The Member of Parliament for the Bolgatanga East Constituency, Dr. Dominic Ayine, is reported to have castigated the media and residents of the Upper East Region for turning their attention away from the government and instead calling out MPs for failing to support the construction of a dialysis centre at the Upper East Regional Hospital.
These comments by Dr. Ayine are said to have been made when he commissioned three boreholes in three communities recently.
“The duty to provide dialysis equipment to a regional hospital run by the Ghana Health Service is that of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government, and it is not the duty of Akuritinga as the MP for Bolgatanga East, it is not the duty of Edward Bawa as the MP for Bongo, it is not the duty of Isaac Adongo as the MP for Bolgatanga Central,” he stated.
“The media in this region are the ones who turned the guns on us and let the government off the hook. It’s the duty of the government to provide the public hospital with dialysis equipment or equipment of all kinds that are needed to provide public health services. It is not the duty of MPs.”
The comments of the MP have not sat kindly with the Upper East Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), William Nlanjerbor Jalulah.
When Mr. Jalulah, who doubles as the General Manager of A1 Radio, a subsidiary of Agreed Best Communication Company, spoke to Mark Smith on the Day Break Upper East Show, he described the comments as “most unfortunate, ridiculous, and cannot be defended by any well-meaning individual or groups that know the essence of a dialysis centre.”
“He talks about the fact that the media hasn’t done our work well by not turning our guns on the government and for that matter, the Akuffo Addo and Bawumia government. We have to ask ourselves, even in our junior high school lessons, we were taught who and what the government is, and so the member of parliament himself is the government. So why will you think that the establishment of a dialysis centre is the sole responsibility of the government when you are not the government? Contextually, if you look at the grounds on which he made these comments, where was this? It was after he had commissioned boreholes. There’s a Ministry for Sanitation and Water Resources, which is a government agency that is supposed to be the agency for the delivery of water supply to Ghanaians, which is supposed to be funded by the government of Ghana. So what is his business, commissioning boreholes?”
Mr. Jalulah reminded the MP for Bolgatanga East about the media’s role in setting agendas and pushing for development within their jurisdiction.
Additionally, the Regional Chairman of the GJA reminded the MP of the fact that the media didn’t call out only NDC MPs but all 15 MPs in the Upper East Region.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
