Editor of the Hawk newspaper, Charles McCarthy, has challenged the government of the day to put in place measures to provide relief items to Ghanaians in lockdown zones amidst coronavirus fears.
According to him countries that have implemented lockdowns in their entire nation and some larger cities are providing citizens with relief items.
“Some countries have all parts under lockdown and still provide relief items to all citizens. Why can’t our government support just 3 regions under lockdown,” he queried?
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On his authority, the country has abundant resources to support these regions.
“We have what it takes to support every Ghanaian. What are we using our state farms for? This is the time for government to support citizens as we fight this crisis. If you can’t help citizens for just 2 weeks, can you help us in a year?
Both the President and his Vice during their campaign in 2016 said, we have money but we are living in hunger. I want to ask if we are no longer living in abundance or things have changed?,” he sought clarity.
Charles McCarthy citing the exemplary leadership of Nigeria revealed that, “Nigeria has set up a committee to take donations to support their country. They have 15billion niara now. The same Nigeria is sharing 70, 000 metric tons of grains to 5000 citizens, and also transferring money to the less privileged in this country. Can’t we do same for just these 3 regions under lockdown?”, he asked.
Speaking on Happy98.9FM’s ‘Epa Hoa Daben’, the journalist wanted to understand what prevented government from footing water bills of Ghanaians, as we now have to wash our hands frequently to avoid contracting the virus.
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He stated,”Ghana set up a fundraising committee few days ago to raise money to fight COVID-19, and we have not received any feedback from them yet”. He went on to encourage everyone with the money to support the fund to rather send it directly to those who need it most, the poor and sick.
Charles believes the government of the day is a listening one, and will heed to his call to provide relief items to the locked down regions.
By: Joel Sanco