Opinions of Sunday, 21 April 2019
Columnist: Hajia Mariam Dzifa Ibrahim
Mr President, the People of Juma Cries Out to You! Your Excellency the president of the Republic of Ghana, the commander in chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, and the father of the nation, the people of Juma a relatively small suburb community located in the centre outskirt of Amasaman in the Ga West municipality of the Greater Accra Region, passionately, cries to you as a matter of urgency, intervene and come to their aid in ensuring that, a clinic that was built, completed with pretty good intentions to serve the good people of the area is commissioned.
Mr President, the people seek your intervention to commission the clinic for them to use. Your Excellency, Juma people entreat you to help save lives in the area. According to residents who spoke at a gathering organized by a Female aspiring Member of Parliament of the opposition party (NDC), Hajia Mariam Dzifa Ibrahim.
Participants lamented of how miscarriages, child maternal mortality sometimes occur as a result of travelling a long distance to in search of clinic healthcare while a clinic that has been completed lies idle. Coupled with these are the bad roads that they have to travel on mostly, leading to miscarriages due to incessant shaking and bumping in and out of potholes eventually, leading to bleeding and most cases miscarriages in the case of early pregnancies. It is in the light of this that the whole community makes a clarion call on you Mr president to help them by commissioning this health post clinic since by so doing in their opinion, it could save lives of their loved ones and reduce child maternal mortality.
Furthermore, Mr president, the community indicated that they have over ten (10) nurses who have completed their training and due to the unemployment, has resorted to community service, which is great by the way. So, in times when conditions become severe, like in the case of a pregnant woman in labour, they improvise by using the church building as a clinic.
So again, it begs the question, Mr president, why use the house of God as such when there is an edifice constructed and completed to serve such purposes of rendering healthcare? Your Excellency Mr President, the people of Juma are humbly suggesting that you instruct your municipality chief executive officer of the Ga West municipality to open up the facility unto them to put to use in saving lives.
They also believed that the availability of unemployed nurses in the locality and the fact that your government talks about employment for the youth untenable. Mr president, it beats the people of Juma's imagination for your government to talk of Nabco, and youth employment while a clinic in a community duly completed with graduate nurses unemployed in the same community irreconcilable.
As they hope commissioning the clinic will create jobs for at least some of them at Juma to say the very least. Some angrily said it does not make any sense, for a completed clinic to be locked up for whatever reason, while community dwellers die of possible preventable illness which violates the UN convention on universal health care delivery, the female aspirant Hajia Mariam Dzifa Ibrahim, unanimously agreed that having a clinic is a very basic need and not a luxury as such hence, their readiness to be citizens and not spectators building their communities. Your Excellency, the poor people of Juma expects your expedited action because it is the fundamentals right of every citizen of this Nation to get access to quality healthcare and good roads. Together we build a better Ghana
Thank you.