Health Minister Cautions Health Officials for Unprofessional Conduct

Health Minister, Alban Bagbin

THE MINISTER of Health, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has warned that it was becoming increasingly unacceptable for Ghana to continue to lose more women through child delivery as a result of the rude and unprofessional conduct of some health personnel at the various health facilities in the country.

According to Mr. Bagbin, he could not comprehend why well motivated, professionally trained and experienced health personnel provided with all the necessary tools and logistics and as well, operating from standardized health facilities, could still jeopardize the lives of pregnant women.

Addressing a number of senior health staff in Tamale during his ongoing familiarization tour of the northern region, the Health Minister passionately threatened to lead a crusade or instigate the various women advocates and other individual Ghanaians to begin to institute legal actions against reckless health personnel and institutions in order to curtail the incidence of maternal mortalities in the country.

The Northern Region alone between 2011 and the first half of 2012 (January to June) recorded as high as 200 maternal deaths. A total number of 130 women died in 2011 and 70 deaths in the first half of 2012, which is an indication that the region is fast losing the fight against the maternal mortality.

 

Sadly, 56 of the women who died in 2012 representing 86.2% were between the ages of 20-34 years, three (3) of them representing 4.6% were also between 15 and 19 years followed by 6 representing 9.2% for the age groups of 35+ years.

 

Out of 70 women who died between January and June 2012, 65 were institutional and 5 community deaths. Besides, out of a total of 65 institutional maternal deaths, 32 (49.2%) deaths occurred at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, 6 (9.2%) from Yendi, 5 (7.7%) from West Mamprusi, 4 (6.2%) from Bole and Gushegu Districts, 3 (4.6%) from East Mamprusi, 2 (3.8%) each from Zabzugu-Tatale, East Gonja, Tolon Kumbungu and Savelugu-Nanton Districts. Chereponi, Karaga and Saboba Districts recorded 1(1.9%) death each.

 

Even though the Northern Regional Health Director, Dr. Akwasi Twumasi had attributed the causes of maternal mortality in the region to the insufficient number of midwives and other critical health personnel coupled with inadequate health facilities and bad road networks resulting in unnecessary delays in transferring pregnant women to other deserving centres for proper attention, the Health Minister, Alban Bagbin held almost a contrary view as he openly blame the situation on the behavior of some of the personnel.

 

“We have had reports of some doctors negligently leaving scissors and other surgical tools in the wombs of women and stitching the opening together. We have also received reports of nurses and midwives refusing to attend to agonizing women in labour leading to undue delays, excessive bleeding and deaths. Some of you (health personnel) are also accused of beating women in labour and subjecting them to all sorts of intimidations which continue to endanger the lives of most of our women at the labour wards. So how can you convince me that the fault is not from us, when government on its part has provided the best of facilities in Tamale, Yendi, Gushegu, Karaga, Zabzugu-Tatale and other areas but yet that is where most of the deaths are recorded?

 

The Minister further stated that he would soon organize a press conference to inform Ghanaians as to why some of these irresponsible or ill-behaved health personnel should not go unpunished or face the harshness of the law.

However, the Health Minister and his team led by the Northern Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Akwasi Twumasi proceeded to Gushegu, where he inspected the ultra-modern Gushegu government hospital, commissioned the Gushegu Post basic Midwifery Training School and held a meeting with the health staff and assembly members in the district.

Setting The Records Straight After Tijaniya and Ahlu-Sunna Recent Clash (Pt 1)

Imam Rashid

A LEADING Member of the Tijaniya Muslim Community in Tamale, Sheihu Salawatia Rashid Hussein popularly known as Imam Rashid has vehemently rubbished media reports that he led a section of his people to spark up the recent destructive violence between the Tijaniyas and the Ahlu-Sunna/Ambariya Muslims divide in the metropolis.

Imam Rahid who is also a retired officer of the Ghana Armed Force said he was innocent of the accusation and described the media reports as “completely false and malicious attempts being orchestrated to taint his hard won reputation as a peace broker”.

