President John Mahama
President John Mahama has said his government will not yield to the incessant demands by labour as Ghana gears up for elections in December.
According to the president, the inability of previous governments to resist such demands by labour during electioneering has often thrown the nation’s budget of gear.
Speaking at an Africa-U.S business forum in the United States, Mr. Mahama said his government will not allow itself to be bullied by the working force as Ghana goes to the polls on December 7.
“…What we have tried to do is to even out our spending on socio-economic infrastructure and to set the principle that if it is not in the budget, we are not going to pay and so excessive demands by labour are not going to be listened to,” the President stated.
He added: “We have a four-year term and anytime we are in an election year, there is pressure on government to open up the expenditure and so various professional groups are going on strike and are demanding more money and because we are in a sensitive period, government is compelled to yield to organized labour”.
Mahama is on record to have declared that he is immune to labour pressure and agitations.
“I have seen more demonstrations and strikes in my first two years. I don’t think it can get worse. It is said that when you kill a goat and you frighten it with a knife, it doesn’t fear the knife because it is dead already. I have a dead goat syndrome,” he told a Ghanaian population in Botswana during a state visit there.
-Starrfmonline