Former John Dramani Mahama says that uninformed minds criticized his administration’s investments in the health sector during his tenure as president of the Republic of Ghana.

According to him, some of these criticisms were misguided and meant to score cheap political points.

In a Facebook live conversation dubbed “A Digital Conversation on Ghana’s COVID-19 Situation, Health Care and Infrasture”, John Mahama said, “The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana has also provoked quite a useful debate for a more robust and effective health system. It has become obvious that the system must not only be responsive to the immediate and long term health needs of our people but also to withstand emerging global public health challenges such as this novel infectious disease we are facing.”

He continued, “It has been widely acknowledged that some of the critical investments that we [NDC administration] made in the health sector has been extremely useful and enabled Ghana to lessen the impact of this pandemic on our people and our nation. This acknowledgement bears out the vision and clear thinking that went into the massive investments we made in the health sector. There were uninformed and snipped remarks at the time with some questioning why many facilities were constructed. We were acutely aware however that these investments were necessary to modernise a very fragile and weak health system.”

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during his recorded eighth address to the nation since Ghana recorded its first two cases of the novel Coronavirus on Sunday, April 26, announced plans for constructing of hospitals in 88 districts across the country.

This has since provoked a debate within the public about the investment done in the sector prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the abandonment of some health facilities started by his predecessors.

Akufo-Addo stated that the pandemic has exposed the weakness in the country’s health system following years of under-investment.