The founder and leader of Ghana’s All People’s Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga, has told rich people the best gift they can offer as they celebrate this year’s yuletide is to bail out patients who are being detained at hospitals because they cannot pay their treatment costs.
“The systems are no more working. The systems all are jammed. And because of the economic situation, everything is jammed. Go to the hospital, people, if you have money today. I’m calling on all the rich people in Ghana, philanthropists and all businessmen and women, that the best Christmas [gift] they can give to anybody or to [a] Ghanaian is to go to the hospitals and pay the bills of people who cannot pay their hospital bills. That is the best Christmas gift.
“I’m calling on rich men, Ghanaian businessmen, stakeholders, companies. If they want to give Christmas presents this time around, they should stop the hamper and move into the hospitals and they will see a lot of people who cannot pay hospital bills and they are still there. They should pay those bills for them to go home. That is the best Christmas gift. That is the best Christmas [gift] we can give this year,” said Ayariga in a studio interview with Bonohene Baffour Awuah, host of Kasapa FM’s morning-show programme, Ghana Kasa, on Tuesday.
According to him, such patients are many because the country’s current economic condition is hard-hitting.
“A lot of people are in the hospital; they can’t pay their bills. Many. Go to the hospital and they will tell you that this person is there, but he can’t pay bill. So, the economic situation is tough. When you get your salary, I’m sure you are already owing,” he stated.
He continued: “So, you use the salary to pay [debts]. So, what are we giving to humanity? The little we have cannot even sustain us. And, then, we say we are in a country managed by competent leaders. I do not understand what competence here means.”
Watch a short video of the interview below:
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org