Speaking at a Press Conference organised at his residence in Tamale, Imam Rashid said “On Monday 20^th of August 2012, there were reports in some sections of the media that Sheihu Salawatia (Imam Rashid) attacked the Ambariyya Mosque at a time congregational prayer was going on. What we have all read in the press is a complete diversion of what happened and I would like to make a humble request of your precious time to enable me take you through the whole matter. I know that all of you would like to hear my side of the incident and not only that but also the truth of the matter. I wish to state categorically that I did not attack the Ambariyya Mosque as reported. As a Muslim, especially of my stature, I know the mosque is the house of Allah, and will never attempt or venture to attack my fellow Muslim, let alone attacking a mosque. It is never true. I was invited to the conclusion of the Interpretation of the Quran (Tafsir) 2012 at Aboabo. In the last five years or so I have participated in the event each time I am invited. When the occasion ended, some of the congregants decided to accompany me home as has always been the practice. We sang joyfully praising Allah and the Holy Prophet Mohammed. Let me add that, this was not an organised procession. Earlier on, before I left home for the occasion, I had telephone calls informing me about road closures or barricades to deny me the right to pass through Saksaka to Aboabo. I spoke to Sheikh Al Hussein who was the convener of the function about the information I had. He told me he had received similar information and had informed the Police about it. We got to Aboabo safely and the ceremony ended successfully. Our journey back home was peaceful; it was full of glee, pomp and pageantry as we praised Allah (SWT) and chanted praises to the Prophet of Islam (SAW) and His Household. This again is a normal practice because it was the same day we celebrated the Eid ul-Fitr. Our happiness and joy was interrupted as we had to stop at approximately100 metres away to the main Ambariyya Mosque due to gunshots coming from the direction of the mosque; this disruption took between half a minute or so after which we continued. When we were close to the Ambariyya Mosque, there were stone throwing from the opposite side of the Mosque across the road but the assailants bolted after doing that. By the Grace of Allah no person was hurt, and we continued our journey smoothly to my residence. I was informed later that some of the people who accompanied me home were ambushed and assaulted. These were innocent people who were victimised because they belonged to the Tijaniya sect.

 

The Imam nevertheless commended the security agencies for their swift interventions and constant patrolling of the Tamale Metropolis ever since the incidence occurred. 

However, Imam Rashid who traced the antagonism or misunderstanding between the Tijaniyas and Ambariya Ahlu-Sunnas to way back 1960s, disputed another media reports that the dissension between the two sects was about the interpretation of the Quran. 

According to him, the main bone of contention was that the Ambariyya Ahlu-Sunna for the past 40 years or so had persistently accused the Tijaniyya Sect of corrupting Islam and practicing it wrongly, and consequently, condemned the Tijaniyya sect to hell. Contesting that, “One of the most commonly quoted Hadith by the Ambariya Ahlu Sunnah scholars, which is their basis for condemning the Tijaniyya sect turns out to be a fabricated Hadith; and not only that, that particular Hadith in question is not found in the most authentic Hadiths (Books) which are six in number”.

 

The Tijaniya Leader further explained that “I did the Mubahala holding the Quran and on each occasion I had more than 600 individuals, men and women, children and adults that witnessed the process. I invoked the curse of Allah on myself not to see the end of Ramadan if what I am preaching is a lie and challenged the other disputing parties who are always in the lead to condemn the Tijanniya Practice of Islam to also do the Mubahala so that Allah (SWT) will settle the matter between us once and for all. At this moment in time that I stand before you to brief you on the truth about the matter, we are yet to see any Ulamah (Clergy) coming forward to also inform his congregation that what they are also preaching is the truth”.

 

He passionately appealed to the security agencies, to intensify their investigations into the incident and publish their findings in order to clear his name and to also safeguard his hard won prestige, reputation and gifted talent which he said was at stake.

