[ 2021-02-15 ]

Sir Sam Jonah

COVID-19 challenges: Sam Jonah calls for national dialogue
The Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast
(UCC), Sir Sam E. Jonah, has called for a national
conversation on how to mobilise national talents
and resources to address the challenges and scars
created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said such a dialogue should include key
stakeholders, such as organised labour, the
political parties, traditional leaders, civil
society and youth groups, to come up with "pretty
tough decisions" that will be required to bring
the economy back to normalcy.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the
retired business executive said the woes of
COVID-19 were enormous and pervasive, such that a
different model, other than the usual "partisan
approach", was needed to find solutions to them.

The interview was a follow-up to a speech he had
presented at the ninth joint graduation ceremony
at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping and
Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra last week in
which he had, among other things, advised the
youth to be innovative in a post-COVID-19 world.

Parliament

The former President of AngloGold Ashanti said the
emergence of a hung Parliament in the 2020
elections, with the Speaker coming from the
opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC),
showed that the people wanted the two political
parties to work together in these difficult
times.

He said history was replete with precedent, with
countries facing severe challenges doing away with
partisanship and working together.

Sir Sam, therefore, appealed to both sides of the
political divide to work together in "a unity
government or whatever name you will chose to call
it" to confront the challenges.

"Such a government is more likely to create the
level of trust required to navigate through the
difficulties," he added.

Source - Graphic Online

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