It Was Akufo-Addo Who Made Ajumako-Sunkwa Polyclinic a Usable Health Center

Among the Akan, there is a maxim that says that: “The person who gave birth to you did not suffer as much as the person who raised you.” I saw striking examples of this insightful maxim all over the Accra-Tema Metropolis this past July and early August, when I spent a month in Ghana with my family. These striking examples were in the form of the numerous uncompleted majestic-looking homesteads dotted all over the land, including our own. As they stand, these uncompleted houses are veritable eyesores, pretty much like the giant potholes, or craters, on some of the highways on which we had the misfortune to travel. Until these half- and quarter-built houses are completed and made habitable, they cannot be considered to be architectural symbols of pride or beauty. At best, they could only be charitably deemed to be pathetic museum pieces.

Which was why I could not get angry enough, when I read the news story in which some supporters and sympathizers of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and their counterparts of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) were reported to have resorted to an Arab-Intifada-type of pelting one another with stones, because a polyclinic landmark whose construction was begun by the erstwhile Mahama-led regime of the National Democratic Congress but was never completed during the four-year tenure of the last NDC government, but had to be completed by the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party was being commissioned in the Central Region’s small town of Sunkwa, in the Ajumako District. Now, there is a wicked irony reflected in this barbaric contest of stone-throwing or, properly speaking, this Battle Royale.

This all-out fight or free-for-all brawl. And it is because the name of Sunkwa township translates directly into the English language as “Cry-For-Life,” or even more meaningfully, “Cry-For-The-Endowment-Of-Good-Health.” It goes without saying that it was because the leaders of the previous National Democratic Congress’ regime laudably recognized this fact that work on having the Ajumako-Sunkwa Polyclinic constructed was commenced under the tenure of President John Dramani Mahama. As well, there is an equally wicked irony in the fact that the very leaders of the National Democratic Congress who had staunchly and vigorously opposed the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), initiated by the John Agyekum-Kufuor-led government of the New Patriotic Party should now see the proverbial light of progress by laying the foundation for the successful completion of the Ajumako-Sunkwa Polyclinic by the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party.

Which is perfectly in synch with the glowing performance track-record of the social welfare-oriented Danquah-Busia-Dombo neoliberal ideological camp. Conversely, the leaders of the presently main opposition National Democratic Congress are closely aligned with a Social Darwinian-informed policy called “Cash-And-Carry,” which simply means that you either have the requisite liquid cash to pay for your own medical or healthcare services or you might just as well drop dead and go to hell, wherever that Biblical land of evildoers may be located. Paradoxically, the leaders of the National Democratic Congress prefer to smugly style themselves as “Social Democrats,” that is, leaders and/or politicians who care the most about the fate or destiny of the abjectly poor and destitute. You see, what really caused the Ajumako-Sunkwa to-do on Thursday, August 16, 2018, was the fact that the supporters of former President John Dramani Mahama were convinced that since it was a National Democratic Congress’ government that commenced work on the Ajumako-Sunkwa Polyclinic, their political opponents or supporters of the now-President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party had absolutely no business joining in hearty celebration of the same (See “NPP, NDC Supporters Clash Over Commissioning of Ajumako Polyclinic” MyJoyOnline.com / Modernghana.com 8/16/18).

It goes without saying that the main reason for the existence of so many uncompleted government projects is because many a big-time Ghanaian politician is too promiscuous with their electioneering campaign promises. The fervid hope here is that the present Akufo-Addo Administration does not leave the scene with too many quarter-completed projects.

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By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
August 17, 2018
E-mail: [email protected]