Opinions of Wednesday, 16 July 2014

Columnist: Pacas, Idris

Suweiba to put behind missing baby issue

Anticipated, the gimmicking over Suweiba’s missing baby has ‘ended’. I appeal to Mr Abdul-Moomin, Mrs Suweiba and the entire Abdul-Moomin’s family to put every issue relating to the missing baby behind and move on with life. You have already demonstrated this character by outrightly rejecting the GH ¢ 50,000.00 reportedly given by the Ministry of Health (MoH) as a ‘compensation’. May God give you the heart to move on with life.

Absolutely nothing happens on this Earth without the Master (Allah) having a plan for it. A bouncing baby boy was indeed born to Ghana on 5 February 2014 by you (the Abdul-Moomins) at KATH. The hospital mysteriously declared the baby missing, triggering a ‘meagre’ public outcry. Being powerless, the Suweibas and we (the writer and you the concerned reader) fought intrepidly for our baby (alive or dead) but never got it back. God is surely happy with us, for we’ve /wiiv/ fought so well to secure what He has given to us. Our failure simply reflects our inherent incapability. The ‘reasonable’ option left for us is to attempt to forcibly ‘forget’ the missing baby issue.

Madam Suweiba, ignore the advice or the support from any politician or group. The average Ghanaian politician has no moral conscience. At the apex, we saw Messrs Rawlings and Kufuor pack away presidential cars when they were ex-presidents. We saw NPP illegally and cheaply sold a govt bungalow plus 1.06-acre land to Mr Jake at GH ¢390,000.00. Most recently, we saw the NDC govt back NPA when the authority doled US$ 700,000.00 as a year’s rent for an office that is bigger than its staffing requirement. Why follow these morally bankrupt persons when the issue at stake is a matter of morality?

Reportedly, the Suweibas are now relying on what their MP, Hon Mutaka will do (Suweiba demands whereabouts of baby after investigative report @ Ghanaweb 13/06/2014). Again, Mr Abdul-Moomin and Madam Suweiba, ignore your MP. Hon Muntaka is part of the NDC govt; he could have impressed upon his govt to institute a committee of inquiry to look into the scandal holistically. Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia once said, “Evil could only triumph by the inaction, indifference, and silence of those who could have acted, known better, and had the voice of justice when it mattered most’’. The time for politicians to deal with the case has passed. It is now time for us to focus on what God has in stock for us.

Ignoring the advice to set up a public hearing committee to investigate the missing-baby scandal, MoH played its gimmicks until today. The outgoing Health Minister Ms Sherry Ayittey had earlier explained that the scandal comprised three dimensions: the professional, the administrative and the criminal parts. She claimed that her Ministry had dealt with the first two and that the police and the Attorney-General’s Department are handling the third component. This claim is surprising because the whole scandal, a CLASS ‘A’ criminal case, should have been handled by the police and court.

Albeit mollycoddling the evil doers, MoH has done something: the CEO of KATH has been axed and two senior midwives Ms Marian Asare and Patience Amposah were suspended for just 4 and 2 weeks without pay respectively. Though denying, MoH secretly gave the GH¢ 50,000.00 to the Asawase Community leaders to compensate the Suweibas.

The suspended persons were not those who maltreated Madam Suweiba. Ms Marian Asare was the midwife in charge of the labour ward while Patience Amposah was the head of the shift for the night on which Suweiba delivered her never-to-be-found baby boy. In their skewed ruling; KATH, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and Medical and Dental Council considered the two senior midwives to have failed to physically hand over the bodies of the ‘stillborn’ babies to the incoming shift. And if the committee had not pampered the ‘wrongdoers’, I would have been surprised. KATH, the accused, was the key member of committee that investigated the scandal and recommended those sanctions. A thiefman being part of the committee that determines his punishment. Only in Ghana!

Failing to coordinate and centralize the investigations, the Ministry looked suspicious from day one. In reality, some of the suspects at KATH are being tried in a Kumasi-based court. Thus, the committee took no disciplinary action against these persons (eg, the matron and the orderly Baba Asibi). The question is ‘Can those who have already been sanctioned by the Ministry be punished again if the Kumasi-based court incriminates them? Obviously, common sense does not support punishing somebody twice for the same offence. This non-coordinated handling of the issue and the failure of the committees to publish their findings manifested the cover-up role successfully played by MoH and Muntaka’s govt at large.

Previously, Ms Shirley Ayittey stated that the health records at KATH indicated that Madam Suweiba had lost over 400 ml of blood. Despite this blood loss, she was asked by the nurse to walk alone to the elevator (lift). Consequently, she collapsed on the way. And while still being somehow unconscious, Suweiba had her thumb seized by the nurse to thumbprint a document that her baby had died. Amidst all these, the Ministry exonerated the said midwife.

Considering this blood-curdling scandal and the ‘little’ reaction from the public especially from religious and traditional leaders, I again appeal to the Suweibas to put the matter behind. Any attempt to pursue the matter in court will keep reminding you (Suweibas) of the pains. These pains may be healed ‘permanently’ if a bold decision is taken now to allow the baby issue to go. I repeat—God has a plan for everything. Staring at me with its tapedum lucidum is this example from Brazil 2014.

World Cup is a competition between nations, mere geographical divisions of our one Earth. Ubiquitous to nearly all the 32-countries at the World Cup is the ‘blackman’. Even almighty Germany had Kelvin Boateng planted at the defence just as heart is planted in humans. ‘Once’ considered inferior, we (Blacks) were traded as work animals, spreading us all over the Earth.

Worth mentioning is the ‘blackman’ (sorry African-American) with all his three names apparently sounding foreign but firmly controlling the most powerful state in the world—Barack Hussein Obama. What is God’s plan here? To have blacks controlling all nations on His Earth. Madam Suweiba, God’s plan awaits you in the next corner. May He bless your womb with several non-missing babies. Long live concerned citizens! Long live Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana!

Idris Pacas: 020 91 01 53 3