General News of Tuesday, 19 May 2020

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Coronavirus: Govt erred by calling pastors, others instead of traditionalists – Afrikania Mission

President Akufo-Addo and Veep Bawumia held breakfast meetings to pray against the coronavirus play videoPresident Akufo-Addo and Veep Bawumia held breakfast meetings to pray against the coronavirus

The search for a vaccine or a cure remains evasive as several countries across the globe struggle to contain the Coronavirus.

Although the cause and origin of the COVID-19 is not readily known, many countries are using different approaches to try and manage the situation.

In Ghana, when the country first recorded new cases, President Akufo-Addo held a breakfast meeting with some leading Christian leaders, whereas his vice, Bawumia did same with Islamic clerics to pray to avert further infections and destruction by the viral disease.

By the close of the day and subsequent days, however, the number of confirmed cases surged rather than reduced; a situation, traditionalists have attributed to failure of the president to confer with the custodians of the land.

Speaking on GhanaWeb’s socio-political show, #SayItLoud, Afrikania Mission, a neo-traditional movement which promotes African traditional religion, nationalism and Pan-Africanism disclosed that the cases spiked because traditionalists were not consulted in government’s resolve to tackle the pandemic.

Represented by the National Youth Chair, Fafafe Agbodzi-Sewornu, he explained that, “when the COVID-19 started, within the first month, the president of Ghana instead of calling the Wulomei in Accra, he called the pastors, the Muslim community, leaving the custodians of the land.

Just after that the day… the numbers kept rising...”

He stressed that a lot of the problems the government is contending with was due to their failure to engage traditional leaders before making critical decisions which affect the country.

He also admonished government to elevate the chieftaincy ministry to the cabinet, this he said will save the government from mishaps.



“Government must invest a quantum of its resources in research… ministry of chieftaincy and religious affairs must be made a cabinet ministry because that is what carries the vision before it goes to finance,” he added.

Two months after the country recorded its first cases of the deadly coronavirus, the case count has risen to 5918 with 1754 recoveries and 31 deaths.