Political parties in the country have been urged to refrain from politicising the Coronavirus pandemic, and rather help the government fight it.
The call was made by the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, at a sensitisation workshop for political parties held in Accra yesterday.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the NPP, NDC, CPP, NDP and LPG.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah said the engagement was important in line with the key pillars of global pandemics, which include risk communications and social mobilisation.
“One of the groups that require serious engagement is the political parties. It is because political parties, among other things, have very large following who sometimes believe their leaders more than experts.
“So at a time like this, when you are trying to get as many people as possible mobilised to follow a particular path, as part of the preventive measures, you cannot leave out political parties,” he said.
He said the meeting was also to give the Ghana Health Service a platform to engage the political parties on the coronavirus pandemic, and discuss how “we can rally the entire national support behind all that is being done to win the fight and not politicise the matter.”
Strength in unity
A Deputy Minister for Health, Alexander Abban, who also addressed the gathering stressed on the need to unite as political parties in fighting the pandemic and not build political capital on the matter.
“When we leave this engagement, we are leaving here as Ghanaians ready to fight this pandemic and not political parties. We need ideas that must not shape partisanship,” he added.
The meeting with the political parties forms part of the government’s broader consultation and training to equip stakeholders with the appropriate information on the outbreak of the pandemic in the country.
