<<Print>>

General Secretary of the People's National Convention (PNC) and Convener of the Mass Action Committee (MAC), Atik Mohammed, has commended President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for taking bold steps to safeguard the lives of Ghanaians during this COVID-19 pandemic.

The PNC General Secretary noted that it takes a great leader to take tough decisions in the interest of the nation, but might not necessarily resonate with some members of the public.

Contributing to Thursday's edition of ''Kokrokoo'' on Peace FM, he stressed that the President has shown outstanding leadership qualities ensuring the protection of the lives of Ghanaians is his top priority even though the novel COVID-19 will have an adverse impact on economic growth.

''We need to commend the President for the bold steps he took. Some were very tough, especially the imposition of restrictions including the lockdown. If you know the impact of pandemics or emergency such as we're facing on the economy and you're not bold, you are tempted to say that, look, I won't take decisions that will have counter productive effects on my economy. But if you compare the lives you're likely to lose to the slump in your economy growth and you have compassion for people, you would decide that, look, let's take the hard decision. Our economy will be affected alright but at least, we will end up saving lives...For me, the President recognizing that we should protect human lives even at the expense of our economy is laudable'', he stated.

Atik Mohammed, however, registered his disagreement with the President's lockdown lift because the restrictions on movement, in his candid view, were necessary in curtailing the spread of the disease.

To him, the President should have extended the restrictions and not truncated it.

''We are still in the woods. We hadn't broken the chain of spread yet. So, we needed some more time at home especially in the affected areas in order to effectively conduct the enhanced surveillance and contact tracing. Even if we couldn't break the chain, we would have succeeded somewhat in reducing the rate of spread,'' he stated.