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Entertainment of Thursday, 7 January 2016
Source: Myjoyonline.com
Leila Djansi , Movie producer and director
The Youth Organiser of the UK/Ireland branch of the NDC, Kofi Adoli, has replied Ghanaian international movie producer and director Leila Djansi, who said she has regretted campaigning for the party in the 2012 elections.
He said unlike Leila Djansi; he has not regretted campaigning for John Mahama because the president has delivered beyond his expectation.
Leila Djansi expressed her frustrations with the hardships Ghanaians have been forced to endure due to the “incompetence” of people currently manning the affairs of the country.
The ‘Sinking Sands’ director made the comments in a post on Facebook Tuesday which outlined major challenges and controversies that have rocked the country lately.
Kofi Adoli, in a reply, said she should not regret campaigning for the NDC because the John Mahama-administration has achieved more than any government in recent times. Read his reply: Dear Leila Afua Djansi, My name is Kofi Adoli. Just like you, I am normally resident outside Ghana, but I keep a close eye on developments back home.
Occasionally I come home for a variety of reasons. The similarities between us do not end there. I, just like you campaigned for John Dramani Mahama in 2012.The point of departure, however, is that I have absolutely no regret doing so.
I have read your post this morning in which you raise a number [of] frustrations you have with the way the country is being run.
Specifically, you speak about water shortage and the recent rebranding of the buses and what you say is inadequate beds in our hospitals. These I believe form the basis for your expression of regret for campaigning and voting for President Mahama and the NDC.
I respect your right to vent and raise issues with the management of our country. I also uphold your right to criticise government when you feel a number of things have gone wrong. That said, I believe your expression of regret over these matters leaves much to be desired. I earnestly believe that you may be unaware of some developments in our country. You may also have been the recipient of false, exaggerated claims from a loud but often uncritical and shallow media.
It is not too clear to me what may have caused the temporary water shortage where you live. I do not in fact know where you live. What is clear however from your post is that at some point you reached the Head of the water company who managed to get the shortage addressed.
Be that is it may when it comes to water provision, there is no single government that has done more than the one you helped put in place.
To help foster greater understanding of the enormity of the problem and the amount of work done to alleviate it, let me draw your attention to a few figures that illustrate the point. You see, between 1957 and 2009 when the NDC came to power, which is a period of 52 years, only 58.5% of Ghanaians had water.
That means just 14 million out of our population of 24 million had water. That also meant that a staggering 10 million people had no access to the vital commodity. The NDC under President Mahama has pumped in over US$1 billion to improve water coverage. There are dozens of major water projects aimed at bringing water to the people dotted around the country. Many of these have been completed, and the result is that currently water coverage stands at 76% meaning an additional 4.2 million Ghanaians have had water.
By the end of this year when all the ingoing projects would have been completed this coverage will rise to 85%, and that will translate to a total of 7million Ghanaian being given water in addition to those who had it prior to the coming of the NDC.
Surely Leila, despite your frustration with the temporary shortage, you would appreciate that any President, who gives 7million more people water in the limited period he has led this country is undeserving of the accusation of incompetence that you levelled at him.
You may have noticed that in previous times when you visited Ghana, young children living in such places as Adenta, Teshie, Nungua and the Northern part of Accra and many cities in Ghana had to carry yellow jerrycans christened “Kufour Gallons”, over long distances in search of water. That is a spectacle you are unlikely to encounter when you visit those same communities today because the water problem in those communities have been resolved.
On the issue of Health, I am pleased to inform you, that President Mahama has made the biggest contribution yet to our health care delivery system. You may be unaware that currently work is either complete or on-going on 2 Teaching Hospitals. (In the last 40 years, not a single Teaching Hospital has been built in Ghana), a massive Military Hospital in Kumasi, a Police Hospital here in Accra, an ultra-modern Maritime Hospital in Tema, four large Regional Hospitals,14 District Hospitals, Dozens of new Polyclinics, over 40 Health centres and 1,260 CHPS compounds.
Leila when you add all these up we are talking of capacity for an additional 6,000 hospital beds in a matter of three to four years. This has never happened in our history as a country. Beyond this President Mahama has carried out the most comprehensive re-equipping of government hospitals in our history.
Only a few years ago in Ghana, MRIs were not a part of our health delivery system. Today you are likely to see not only an MRI but a CT-Scan, Mamography machine, Fluoroscopy and x-ray machines. Today ailments that a few years ago had to be diagnosed abroad can be diagnosed and treated here in Ghana. It may interest you to note that in the period before the NDC government came to power, not a single Regional Hospital was built in all eight years of the NPP’s rule.
Ask their rabid supporters who are trooping to your wall to lend you support to point you to anything they did that comes close to what President Mahama has done in the office and they will be found wanting. These same people would rip you apart if you dared criticise the many flaws of their leader and his hopeless incompetence. They would savage you if you even questioned their many violent methods at capturing political power. Again, Leila, you would agree that levelling a charge of incompetence at a President, who has done far more in health than his predecessors is most uncharitable and unfair to the facts.
Regarding the issue of the branded busses, there was widespread outrage. The President was equally outraged by this conduct. It is on this basis that he commissioned an investigation into the matter leading to the resignation of the Minister of Transport and a refund of the outstanding amount from the executors of the contract who you branded “less qualified”.
I can say with certainty that had you not helped install John Mahama as President, such a matter would not have received the attention it deserved. You may be aware or unaware that during the tenure of the NPP whose members I see are falling over themselves to comment on your post, a staggering US1.4million dollars was used to purchase gold medals to hang around the neck of the President and his friends at a time when school children in Ghana sat under 4,321 trees to study. Despite public outrage and outcry, absolutely nothing was done to reverse this shocking level of ostentation. Surely, Leila, you would have more confidence in a President, who takes action on a matter like the bus branding than one who leads a party who inspite of public protests displays such grotesque opulence.
I am acutely aware that in the United States where you live and the United Kingdom where I am domiciled, water shortages or inadequate hospital beds are unheard off. But you would be comparing apples to oranges if you viewed our circumstance as a nation through that prism. In the scheme of things we can only compare ourselves to our peers even as we aspire to attain the heights achieved by the US and the UK. Therefore, in analysing our national situation, we ought to be fair to the facts.
In all honesty, I can attest that the Ghana we live in today is a much better place than what the NDC inherited though long-standing systemic problem persists. I am also aware that bold measures are in place to address them.
As citizens, we have every right to point out ills in our society so that they can be addressed. We are not obliged to praise governments for doing their work. We must, however, be wary of the shallow opportunism of the opposition and their mercenary media lackeys whose only pre-occupation is to project our country in the worst-possible light for partisan gain.
I implore you to maintain your support for President John Dramani Mahama. I urge you to campaign harder for him in 2016 because I can assure you that it will be a far better thing you do than you have ever done.
I sincerely hope that the temporary water shortage in your neighbourhood is resolved quickly like it was done the last time. Look beyond the temporary setback and have the bigger picture in mind. While you are at it, please download a copy of “Accounting to the people”, a book published by the government you helped put in place, in which irrefutable evidence of real progress is presented in vivid detail.
You can do so at www.moc.gov.gh,www.ghana.gov.gh and www.presidency.gov.gh. Your Diasporan compatriot,
Kofi Adoli
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