"POLITICAL KIDNAPPERS"

We find ourselves in a ‘cocktail of blistering infernos and a jiggle of treachery, irreproachable stances and a cacophony of inconsiderate recklessness. At a time where our dear nation is barely waking up from a perennial political slumber, a compound of budget deficit, seeming insoluble water and electricity crises, our revered GNAT(Ghana National Association of Teachers), NAGRAT (National Association of Graduate Teachers) and presently TEWU (Teachers and Education Workers Union), find it prudent to call a nationwide strike. Such is the elevated repugnance and repulsive nature of our country.

Ghana is in a state of poignance and dilapidated wretch, a mess not fashioned by the present government particularly but practically, perpetuated (forgive my pun) by Ghanaians themselves. We curse and rant at our governments and make a mockery of our institutions. We’ve turned our institutions into mercenaries and bandwagons of corruption, ineptitude, indifference, and a solitary breeding ground for premeditated evil, despotic wielding of power and a habour of political chicaneries.

How could we deal with all these Machiavellian surrogates and stupendous mafia without changing our attitude and support the Government to achieve its goal. It’s interesting how cynical and sarcastic people get when the government is facing glaring and seemingly insurmountable challenges. They talk as if the success of Leadership wouldn’t trickle down and invariably inure to the benefit of all and sundry.  It’s about time we got serious and allowed the President some space to work. This business about various groups incessantly calling at the Jubilee Flagstaff House (Apologies to Ayariga), well the Flagstaff house to inform the President about a naming ceremony, a funeral or perhaps just a courtesy call is extremely irrelevant and juvenile, it smacks of how bogus certain(emphasis on certain) aspects of our culture is…Please allow the president to work!

The substantive issue on review here is about the ubiquitous strikes that have engulfed our country.  The President said he has been having sleepless nights with regard to the Energy and Water crises (Some people have propounded erroneous conspiracy theories to explain that there could be more to it than meets the eye, but I think that lacks merit and should be sidelined), maybe this time, the “Dumsor people have taken their Dumsology to the doorstep of the President, well, how terrifying that could be, a President sleeping in darkness.

So we all woke up on a bright promising Monday morning to an incredulous (well at least at this time of the year) news about teachers declaring a nationwide wide strike. Their(NAGRAT) concerns being; the non-negotiation of category 2 and 3 allowances, delays in the promotion of teachers, refusal of fair wages and salary commission(FWSC) to negotiate retention premium for teachers among others. Meanwhile the Ghana National Association of Teachers(GNAT) have followed suit with similar reasons as the basis of declaring what people regard as a shameful and nauseating strike. Efforts by the government to settle these issues have scuttled and had been on the rocks. Furthermore, the Fair wages and Salaries commission had been a spectacular failure and ameliorative with regard to addressing the plight of our “dear” teachers or so it seem.

NAGRAT AND GNAT, did point our quite passionately that their agitation had started for quite some time now, prompting the government to assure them that they were going to use  six weeks to address their concerns and within that period form a working group in pursuance of government’s intention to instinctively deal with this canker once and for all . According to them, six weeks had come and gone but the so called working group has not been inaugurated to even start work”. (I mean, seriously, why should the government treat our teachers this way? this to all intents and purposes is overtly uncalled for and reprehensible. The government should be pragmatic and show a sense of tact, diplomacy and maturity in solving these problems).

The teachers went further to say that “the fair wages and salaries commission have not done too well; what they have done is to try to frustrate the system with legalities which do not hold water, and at the end of it all what they are trying to do is to slow down the process and then make that teachers do not get what they want”.

