Politics of Saturday, 5 March 2016

Source: Daily Guide

JOY turns guns on Mahama

Jacob Osei Yeboah popularly known as JOY Jacob Osei Yeboah popularly known as JOY

Independent Presidential candidate in the 2012 general elections, Jacob Osei Yeboah popularly known as JOY is seething with anger at the level of disappointment and neglect by the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.

His anger stems from the fact that the nation’s premier hospital and once prized national asset, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has almost been left in ruins and is therefore calling for Ghanaians to boycott the country’s 59th independence anniversary celebration scheduled for Sunday, March 6, 2016.

In a post on his Facebook wall on Tuesday, March 1, 2016, the 44 year old engineer and entrepreneur could not hide his frustrations after visiting the hospital with blazing guns at the President “Mr. President JDM, transforming lives is not killing lives.”

That was after visiting the Korle Bu hospital on Tuesday.

He then took to his Facebook wall to vent his frustration with the hashstag #?boycott59thIndecday#, saying “today, I visited Korle Bu and was greeted with a sad situation. A young man was begging for his father to have surgery but the medical team maintains that it’s not possible.”

Upon seeing him, the engineer turned politician cum entrepreneur said “one of them (referring to the doctors) retorted ‘this is the true state of the nation- killing Lives’.”

Apparently, he had been told by doctors there that all equipment at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital have broken down for the past 2 years with the surgical recovery ward which has only four beds which are shared by patients of the ICU.

Anger

This was what seems to have ruffled him since according to Osei Yeboah, the Minister of Health was well aware of the problem.

What seemed to annoy him the most was the fact that instead of looking for a solution to the problem, the Minister has directed that surgical patients be transferred to 37 Military Hospital or the Police Hospital.

For him, “this is shameful to say the least for Korle Bu and our lives”, reason he wanted the President to understand that his claim to ‘transforming lives’ as he said in his recent state of the nation address should not mean he and his government would look on for people to die since according to him “the medical team were not doing politics but true and sad state.”

Instead, he noted that “one doctor told me they doctors have done their part and it’s up to patients to do the same.”

This is the reason he is asking Ghanaians to boycott the independence anniversary celebration in solidarity with his campaign for equipment for the Intensive Care Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital since according to him, the “Tanzanian President canceled such independence day celebration and used the funds to equip such hospital as Korle Bu” and asked that President Mahama should emulate same.

Aside that, Jacob Osei Yeboah insisted “you can be the next patient at Korle Bu ICU and all what you need is register, boycott upcoming independence day wearing red or black on that day.”