Vote wisely to bring change — Jacob Osei Yeboah
Mr Jacob Osei Yeboah, popularly known as JOY, an Independent Presidential Candidate in the 2016 general election, has said he will make improving the conditions of service for all health professionals a major priority if voted into power.
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He has, therefore, called on health professionals to vote massively for him to enhance their working conditions.
He also pledged to restore all nursing training allowances and improve the status of all health facilities, particularly the ones that were used in training the various health professionals, to boost healthcare delivery in the country.
Addressing students of the Winneba Nursing Training School last Saturday, Mr Yeboah said he was very optimistic he was going to win the 2016 election, but if he did not, the votes he would get from the health professionals would encourage him to continue fighting for a better condition of service for them.
He stated that although the work of health professionals was very risky, successive governments had not given priority to their conditions of service, adding, “When voted into power, I will ensure that all health professionals are insured against all potential risks in the pursuit of their duty and in service to mother Ghana.”
Healthy population
Mr Yeboah said a healthy population would definitely culminate into healthy human resources that would leverage the needed national development and, therefore, since health professionals contributed to a healthy population, he would ensure better conditions of service for them.
He said the critical nature of the health profession required that professionals should always have sound mind.
According to him, health professionals could have the needed sound mind, if they were given good conditions of service.
Mr Yeboah said the allowances for student nurses were non-negotiable and, therefore, if voted into power he would restore the nursing trainee allowances that had been scrapped by the Mahama administration.
According to him, the government has enough funds to be able to pay the nursing trainee allowances without struggle.
He questioned what the 2.5 per cent National Health Insurance Levy was being used for and added: “The NHIS levy alone, if managed well, could be used to pay these allowances and we will still have more to improve the health sector”.
Vote wisely to bring change
With regard to voting to drive the needed change and development in Ghana, Mr Yeboah appealed to all Ghanaians to vote wisely and for development by voting for him regardless of what the political parties were saying.
He said what he meant by voting wisely and for change was for the electorate to move away from voting for one political party in place of a another to voting for an independent candidate who would be able to combine the best policies of the various political parties to drive the development the country was yearning for.
“Over the years, we have experienced change from political parties to political parties but such changes have not had any meaningful impact on the country; it is, therefore, time for real change,” he said.
Mr Yeboah asked Ghanaians to ignore the impression by political parties that voting for an independent candidate was a waste of vote and vote massively for him because he stood for real change and development.
He stated that if in an unlikely situation he lost the election, he was ready to support the winner with his ideas and policies and would not mind accepting any appointment in the government only on the condition that he would be allowed to initiate and implement his ideas for the development of the people without being forced to comply with any party’s ideas if it is not beneficial, in his opinion.
