Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa, Sulemana Braimah has expressed satisfaction with how the Akufo-Addo-led government has handled the fight against the Novel Coronavirus.
According to him, despite the several challenges and controversies that have plagued Ghana’s fight against the virus, government has performed considerably well.
While speaking in an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb, Mr Braimah said prior to the outbreak of the disease, government might have concluded decisions on its plans, programmes and policies but that has never been the bane to government’s fight efforts in addressing coronavirus-related issues.
He said “I certainly foresee that there will be problems in the coordination and as things unfold, I’m sure they’ll try to correct themselves. So far, I’ll say that in my candid opinion, the government of Ghana has done quite well in terms of coordinating the situation...”
However, with regards to communicating the coronavirus case count to Ghanaians and the debate about the country reaching its peak, he noted that there were some pitfalls which could have been handled better.
“…In the course of doing so, there may have been some pitfalls in the area of communicating to Ghanaians that could have been avoided, example there has been the latest controversy about whether we got to our peak moments or not…people complained that there was consistency in the communication to the people of Ghana…but overall it’s been good, it cannot be perfect…,” Mr Braimah added.
Stop hoarding information
As a way of addressing such controversies about Ghana’s situation, Sulemana Braimah has urged government and its agencies to willingly give out information in this period.
This, he says, will to a large extent, reduce the high levels of speculation and agitation which arise as a result of curious individual minds and the spread of misinformation on the internet.
“What’s important is to educate the public to help them to be media literates…that also requires that government agencies and the people who are the custodians of information willingly and proactively disclose information so that it doesn’t allow for speculation…,” he advised.