These indeed are the litany of issues the Teachers have catalogued, prompting their nationwide strike at these “trying times”. Literally, the plethora of reasons given by the teachers are quite genuine, but alas, one sided…… it may not be as bad as they say; well no worker is satisfied with their salaries are they? I mean MPs, are u satisfied? I don’t think so. I also understand how frustrating these government agencies could be, they go like, “come today, come tomorrow” etc. maybe this kind of “Mary go round” nonsense really pissed the teachers off. Sometimes, a simple signature to be appended to authenticate or certify a document by Directors of Government agencies could be such a tumultuous, relentless waste of time. I’m sure this ridiculous back and forth is the theory that justifies the teachers’ philosophy to embark on an industrial action. I really empathize with them, to the extent that our public servants are so apathetic towards work; they behave as though you’re bothering them (why weren’t they able to sought the teachers out with all the urgency that it deserves). In that sense, I empathize with them (Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, step up your game). Having said that, maybe they are just deserving of each other, with reference to how insolent and impudent some (emphasis on some) teachers could be (lots of people are).

So after defying calls from the president and the National Labour Commission (NLC) to call off their (NAGRAT and GNAT) strike, TEWU (Teachers and Education Workers Union) decided to join them since they feel prejudiced and seem not to be getting any attention from the government, perhaps taking a cue from the NDC, who decided to join the infamous 2012 election court case.

Hence from all indications, I’m all out for the teachers and TEWU but my problem stems from their opulent display of intimidation and smacks of what I call a classical case of “Political kidnap”. Particularly in this year that two batches of students are writing their exams, I find it highly immoral, unethical and mischievous for them to declare these pervasive strikes. This issue evinces the fact that students are being held to ransom to coax the government to giving into their outrageous demands and until then, the students remain in abduction, waiting for the President to pay the ransom of their “kidnappers”. I don’t think it’s fair for the students to be treated this way, neither is it fair for the teachers to be neglected, but have they really been neglected? An executive member of GNAT postulates that though salary levels have been increased as per the single spine salary structure, (which may be on the verge of an acute fracture) his problem is that, it is relatively not good enough, that is, if compared with salaries of other workers. Does that smack of sheer avarice and envy? Well probably not, I hope so. To this end, why should students be made to bear the brunt of the ineptitude of the Government and the FWSC (Fair Wages and Salaries Commission) as suggested by the GNAT/NAGRAT/TEWU?

Perusing the litany of issues raised by the strikers and juxtaposing them with the FWSC’s elucidation on what the actual situation (at least that’s what they say) further highlights the turmoil of this whole situation. The head of public affairs at the FWSC, Earl Ankrah says GNAT/NAGRAT are playing double standards, he also pointed out that what the leaderships of GNAT and NAGRAT say at the negotiation table is radically and fundamentally different from what they tell their members when they come out. He further opines that apart from Friday March, 15, 2013, the Commission had met with the teachers on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, and there was little indication that the teachers were going to embark on strike.

These are some of the reasons why some of us have resolved to repudiate the stance of our ‘beloved’ teachers whose calamitous actions are detrimental to an unprecedented two batched Final year students(SHS 3 & SHS 4), who have actually started writing their exams. Even more inconsiderate is the decision of TEWU to aggravate students’ plight by joining in this avalanche of strikes. This means that even if the Teachers had decided to call off their strike, the distressed student’s already living in tattered penury would invariably have their situation aggravated, i.e., hunger etc.

I don’t think our teachers are morally justified in this wanton flex of opportune bravado, at the expense of students. Their action reiterates my earlier conviction that students are being taken as a captives by the teachers, to demand a ransom from the government, clearly evincing the worst forms of illicit “Kidnap”. It’s also instructive to point out that their issues should be resolved, not to say all their demands should be met (some of them are just ridiculous).

Ghana would only be a better place if we all strive hard to make it so and eschew the patent hypocrisy, apathy and crass indiscipline which we’ve so gloriously conferred on ourselves.

NB: One of the reasons why people shy away from politics and refer to it as a dirty game is as a result of reckless and loose tongued mavericks like Sir John, he doesn’t even know what he says…..sir John paaa, such a bad, bad, bad example of political stalwarts. (No further comments pls, he’s an elderly man and needs to be respected, irrespective of how rudimentary one might perceive him)

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