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04.08.2021 Editorial

And now an apology

Ivy AboagyeIvy Aboagye
04.08.2021 LISTEN

Decency demands that when an apology is rendered same is accepted and swords returned to their scabbards.

Ivy Aboagye's apology having deprived us of an opportunity to return fire we can only tackle the general contempt rendered us by our visiting compatriots, our guns definitely not aiming at her.

Even before her appearance on social media, others arriving here with dual citizenships sneered at our existing COVID-19 screening regimen at the airport.

For the latter having undergone similar tests elsewhere, places they think are more advanced than ours, they should be exempted from any form of tests, not in Ghana.

So loud were they that it was as if Ghana is not a sovereign country with authority to decide on which path to follow in matters of disease control.

With the authorities of the countries their homeward trips originated from respecting our COVID-19 management success, their contemptuous stances are clearly nonsensical.

Even before Ivy and others' angst about the management of the COVID-19 testing at the airport, the subject suffered a barrage of verbal attacks by a section of the populace, the issue serving their political project well.

Gladly government persisted in its management of the arrangement which undoubtedly has saved us from what could have been a COVID-19 crisis in the country.

The tendency to juxtapose our systems and the European countries and the US by our compatriots who are domiciled in these countries is their favourite and gives them an opportunity to lash at local arrangements.

The building of our country behooves all her citizens, those resident here and in foreign lands to join in the patriotic project.

Let us all lift high the flag of our motherland and avoid the kind of scenes we noticed when government in her response to the pandemic decided on its own ways of testing for the virus on arriving visitors.

Had the meticulousness of our scientists at the airport fallen below expectation, things would have gone haywire and our health system overrun. Fortunately that has not been the case.

The Ghanaian scientists and other professionals are as good as their European or American counterparts, the sterling qualities of some of them in foreign lands not lost on us. We shall not accept the condescending attitude of foreigners let alone our compatriots on vacation.

For our indefatigable state agents from immigration officers to those testing for COVID-19 who are protecting the sovereignty of their motherland in diverse ways, we plead with them to consider the unpleasant treatment they endured as part of the hazards of their occupations.

Ghana is grateful for their services but for which our country would not have been in the state we find her today.

Our compatriots continue to return home for vacation and assorted business transactions because of the favourable state of the country.

Let those still stuck in the condescending stance consider the apology of Ivy and be wise.

---Daily Guide

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