Angry NSS personnel to hit street

National service personnel who have been posted to various public institutions and companies within the Accra Metro District of the Greater region for 2014/2015 are gearing up for a massive demonstration in the coming days, Today has learnt.

This follows the refusal of the National Service Secretariat (NSS) to pay the January-March 2015 allowances due them.

The intended demonstration, Today gathered, was aimed at putting pressure on the NSS and National Security to release their three month allowance due them after several calls on both authorities proved futile.

Speaking in an interview with Today, some national service personnel who were posted to the Metro Mass Transit (MMT) Limited headquarters in Kaneshie in Accra to do their service gave the NSS between now and Friday, April 17, 2015 to release their three-month allowance or face their wrath.

The obviously angry personnel who spoke on condition of anonymity stressed that failure to do so would see all service personnel within the Accra Metro District pouring onto the streets to register their displeasure.

According to them, they cannot understand why the NSS persistently failed to pay their January to March 2015 monthly service allowances.

What they could not further understand was why their colleagues who were posted to Ga South, East and West Districts in Greater Accra region were paid their January to March allowances but those in the Accra Metro District were not.

"We are clearly unhappy with what is happening regarding the state of our three months service allowances. Indeed, what it is supposed to be a learning process has turned out to be a suffering ground.

"For the past three months our allowances have not been paid and now we are in April. How do you expect personnel to survive under these difficult circumstances? We are suffering, life has been unbearable for us and indeed the government of President John Dramani Mahama must do something about this precarious situation," the service personnel at MMTL headquarters cried out.

They went on to state that: "We have also close to 40 personnel who have not received their allowance for five months. And close to 30 personnel who have not received their allowance for six months since they were posted to various institutions and companies to do their compulsory one-year national service in 2014/2015.”

According to them, such is the state of service personnel in the Accra Metro District of the Greater Accra region.

Consequently, the personnel in Greater Accra threatened to lay down their tools and go back home, saying "this is the extent to which the problems within the region have escalated to and in fact it is irreparable unless our allowances are paid."

They complained that others apart from those in the Accra Metro District had received their allowances.

"We must state categorically without mincing words that indeed the reforms being introduced by NSS have been a major bane towards these challenges that has bedevilled service personnel.

"...our problems are further compounded due to the fact that national leadership of National Service Personnel Association (NASPA) was in disarray due to the interference of the national executive directorate of NSS.

“Our allowance is what keeps us going and we are demanding for the early release of our allowance else in two weeks time, we shall be hitting the streets of Accra to pour out our frustrations. Enough is enough"! the service personnel lamented.

Responding to the issue in an interview with Today via telephone on Tuesday, April 7, 2015 the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of NSS, Mr. Ambros Antsewa, admitted that "we are aware of the claims being made by the service personnel in the various public institutions and companies within the catchment area of Accra Metro District.

However, he was quick to tell this reporter that: “Please l am in a short meeting and can you (referring to this reporter) call me back in 30 minutes time.

But when this reporter made several calls to Mr. Antsewa after thirty minutes, the NSS PRO did not pick the call.

The NSS is responsible for posting tertiary graduates to do a compulsory one-year service required of all citizens in Ghana who are 18 years and above.

The programme which begun in 1973 is to encourage communal service and spirit of volunteerism among the country’s youth.

In the year 2014/2015 about 68,000 graduates were deployed nationwide to undertake their national service.