An Open Letter To The President Of The Republic Of Ghana

Your Excellency John D. Mahama, a few years ago, you signed an agreement with your Cuban friends to see the training of 250 Ghanaians as medical doctors in Cuban territories. Many months ago, these young men and women reached the Caribbean island of Cuba. The program has been set in motion, the students have begun their mission there, but it looks like your government is leaving them with nothing but frustrations.

For so many months, these men and women who left the shores of Ghana to prepare themselves for the service of their motherland, have been left unattended. The monthly stipend which was agreed on to be paid to each student for their upkeep has not been paid. Your Excellency, I hope you remember what upkeep means? It means they can eat, they can't buy toiletries for personal hygiene, etc. These guys are representing our country abroad, we don't want Ghanaians to be known as people who don't bathe, or …

Mr. President, I'm sure you're aware medical school training is quite more exhaustive as compared to training in other university courses, which by themselves are tough. So Mr. President, how do you expect our fellow Ghanaians to concentrate on their studies with an empty stomach? It's being said they're doing a language course in the first year. With hunger in their bellies and in their minds, they'll be terrible in Spanish and with this as their basis, they will not be able to study medicine properly since Spanish is the medium of instruction. This is a recipe for disaster! We'll be attended to in the future by these men and women. It wouldn't be good for us if they're not well trained. And the reason for the improper training shouldn't be because your government refused to pay them the monies they need to take care of themselves.

Your Excellency, Jerry Rawlings, who was in your shoes many years before you, had sent some Ghanaians to Cuba for the same reason. Many of them didn't return to Ghana, not because they're unpatriotic or are some sort of devils. They didn't return because they didn't see why they should return to serve a country that doesn't care about them. They were left in Cuba to suffer! Many of them are in Anglophone Caribbean. Find them, they'll tell you about their ordeal in Cuba. They don't even understand why in this day and age, after so many years, Ghana is still sending students to Cuba to be trained. Many of us think likewise.

But Mr President, if it must be done, it must be done well. If you're convinced you'd want to train Ghanaians as medical doctors in Cuba, please do it well. Do what has to be done. Let us all win at the end as Ghanaians. Don't condemn your own initiative to failure, because that's what you're doing. Defend your ideas and make them work. Ask Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro for advice if you have to.

Please remember that, “the rights of men don't come from the generosity of the State but from the hand of God”.

Thank you for your audience.
Faithfully,
Yawa K. Dogwood,
Cape Coast.