UN Secretary-General to meet Prez. Mahama in Ghana today

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon is expected to arrive in Ghana today [Thursday] for bilateral discussions with President John Mahama.

The meeting of the two leaders will center on efforts ECOWAS is making to fight the Ebola epidemic.

Communications Minister, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah said Ban Ki-Moon’s visit to Ghana is as a result of President Mahama’s commanding role in the Ebola fight.“It was through his advocacy at the United Nations General Assembly that pricked the conscience of the world and broke the yoke of isolation and neglect that Ebola had visited on Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia,” he said.

He added, “Immediately after his [Mahama] speech, the UN itself spoke and acted decisively by deploying the United Nations Emergency response on Ebola to Africa and that is headquartered here in Ghana.”

In September this year, the President in his address at the 69th UN General Assembly in New York admonished world leaders to help West Africa to combat the deadly Ebola disease which was killing citizens at a rapid rate.

He expressed shock at the level of isolation the three Ebola-stricken countries have been subjected to and warned that Ebola “knows no boundaries” therefore, “we cannot afford to let fear keep us away…we must erase the stigma.”

The President told the UN General Assembly that Ebola was not just a “Liberian problem, Ebola is not a Sierra Leonean or a Guinean problem; it is not just a West African problem, Ebola is a problem of the world because it is a disease that knows no boundaries.”

He advised that the fear of the disease should not inform people’s decision to isolate the affected nations, adding that “we cannot afford to let it compromise the very impulses that not only define but retain our humanity; we must erase the stigma.”

The outbreak of the disease in March 2014 in Guinea has claimed about 6, 000 lives.

By: Efua Idan Osam