The question that readily comes to mind for those who have turned to this page and especially reading the editorial is: what about this area of specialization in medicine?
Unfortunately, it has joined the long list of political subjects in the country as former President John Mahama made a rather erroneous reference to it.
Our former President was misinformed about the Cuban-trained Ghanaian general practitioners when in his speech during last Sunday’s Eid El Adha congregational prayer at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park he referred to our students going to study Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Cuba. That is wrong because a general practice study which is what our students pursue in the Caribbean country, precedes a specialization in O & G, ENT or Urology and others.
Those who inform the former President in the various departments of governance should be on top of the subjects so that their boss would be sufficiently informed.
Shallow-mindedness on the part of such advisors can have serious repercussions on the deliveries of the former President when the goal of his hydra-headed remarks is winning the hearts of Ghanaians.
For such remarks to register the desired impact, he must be able to make sound arguments buttressed on facts and realities.
By their conduct on the campaign trail and outside it some politicians are creating the impression that meticulousness is not part of their favourites. But it pays to be careful about such matters.
He told his Muslim listeners after the prayers that female students were the beneficiaries of the O&G course in Havana because the idea was for them to return and attend to Muslim women who were not comfortable being attended to by male practitioners. The fact of the matter as explained by the Ghana Health Service is that apart from the fact that there are no records to suggest that was the case, no female student from this part of the country received preferential treatment in the subject under review.
In the course of winning hearts, the man ended up messing himself; the shortcomings in the former President’s remarks at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park last Sunday were palpable.
Perhaps he too should have audited the subject himself to obviate such shortcomings which, to state the least, was embarrassing.
If turning up at the Park to join in the observance of Eid El Adha was a campaign exercise which, of course, it was; then it went wrong and did not register the desired objective of winning hearts and minds.
We observed a member of his entourage mimicking the prayer posture of Muslims as she tried to make it look like she was a part of the faith for effect. We recognize the desperation which is beginning to set in and the need for the opposition NDC to do something about their precarious situation.
Notwithstanding the reality, giving politics a good name and exalting it pays and it stops cynics from regarding the occupation as driven by deceit and insincerity.
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