…….as Gov’t’s Streak of Lies on VEEP’s Health Is in Full Force
A new chapter has opened in the health scare that has hit Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, and the flip-over does not look great.
Dr. Bawumia has been transferred from his first call hospital where he was originally on admission, to a specialist private hospital.
The Republic has it on authority that on Wednesday night, the Vice President was evacuated from Guy Hospital, a public facility located in the borough of Southwark in central London, to Wellington Hospital.
Wellington, located in St John’s Wood, North London, is the largest independent hospital in the United Kingdom, and part of an International group called HCA.
It is popular for its specialist services in cardiac, neurosurgery, liver and HPB medicine, rehabilitation, gynaecology and orthopaedics, among others.
Dr. Bawumia’s transfer to the facility signals a worsening of his medical condition, as it must be noted that the bouquet of specialist services that define the huge reputation of Wellington Hospital does not include stress management.
The NPP government’s claim that stress is what had sent Dr. Bawumia to the UK therefore falls flat in the face of the new transfer.
Initial sources stated the cause of illness as DVT and PE but new sources confirm that he has suffered a massive stroke that has left him half paralyzed. Details of the accounts on the Vice President’s health tells of debilitation that would be offensive to put out in detail.
The Republic can however confirm that Dr. Bawumia has been admitted to Ward 9 in one of the four sites of the Wellington Hospital. This paper can also confirm that the urgent prayers that the NPP government had earlier asked for him are indeed really needed.
Gimmicks
Interestingly, even as the government has appealed to the sense of humanity of the Ghanaian people in these trying times, the same government continues to insult the intelligence of citizens with demeaning obscurantist tactics.
From the NPP government lying that the Vice President had only suffered stress, to Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid, claiming that he had been jetted to the UK to stave off panicky visitation from family members and friends, the silly ostrich dance continues to be very chameleonic.
New phase of damage control
The latest phase is that Dr. Bawumia’s distraught wife, Samira Bawumia, has been forced by regime hawks to start a totally unnecessary damage control that is sure to blow back.
While at it, Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, the infamous nephew of President Akufo-Addo, has also been put to work, starting a social media campaign to consolidate the government’s all but collapsed damage control.
Unfortunately for Gabby and the NPP, his campaign has collided head on with an earlier damage control that Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, had started.
Second Lady’s false start
In the wake of The Republic publishing that the Vice President’s health scare is not stress as the regime would have Ghanaians believe but stroke, the Facebook timeline of Mrs. Bawumia, who is attending to her husband in the UK, suddenly came alive.
A message purported to have been posted by the Second Lady claimed that her husband is hale and hearty.
“My husband and I are grateful to all Ghanaians and well wishers from across the world for your prayers, support and best wishes. He is doing very well and we thank Allah for His grace. He looks forward to returning to work soon,” the message read.
A clear response to The Republic’s report about the true state of health of the Vice President, the message’s attempt to water down the story rather ended up opening a bit more widely, a window into what is really afoot.
Like all the government’s gimmicks before the so called Samira Bawumia statement, the Facebook post is open-ended about when exactly Bawumia will return to post. The Republic has already reported that it will take time for the Vice President to return to post because he needs to recover from stroke.
The somber tone of the message, which also referenced the grace and mercy of Allah, has since been indicative that the health scare is indeed more serious than the stress that the government had claimed was the cause of Dr. Bawumia’s hospitalization.
Even more interesting, The Republic has confirmed from sources within government that the Second Lady’s social media accounts are not managed by herself, but by her assistants.
How Samira Bawumia, would, all the time have someone else in charge of her Facebook Timeline, but suddenly find it convenient to go on that platform to indirectly respond to a newspaper article at a time that her husband is so sick that she needs to be on his hospital bed side, has left scorn in the air.
Enter, Gabby
But it gets even more comical. Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, President Akufo-Addo’s infamous nephew who is said to be the de facto Chief of Staff at the Presidency, yesterday emplaned to the UK. The Republic has it on authority that he was sent there to check on Dr. Bawumia.
