On the Politics of Lockdown and Lockdown Politics in Africa: COVID-19 and Partisan Expedition in Ghana

Awaisu Imurana Braimah

doi:10.11648/j.jpsir.20200303.11

Abstract

This article examined the lockdown jigsaw that characterised Ghana’s surveillance and management of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the main opposition political party – National Democratic Congress (NDC) – and the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) in particular advocated a total shutdown of the country in a bid to contain the spread of the virus, the government in March, 2020, announced a partial lockdown of specific cities and suburbs where the virus was endemic for a period of 21 days. In the process, the government embarked on an aggressive contact tracing and test that catapulted the number of confirmed cases in March, 2020, from 2 to 7,303 as at May 27, 2020. The government subsequently, lifted the partial lockdown to ease the suffering of the vulnerable masses in society while strictly observing social or physical distancing and other protocols advocated by the World Health Organisation (W. H. O.) and the Ghana Health Service (G. H. S). The lifting of the restrictions by the President of the Republic, attracted varied reactions from the populace and some interest groups. While the vulnerable and the ‘have-nots’ in society whose survival is contingent on daily economic hustle and bustle in the city hailed the lifting of restrictions, the elites and economic self-dependent individuals on the other hand, criticised the government for lifting the partial lockdown. This paper argues that the partial lockdown and the subsequent lifting of the restriction on movements, was premised on the machinations of politics, economics and science.

Highlights

Global public health has emerged in recent times as a central concern of the international development effort to deal with infectious diseases, eliminate stark poverty and strengthen educational and cultural ties internationally [1]
The three-week partial lockdown imposed by the government in some selected cities and their environs, was very unpopular among the participants of this study
COVID-19 death toll may not be as catastrophic as malaria, Spanish Flu, HIV/AIDS and Cholera, but the purgatory of the virus has the potential to weaken the workforce of a state and paralyze its economy

Summary

Introduction

Global public health has emerged in recent times as a central concern of the international development effort to deal with infectious diseases, eliminate stark poverty and strengthen educational and cultural ties internationally [1]. The coronavirus eruption has shemozzled and clearly, dead ahead puzzle for both developed and developing economies This is because, the emergence of the coronavirus in China was previously unknown to scientists globally [2] the pandemic has put developed and developing economies in a scratch race to develop appropriate containment strategies (e.g., medications and vaccines) to halt the devastating effects of the virus on human life and the crippling global economy. Stark poverty, hunger, the fear of the unknown, inability to pay rent and other bills, family pressure, and panic, as the death toll rises exponentially across the world. These are some of the prominent features of lockdowns or restrictions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Brazil overtook the United States in terms of daily infection rate case count, and death toll

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