 

It would be recalled that tensions sparked up between the two main Islamic groups in Tamale, the Tijaniyas and the Ambariya Ahlu-Sunnas on the final day celebration of this year’s Ramadan after some derogatory remarks and attacks were launched by one of the sects on a local radio station prompting reprisal attack from the opposite site. The incidence led to firing of guns, burning of motorbikes, road blocks, attacks on two radio stations and assaults on innocent people. It took the Security agencies to bring the situation under control.

VSO’s TENI Project Making Impact In Beneficiary Districts

The quality of educational standards in Northern Ghana has for some time now become a great source of concern to all stakeholders in the educational sector particularly parents and the Ghana Education Service (GES).

Students’ performances at the annual Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) organized by the West African Examination Council have been very abysmal in recent years. Between 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly in the Northern Region in particular, secured 60^th, 69^th, 88^th, 91^st, 89^th, 98^th and 103^rd positions respectively, out of the 134 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) nationwide whose students also wrote the BECE throughout those years. 

Measures might have been put in place by the government and officials of the GES to address the challenges that were confronting quality education delivery in Northern Ghana, but some stakeholders still thought that such measures perhaps were not aggressive enough or effective to deal with those challenges. One of such stakeholders is Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), an international organization operating in Northern Ghana and seeking to improve lives and livelihoods of women, girls and children, including those with disabilities through education, governance and capacity building.

For instance, in 2009 VSO launched a five-year aggressive education programme dubbed ‘Tackling Education Needs Inclusively (TENI)’ that sought to achieve systemic change in education by improving retention, transition, completion and quality of basic education for disadvantaged children, particularly girls in the three regions of the North – Upper West, Upper East and Northern. 

The launch of TENI followed a study conducted by VSO in some selected districts which results pointed to the fact that enrolling and retaining children in school and ensuring that they received quality tuition that would lead to their successful completion were hampering the overall objective of free compulsory universal basic education in Ghana.  

Speaking at a three-day conference of girls’ clubs organized by VSO in Tamale, Eric Duorinaah, TENI Project Coordinator, said the project which was in its fourth year of implementation, had so far reached out to about 48,000 children mostly very poor girls and children with disability from three districts including West Mamprusi in the Northern Region, Talensi-Nabdam in the Upper East Region and Jirapa in the Upper West Region. 

Beyond the direct benefits that the 48,000 children derived under the project, he said TENI was also complementing the effort of government in the area of teacher capacity through in-service training to about 2,000 teachers; building the capacity of education managers (so far 39 District Education Officers) and head-teachers (217) as well as assessing the performance of pupils across all the communities that the project covered.

Thus, as part of the project implementation in the whole of 2012, VSO built the capacity of girls’ clubs it formed in the beneficiary schools as a step to increase sharing and promotion of best practices on education. It also promoted inter-school and inter-district girl club interactions in selected primary and Junior High Schools through learning visits and competitions by working closely with the Girls Education Unit of the GES.

According to Mr. Duorinaah, the number of children currently participating in gender clubs continues to increase since 2009 as the quality of support sessions that helped pupils to stay in school had also been improved. 

Club participation had increased from 2,800 members in the last two years to about 8,023 members, he stated, adding that in the West Mamprusi District, for instance, the number of functioning clubs had risen significantly from 10 initially to 110.  

The TENI Project Coordinator disclosed that monitoring in all three districts revealed that most of the clubs had been engaged in dynamic and interactive activities to address major topics such as the importance of girls’ education, avoiding pre-marital sex, HIV/AIDS, practicing personal hygiene and how to participate effectively in classroom learning. 

A representative of the Northern Regional Director of the GES who opened the conference, Alhaji Iddrisu Abdulai, observed that four years into the implementation of TENI, the results had been overwhelming in the quest for quality education delivery. 

This, according to him, was against the backdrop that Northern Ghana remained the poorest part of the country with majority of families striving to earn basic food and also to educate their children.