Gabby, a man with a reputation for conjuring his own set of facts, including allegedly bribing for fake election polls for his cousin, Akufo-Addo, would not miss an opportunity to employ his fakery.
And so, it came to pass that Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, after touching down in the UK, soon took to his Facebook timeline to post that he had personally called at the Guy’s Hospital and had found out that Dr. Bawumia had never been on admission. In fact according to Gabby, the Vice President is only cooling off.
“I am told Guys Hospital staff are very unhappy. Many Ghanaians trooping there asking to see a patient they’d never heard of – not even his picture rings any bells – don’t believe what you read in NDC ‘news’. Well, I’m in London and have had opportunities to spend some good, jovial and intellectual sweet moments with Dr. Bawumia but far from the view of any nurse or doctor; in some small, decent flat he has rented for the very short time he is away here on leave. My mistake was to attempt to tease him about his team, Tottenham Hotspurs. I wish I hadn’t!”
Gabby’s claim has since been debunked by the Information Minister this morning on Metro TV’s star program, ‘Good Morning Ghana’ show. Mustapha Hamid advised the public not to put any value on what the President’s nephew (Gabby Asare Otchere Darko) said as according to the Minister, the latter has no locus to feed any such information on the public.
Tug-of-words with Majority Leader
Quite apart from the fact that it is weird that it had to take Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, a non-employee of government, and not Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid, to tell Ghanaians that Dr. Bawumia is not in hospital but in a flat, the claim also bulldozes down the entirety of the damage control that the government has been pulling so far.
The first one is the fine effort by Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, to stave off the Minority’s interest in the issue of Dr. Bawumia’s health
On Tuesday, Hon. Kyei Mensah Bonsu, who is also the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, agreed with the Minority in Parliament that the health status of the Vice President ought to be made known. He, however, asked that the Minority exercise patience since the NPP government will make the necessary details available only after Dr. Bawumia’s doctors have finished observing him.
“We all go to seek medical attention sometimes in the country and other times abroad. I do remember that when MPs had to access the facilities at Korlebu Teaching Hospital, for many of the tests that were run on us, they (hospital authorities) had to send the samples to South Africa,” Hon. Kyei Mensah Bonsu said to underscore that medical observations take time.
The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs’ position that government will make the Vice President’s health status known after his doctors have observed him directly conflicts with Gabby Asare Otchere Darko’s claim that the man is not sick at all.
According to Gabby, Dr. Bawumia is only cooling his heels in a London flat, passing time by keenly following the matches of his favorite team, Tottenhanm Hotspurs.
Other missing pieces in the puzzle
Of interest in the Gabby statement is that he never gave the address to the “small, decent flat” that the Vice President has rented for himself in London.
Gabby tells Ghanaians that the Vice President is on leave; that leave curiously happened to have started with Dr. Bawumia first being rushed to hospital in Ghana and causing a panicky Flagstaff House to issue a statement asking for prayers for him.
And that same sudden leave by the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana happened without notification to Parliament – the Minority in Parliament has made it clear that they do not know exactly what is happening to the Second Gentleman of the land.
Loud silence
For some reason, even though Gabby would have Ghanaians believe that managers of the Guy Hospital, where Dr. Bawumia is reported to have first called, are angry over publications that an unknown patient called Dr. Mhamudu Bawumia had been admitted there, they have not been able to bring themselves to issue a statement to clarify issues.
And for some reasons, in spite of Dr. Bawumia being on leave, he has not bothered to issue any statement to set the records straight himself.
Gabby the liar
Gabby Asare Otchere Darko has a reputation for conjuring his own set of facts. This is the same Gabby, who in 2008 allegedly bribed pollster, Ben Ephson, with $20,000 to conjure fake polls to say that Akufo-Addo was leading in voter ratings.
Source: therepublicnewsonline.com/ Fiifi Samuels
