Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
We have always maintained that our political duopoly creates a very toxic atmosphere and hatred among the people of the political divide. The cancerous nature of the body politic has blinded us to the benefits of unity in diversity.
The seed of poison has so taken root to the extent that we have refused to give praise where it is due. Those who are unable to acknowledge the positive strides of the government also plot to demonise the personalities behind the NPP government.
It is nauseating to hear even beneficiaries of the free Senior High School (SHS), arguably the most pro-poor policy since independence, discredit the policy as creating bottlenecks in our education system. Today, instead of swallowing their pride and arrogance and admit the success of the free SHS policy, John Mahama and his NDC now claim the credit for the policy.
Whether we like it or not, the free SHS remain a major obstacle in the way of John Mahama and his NDC to regain power. That explains why John Mahama is doing everything under the sun to be associated with the free SHS and also the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) introduced many years ago by former President J. A. Kufuor.
Prior to the jokes of John Mahama at his media engagement, the NDC has always condemned the free SHS as a “whimsical policy from a desperate politician”. Now that these policies are impacting lives, John Mahama wants to take credit for free SHS and the health insurance, although the NDC, whose Minority Leader in 2003 was the present Speaker Bagbin boycotted the debate on the passage of the bill.
At that time, the NDC flagbearer then was a Member of Parliament, but today he applies funny theories to reap what he did not plant.
There is hypocrisy and hate in the air, especially from the ranks of the NDC, whose member Okudzeto Ablakwa and his allies hate successful people.
It is funny how these people managed to hoodwink organised labour led by Dr. Yaw Baah to declare an indefinite strike action in protest against the sale of SSNIT hotels to Bryan Acheampong.
Some of these elements are beating their chest that “we never fired a shot but the man who said he won’t hand over power has handed over our hotels to us” in apparent reference to remarks by President Akufo-Addo that he would never hand over power to the NDC.
The people who are on the streets protesting against the sale of the SSNIT hotels know that those facilities are now mere shells, but they will never support plans to give it to a successful Ghanaian businessman just because he belongs to the NPP.
Our politics is deadly and divisive. But the NPP government should remain focused in order to deliver on its mandate.
Has Yaw Baah, Secretary General of the TUC ever cared to check on the attendance of workers, especially in the ministries, departments and agencies? We know Ghanaians are passionate about public issues, especially like the case of the sale of the hotels.
Ghanaians should also care about productivity and demand from organised labour that it gets all its members to earn their salaries and not pretend to be working even if the wages cannot take them home.
We commend organised labour for demanding accountability for actions taken on behalf of the people. However, in the case of the sale of the hotels, the actions of organised labour was misplaced, which led to loss of revenue to the state even if no lives were lost at the public hospitals.
Last Monday, organised labour issued a statement calling off the strike, but typical of workers’ unions issued an ultimatum demanding more information on the sale or its members would advice themselves.
What do you want from government? Other working groups are demanding the dissolution of the SSNIT Board led by seasoned international journalist, Elizabeth Ohene. We wonder whether it falls within the remit of organised labour to be making such a demand. There are very knowledgeable persons within the labour unions and they must not exhibit their ignorance of corporate governance.
Now that the brouhaha appears to have died down about the sale of the hotels, we expect Dr. Yaw Baah and his allies to present the people of Ghana with the blueprint or strategy to making SSNIT hotels viable to save jobs. Well, the workers are discerning enough to determine whether organised labour is serving their interest or the parochial ones of negotiating peanuts for workers and paying themselves fat salaries from the sweat of the workers called union dues.