Alhaji Abdulai called on parents and guardians to desist from defining roles for girls and boys in the family as that tend to stereotype them against their proper development at home and in school. “Just as girls can cook, wash bowls and sweep, boys too can perform such roles and these should be encouraged by parents and guardians”, he maintained. 

Meanwhile, the conference of girls’ clubs was organized by VSO, the Net Organisation for Youth Empowerment and Development (NOYED-Ghana) and Partners as a demonstration of VSO’s commitment to share the little gains it was making at the community level. Under the theme: “Promoting girls’ retention in school through sharing of best practices”, the conference brought together participants from all districts that TENI operated in the three regions. It aimed at building the confidence and the capacity of the girl-child to be able to speak in public and ultimately to groom them to be responsible future leaders.

Basic School Girls In The North Worried Over Educational Logistics

It is undeniably a fact that quality education forms the bedrock for the economic development of every developing nation in the world including Ghana. However, in a situation whereby the quality of education is compromised, the end result is poor academic performances and increasing rate of school dropouts who most likely would become social miscreants in future.

A select number of forty-five (45) basic school girls from different clubs including nine (9) patrons and three (3) female models from three districts in the three regions of the North – Upper West, Upper East and Northern who met for a 3-day conference of girls’ clubs organized by Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) in Tamale, have expressed grievous concerns over the lack of important basic learning facilities in their schools.  

Some of the critical issues raised during discussions by the girls included lack of or insufficient textbooks, lack of library and Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) facilities, inadequate teachers and lack of female teachers to serve as role models to them, absence of electricity to promote studies in the night, among others.

These issues add up to similar ones raised at an education policy dialogue workshop on teacher deployment organized by the same non-governmental organization in Tamale early this year. 

Participants held the view at that particular workshop that the lack of social amenities including electricity, internet facilities, descent accommodation, safe drinking water, means of transport, tarred roads among others in rural areas, were the reasons why teachers refused postings to such places. They argued that even if teachers who were posted to rural areas were paid so well, the non-availability of such facilities would not motivate some of them to accept postings to village schools.

They also observed that most Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) were paying lip service to teacher trainee education with regards to scholarships given to interested persons who applied for sponsorship every year. They noted that whereas some MMDAs could pay as much as GH¢200.00 to a student per each academic year as scholarship package, others paid as little as GH¢40.00 or GH¢50.00 which was woefully inadequate and did not motivate such students to stay in the district to teach after completion. 

Organized by the Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) in collaboration with the Net Organisation for Youth Empowerment and Development (NOYED-Ghana) and partners with sponsorship from United Kingdom based Comic Relief, the three-day girls’ conference brought together participants from three districts including Jirapa, Talensi-Nabdam and West Mamprusi where VSO was implementing a five-year project dubbed “Tackling Education Needs Inclusively (TENI)”. 

Under the theme: “Promoting girls’ retention in school through sharing of best practices”, the conference of girls’ clubs was organized as a demonstration of VSO’s commitment to share the little gains it was making at the community level with regards to the implementation of TENI. 

It also aimed at building the confidence and the capacity of the girl-child to be able to speak in public and ultimately to groom them to be responsible future leaders.

So far, monitoring in all aforementioned districts revealed that most of the clubs had been engaged in dynamic and interactive activities to address major topics such as the importance of girls’ education, avoiding pre-marital sex, HIV/AIDS, practicing personal hygiene and how to participate effectively in classroom learning.

Club participation in these districts had also increased from 2,800 members in the last two years to about 8,023 members, as in the West Mamprusi District for instance; the number of functioning clubs had risen significantly from 10 initially to 110.  

Meanwhile, the participants called on government and non-governmental organizations that have the interest in female education, to come to the aid of their schools with learning materials such as story books and ICT facilities to enable them catch-up with the well endowed schools in the cities. 

They also appealed to the government to immediately post more female teachers to less endowed basic schools in the country particularly those in Northern Ghana so that they could serve as role models and counselors to them.