The United Brothers Association (UBA) of Bongo has pointed out that the recent demonstration it organised against some ills at the Bongo District Hospital was done for the public good.
The group made this statement in response to some criticism it was subjected to by some individuals who are alleged to be in bed with the perpetrators of the ills.
Several residents of Bongo, a district in the Upper East Region, marched through the streets with a call on the Bongo District Assembly to investigate the reasons the hospital lacked a functioning board and unavailability of basic drugs at the facility. The demonstrators, led by the UBA, also entreated the assembly to investigate alleged mismanagement by the hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr William Gudu, and how a son to the medical superintendent secured a job at the hospital.
Callistus Atinga, who read a press statement at the demonstration on behalf of the UBA’s president, said the UBA had nothing against the medical superintendent since he started working in the district about twelve years ago until now. Atenga said the group had been collaborating with Dr Gudu to ensure a proper healthcare service delivery for the people of Bongo.
He said the group donated consumables to the hospital in 2018 and 2020 through the medical superintendent and organised several cleanup exercises on the hospital’s premises.
The group has called on the immediate-past District Chief Executive, Peter Ayinbisa, who doubles as the Upper East Regional Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the manager of Dreamz FM in Bolgatanga, Albert Azongo, to put aside their friendship with the medical superintendent and support the people of Bongo in pursuing a good cause for the district.
The group, however, expressed gratitude to the current District Chief Executive of Bongo, Rita Atanga, and the Bongo District Assembly for setting up a strong committee to investigate the issues raised by the UBA about the hospital.
Below is the full statement issued by the group:
PRESS RELEASE ON PLANNED MEDIA ONSLAUGHT ON OUR PETITION AGAINST POOR HEALTHCARE SERVICES IN THE BONGO DISTRICT HOSPITAL.
We at United Brothers Association (UBA) have observed with sadness, some attempts by certain individuals to do everything under the sun to ensure that our petition is unjustifiably discredited. We however wish to state that, the medical superintendent in question, has worked in the Bongo District Hospital for about twelve (12) years now and throughout this period, the people of Bongo including UBA have always supported and celebrated him. We wish to also put on record that, UBA has had a cordial relationship with the medical superintendent all along and donated items in 2018 and 2020 to the hospital to aid him in his work. We have also occasionally organized clean-up exercises in the hospital premises as well. We could not be doing all these if we had any evil motives towards the medical superintendent.
So if questions are being asked of his administration of the hospital now, by the same people who have cooperated with him over the years, we expected him to have done a soul-searching to find out where and when he lost focus rather than trying to label the whole region as being unappreciative.
In all this unpopular attempt to discredit our effort in seeking the best of healthcare services for our people is a group of people spearheaded by the former district chief executive of Bongo, who doubles as the Upper East regional communications director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), honorable Peter Ayinbisa who has chosen friendship with the medical superintendent of the Bongo District Hospital over that of the common good of the ordinary person in Bongo. Why do we say this?
On the 31st July 2023, Hon. Peter Ayinbisa granted an interview to Dreamz FM, a Bolga-based radio station where he described UBA in a certain condescending posture which we do not accept in any way. Below are some of the unguarded commentary he made on our petition presented to the honorable DCE of Bongo;
- that someone somewhere is using UBA to get the medical superintendent out of the hospital and that we tried doing something similar to him when he was in office as the DCE of Bongo. We wish to state unequivocally that, UBA is made up of mature minds who cut across many sectors of professions and have never been used and will never be used to satisfy anyone’s selfish interest. It is also true that we kicked against his administration for building stalls at the Bongo Lorry Park in their current state instead of casting the top to give room for future development into a storey building. However, opinion leaders appealed to us to abort it due to the political temperature at the time which we heeded. But the question we have for him is, why did he choose to cast the top of his personal stalls at Bolga-Soe instead of building it like he did for Bongo? Or is it the case that he is wealthier than the Bongo District Assembly hence his ability to cast his personal stalls but built those short (dwarf), roofed ones for the people of Bongo? We wish to put on record that, UBA will never pander to the self-serving desires of anyone as we have resolved to seek truth at all times.
- that we should redirect our energies into demonstrating against poor road network and broken culverts in the district. Is it not double standards that someone who accused us of being used by someone, turns to incite us against his successor, the current DCE? This man in question is the immediate past DCE of the district, so is it the case that those roads he mentioned were so good during his tenure and suddenly got so bad when he left office about two years ago? We wish to humbly inform him that he does not advise us on what interest to advance and which not to; he can equally choose whatever he wishes to pursue for the benefit of the people he unsuccessfully sought their mandate to represent them as their member of parliament.
