished (Garrath, 2002). I think that readers must not be bombarded with research materials, quotations, references, etc. but per the reasons you’ve proffered to justify your anger, none of them meet the standards of the two theories as espoused by Garrath Williams. In fact, based on which theory did you arrive at ‘irresponsibility; moral, ethnic, virtue or collective or legal? Or it is just based on your moral judgment which I can’t take it away from you but equally can’t be the yardstick to measure responsibility or otherwise of leaders of the country or anybody. According to you, “If you can find time to be in Kumasi two times this week and spend hours sitting at the final funeral [rites] of the late queen mother, then you surely have enough time to spare at least five minutes to speak to the young men and women of Kumasi Academy. You surely have enough time to assure them, their teachers and parents that the nation cares about their plight. Anything short of this is an act of irresponsibility…” Question, are you judging them based on your own moral code or principles of ‘responsibility or per the general norm?? Has the absence of the president/presidency stalled the efforts of health workers, MoH, GHS, WHO and that of GES? Has there been complaint about lack of logistics or personnel that the MoH or the sector minister and agencies have paid deaf ears? Has the regional minister been to the school? If yes, who appointed the regional minister and whom does he takes instructions from and respond to? Inasmuch as I may agree with you to some extent about lack of a well-coordinated response, tagging personalities who have fought over the years to build a reputation ‘irresponsible’ just because they’ve been absent from a scene/site of near-epidemic smack of preaching virtues yet practicing vices and above all a proclaim of self- righteousness and a mini-god. Well, I can’t begrudge you for your own opinion and write-ups because you’re guaranteed right to freedom of expression, thought and opinion. But in exercise of same rights, remember the Ghanaian in you. I don’t think you’ll call your kinsmen ‘irresponsible’ if they fail to pay you or your wife a visit at the hospitable after paying the medical bills and sending the ‘kaakyire’ (last born) to keep watch over you while on admission? Prof. Agyekum usually says [in Twi] ‘sƐ abƆfra de nantwenam sua nam we a, Ɔhunu we a, Ɛnam bƐn bio na awofoƆ de bƐma no? Your claim “Apart from showing respect to the dead and honouring custom, Asantes are the largest ethnic group in Ghana so it makes political sense to be seen at the biggest gathering of Asanteman when it matters most…..” The implication of the above statement is that the said ‘irresponsible’ leaders wouldn’t have gone to Kumasi twice in a week just to honour funeral invitation if Asantes weren’t the largest ethnic group in Ghana. Well, from my uneducated background, the Asantes technically are/is not ethnic group. They come under the Akan ethnic group which comprises of several subsets (including Fantes, Bono, Denkyira, Sefwi, Wassa, Aowin, Nzima, Ahanta, Akyem, Akuapim, etc). This is confirmed by 2010 population figures published by GSS. In page 48 table 13, there’s no mention of ‘Asantes’ as ethnic group but rather Akan. Hence, the ‘Asantes’ couldn’t have been or is not the largest ethnic group in Ghana (unless you provide contrary proof). Bottom line [in Kweku Baako’s voice], you goofed on that score. Again, the import of that statement is that, it was ***barred word*** for such people to have attended the same funeral twice, hence being ‘irresponsible’ and for a funeral to be organized that long period to waste everybody’s time. Well, I’m not Asante but hey!!, that’s their rich culture and heritage. In summary, the statement underscore probably the tribal hate [if there’s word like that] in you. I’ll end here with part 1 of my critique by admonishing you that give honour to whom honour is due [refer to the Bible]. Maybe critiquing your write-ups can help refine my 2/4 English language writing, so why not start following you and do that which is just. Asonaba Luther Martin
So you had wanted the president there not knowing the cause of the disease, so that, that too would have been a news? So the minister of health going there was not enough? You people caused the scare. Giving it names that made the parents panic. You people abuse the microphone, the air waves and the print media. Dont pretend you are speaking for us, but for yourself.
this would have been a nice piece if not for some one or two problems like diction and the fact that the president failed to visit the school once he was at Kumasi. But i think diction, tone and mood was my main issue. Assuming His Majesty the king was the one who had not visited the school so far, i don't think Manasseh would even dare dream of using such worlds in his letter to the king. so why then should he talk talk in this manner to the president? Manasseh, u could have called the attention of the president to this in a more tactical manner. thank u.
Good one there. Lets value the living more than the dead in Ghana
I think this time Manasseh got it wrong. Especially when you compared the situation with what exist elsewhere. In situations of flooding in US the so-called caring presidents don't rush there first time. If Manasseh is not happy about the president attending the queen mother's funeral he should say so. It requires a little bit of critical thinking toi control your choice of words about the first gentleman of the land. Another bad journalism.
Thank you Mr. Man.. U made my day the only thing in Ghana is that we don't value life we turn to put all our attention on the death, death in Ghana is the most important time in our life and that's where most of our resources are directed. "THE LAST RESPECT" Like the death knows how we treat and worship them. Very irresponsible society. The President and his people don't even realized how serious their behavior has been. Africa.. Hobeii !!
What will the presence of the president and the entire government machinery at the school achieve? Guess you were waiting for them to line up there for you to lambast them for being there without solution. But when this expectation was not met and you saw them at the funeral (your actual source of anger at the customs of ashantes and the nationwide attention) you had to "give it to them" . The commitment and high level of responsibility by those in charge of the situation has averted more deaths and reports of new cases since the antibiotics were administered. Today there is report of all 44 students on admission being discharged while teams are on the ground to trace possible contacts with some students to avert an epidemic. Mr. wise man Azure do you know subscribing to your ill informed suggestion would have endangered the lives of your tagged "irresponsible" lot? Guess they are not even human so their lives shouldn't be valued. I am also wondering why a wise man like you hasn't been on the scene since your presence will magically stop the infection and resurrect the dead as well. Most wise one please help us with your presence and let the "irresponsible" leaders mourn with the Asantehene. I think the praise singing has gotten into your head and you have consequently arrogated unto yourself the all knowing and most responsible status. And by the way, now that its been diagnosed do you think it is responsible to lineup in KUMACA for your satisfaction?