Covid-19 Outbreak: Our Gov’t Has Disowned Its Own Citizens?

Ambassador Edward Boateng, Ghana’s Ambassador to China finally informed our Wuhan NUGS executives on Wednesday 12 February 2020 that Akufo Addo’s govt WILL NOT EVACUATE about 300 Ghanaian students from Wuhan and its environs back to Ghana despite calls for evacuation.

The sad thing is that what prevented govt through the embassy from telling us from day one that they were not going evacuate us? Instead the officials kept telling us all kinds of lies in the last 21 days of the lockdown. Last week the embassy even said they got a charted flight to take us and that the details and cost had been sent to govt for approval. Personally I knew we will get here. From day one, I never trusted the contradictions from govt.

Some other inaccuracies and lies in the media by govt officials.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on behalf of Government of Ghana has granted approval for the mission in Beijing to expend 100,000 rmb equivalent to $4386 to cater for the emergency needs such as medical masks, sanitizers and food supplies especially for Ghanaians in Wuhan and its environs “

Hon. Habib Tijani Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister. Last week in Parliament.

The same deputy minister for foreign affairs said today via MYJOYONLINE that govt has released $250,000 to the embassy to assist students in the purchase of nose masks and toiletries as part of efforts to improve students wellbeing. Story is available on Joyfm online. Same govt official, different figures. Which one do we believe?

#Note the following:

The govt has been lying to Ghanaian Students in Wuhan and Hubei province through our chapter NUGS executives right from day one.

Meanwhile there’s so much false news in Ghana about what govt of Ghana has done as far as our plight is concerned.

There have been news all over in the media in Ghana that govt has given us money, food stuffs, nose masks. These are fabricated stories and I will explain. This is what I know for sure about the so-called Ghc50K govt said it gave to students.

As we speak no, not a single mask, or hand sanitiser or a grain of rice has been given to many of us.

The so-called Ghc50K govt made so much noise about is equivalent to a little over 64 thousand chinese yuan.

Out of that amount, 30K chinese yuan was supposed to be given to our Wuhan chapter executives to buy nose masks, hand sanitizers and food for distribution to students in Wuhan. The remaining balance NUGS China Executives said it was to be given to students outside Wuhan city but are also affected by the lockdown.

As we speak, NUGS-Wuhan executives are unable to buy those basic items for many reasons which include the following reasons

1) There’s shortage of medical masks, hand sanitizers and basic stuffs in the city of Wuhan,

2) There’s complete shutdown of public transport since 23rd January 2020, no buses, no taxes, no trains, no flights for 21 days today,

3) Stores still remained closed, the few that are regulated easily run out of supplies to the extent that common bread 🍞 is not available.

4) Even if they get the items, there’s no means of delivery to deliver items to over 16 universities that we have Ghanaian students in Wuhan.

Someone will say what about sharing it. If that so-called 30k chinese yuan given to NUGs Wuhan chapter which is equivalent to Ghc23,088 is to be shared amongst over 300 Ghanaian students in Wuhan, it will be Ghc77 or about 100 chinese yuan. What will we use it to buy and from where?

The whole city is like a ghost town.

As we speak now, because of the huge population in Wuhan (over 11 million people), now prices of basic items have gone up including nose masks that are not even readily available in the few stores.

There was a public notice by authorities in Wuhan, and the excerpt is indicated below.

“Strict implementation of security measures in order to prevent the outbreak at campus:

Inorder to prevent the spread of the epidemic to the school, to protect the health of teachers and students, and to maintain the campus stability, the school will further strictly control the campus gates. Without the approval of school authorities, students are not allowed to return back to school.”

From today, my own university has given indication that they are going to lock up the main entrance of our international students hostels on all the campuses, no student will be allowed to go out of the hostel even with masks. Students will only have the opportunity once a week (Thursdays) to go out for only 2 hrs to look for food stuffs to buy and must return within two hours or be locked out.

This is in compliance with a new directive from govt which applies to the entire wuhan city. All universities are to compile with new directives to control movement of students/people on the campuses.

In fact, one of our sister universities started the lockdown few days ago because it was reported that 74 persons including students on that university got affected by the virus.

For good reasons I will not put the names out but students in Wuhan know this university.

What is the point, it means that the restrictions are even getting worse as the death toll now hit 1,113 and confirmed cases of 44,653.

What does the lockdown mean?

It means that today, even if I have flight ticket, and I want to come back to Ghana, I will not be allowed to come home. I cannot even go to Airport or train station let alone leave Wuhan. It’s only govt evacuation that the chinese authorities will allow to take out Ghanaian students.

Many north African countries evacuated their citizens from Wuhan last week. Countries like Algeria, Morroco, Egypt, etc.

In Asia, Countries like Bangladesh, Myamar etc have all evacuated their students from Wuhan. If it’s risky for evacuation, how come many countries including our North African compatriots have evacuated their citizens?

Ironically govt of Ghana says no evacuation.

I remember in 2011, when there was crisis in Libya, govt of Ghana took the bold decision and evacuated over 16,000 Ghanaians from Libya to Ghana. This time around, our own govt has abandoned us to our fate. No problem. God dey.

How come that flights from Asia are allowed into Kotoka but govt thinks bringing us home will pose threats to Ghana? When people from all the affected countries are still allowed to travel into Ghana. This is insensitivity and nothing else.

Check this updates.

It’s not scaremongering! 14,840 new confirmed cases and 242 deaths just yesterday Wednesday 12-02-2020 alone in our province. These are official govt information as at today. Source: China Daily. I shared this information because some people still don’t appreciate the gravity of the situation at hand. In the meantime, we will continue to pray for Allah’s bountiful mercies. It is God who drives away flies on the tailless cow 🐄. Dagbani proverb.

The irony Ghana Mission in China is located in Beijing which is about 1,200 km away from Wuhan and yet on 11th February 2020, Ambassador Boateng, Ghana Ambassador to China is referenced by Guardian Newspaper in Ghana that he has directed the embassy staff to work from home in view of the virus outbreak. If Beijing which is about 1,200 km from Wuhan with total number of infected persons are just 400 with 1 reported as against the over 41,000 infected persons in Hubei (Wuhan) then it important for the Ambassador to push for our evacuation rather than trying to deceive us with money.

The Chinese government is doing its best to contain the situation under the circumstances and we appreciate the efforts by the Chinese government but the latest updates on the number of infected persons on 12 February 2020 is exceedingly scary.

On Tuesday, the D-G of WHO at a press conference in Geneva said a new vaccine for Covid-19 may be ready in 18 months' time. That’s a year and a half. That’s the nature of the journey.

Thanks to all those back home in Ghana and other parts of the world who are giving us words of encouragement, prayers, and advocacy for our govt‘s action.

Some of us are still very strong 💪🏿 spirited but many of our compatriots are psychologically and emotionally traumatized. Depression is setting in the minds of many people.

Baba Musah

Ghanaian Student in Wuhan

baba_musah94@yahoo.com