- that we misled an uninformed market women and other groups to join the demonstration. We really consider this as an insult to the well-meaning people of Bongo who mean well for the district and came out in their numbers to press home their demands for better healthcare services for themselves and their families. In any case, why has the former DCE arrogated to himself the position of spokesperson of the medical superintendent, jumping from one radio station to another defending the man without having any facts?
- that we stated in our petition that the medical superintendent caused the transfer of one Dr. Abdul-Rahman Ayobi. We wish to state emphatically that, there is nowhere in our petition where we mentioned such a name and in fact, for him and his ilk to mention the name of the said medical doctor even exposes their guilt the more. They are simply pulling out the skeletons in their cupboard.
- In another interview he granted on the 2nd August, 2023 at Recas FM based in BongoNamoo, he again erroneously stated that we accused the medical superintendent of taking the hospital’s television home. On the contrary, it is the storekeeper we made mention of in that regard and not the medical superintendent.
In fact, is it not mind boggling that, the petition demanded that two officers of the hospital be transferred but Hon. Ayinbisa and his assigns are busily defending one and totally leaving the other to his fate? In our judgement, a genuine person wouldn’t pick and choose who to defend when the two are both in “trouble” as he wants the public to believe.
In the said radio program on Dreamz FM, the medical superintendent of the hospital also made certain nonfactual statements we wish to address briefly, though we cannot get into the details since the committee is currently investigating the issues:
He stated that at the time of the demonstration, he was in the theatre performing caesarian sections on four (4) women and we were well aware of it. This statement from him is untrue, as a matter of fact we do not work in the hospital to know his work schedules in the facility.
What we expected from the medical superintendent was for him to react to the pertinent issues raised in the petition such as; absence of a functioning board, unavailability of basic drugs, official position of his son in the hospital and whether his superiors are aware of the presence of the son in the hospital etc.
Rather, what the medical superintendent sought to do was to cunningly appeal to emotions and sentiments as well as sensationalizing the issues in order to court public sympathy.
We wish to however tell the medical superintendent that, UBA has nothing against his person as we stated in our petition; we believe he has served Bongo well over the years that’s why we offered our unflinching support to him over the years to deliver his mandate. However, we feel strongly now that, the hospital is poorly run at the moment hence our demand for a better run facility for our people.
All of these media machinations were spearheaded by one Albert Azongo, a radio presenter at Dreamz FM in Bolgatanga. Our region takes pride in producing credible, fair and courageous journalist in the moulds of Manasseh Azure Awuni, Sampson Lardi Ayenini, Edward Adeti etc. who have always been on the side of truth regardless who is involved. It is expected that any young journalist like our brother, would have tried to emulate these stalwarts in the Ghanaian media landscape but to our disappointment, he rather chose to follow personal ties and interest rather than use his platform to fight for the vulnerable. On the said well-rehearsed radio programme he hosted and granted the said interviews to the Medical Superintendent and that of Hon. Ayinbisa, he mentioned four (4) names of patients, as being the beneficiaries of antirabbies vaccines delivered to the Bongo District Hospital and that we did not have any fact but rather acting on hear- say. We however have incontrovertible evidence which proves otherwise and which we have provided to the appropriate body. Our humble advice to Mr. Azongo is that, he should always endeavor to seek for facts and try as much as possible to eschew self-interest journalism.
We however wish to inform the general public that we have graciously appeared before the committee set to probe the matters raised in our petition and tendered in all relevant evidence and information to it. We are now waiting for the outcome of the investigations of the venerable committee.
We therefore use this opportunity to thank our listening mother, the district chief executive, madam Rita Atanga for setting up the committee to investigate the issues raised in our petition presented to her. Our special appreciation also goes to Bongo Community Radio, Recas FM, Word FM, URA Radio, BOYA, the market women, RBK, Unique Ladies, United Ladies, DemBoys, The Bongo Tailors Association, and all individuals who supported us in diverse ways to carry out this all important exercise; we still encourage you to continue to back us to ensure that we all get the best of healthcare services we deserve in the district.
It is our hope that the venerable members of the committee will discharge their mandate without fear or favour in order to arrive at a fair and just outcome. Thank you.
| Signed | Signed |
| Joseph A. Abugbila | Michael Asampana |
| (Agt. Secretary) | (Agt. PRO) |
Source: mywordfmonline.com/Gaspard Ayuureneeya