Member of Parliament for the Ablekuma South Constituency and former Mayor of Accra, Albert Oko Vanderpuije, has asserted that if we had done things well during the lockdown, we could have extended the lockdown period to curb the spread of COVID-19.
According to him, a lot of things that could have helped the country during the lockdown period was politicized, hence the struggle to lift the lockdown and ultimately increase the number of our COVID-19 cases.
Speaking in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning show, he noted that one such example was the process in which food and water were distributed during the lockdown period.
“I was very disappointed when it comes to the measures to be implemented so that the lockdown will be beneficial. There were so many areas in Ghana that the free water was not flowing. Some of us MPs had to get private tankers to supply water at our expense. When it comes to implementation of activities into the lockdown, it was challenging.
Food was necessary if we were going into lockdown. Unfortunately, when it came to sharing of foods, we politicized it. And I am very upset about that. In my constituency, the foods were being distributed to NPP members in their houses. Even before Zanetor complained about this issue, I was the first to complain about it.
The food that was shared during the lockdown period was politicized. I called the Gender Minister on two occasions complaining about food being shared on political lines”, he lamented.
While he commended the president for instituting the lockdown, he heavily criticized the measures put in place as part of the lockdown process.
“The locking down was necessary and I commend the president for that decision to lockdown. But the measures that should have been put in place for us to make the lockdown a very meaningful one was not done. We politicized it”, he said.
Government through the Ministries of Finance and Gender, Children and Social Protection, during the lockdown period, embarked on a food distribution drive to ensure that needy people in areas under the restriction of movement directive by H. E. the President, live in comfort.
Some people, however, demanded fairness in the distribution of the government’s free food to the underprivileged as they claimed that the distribution of food was done on political lines.
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah