National service extension political gimmick – Group

National Service personnel for 2015/16 have rejected government’s plan to extend their service period for the next six months, saying they would rather want jobs at the end of their compulsory service.

Last week, the acting director of the National Service Scheme, Dr Michael Kpessah Whyte, announced that the government was offering an extension of the service period.

A statement signed by Mr Kpessah Whyte said notwithstanding the official end of the 2015/2016 service year in August, personnel could stay on if they applied.

But the personnel believe the move is a political gimmick, intended to hoodwink them to vote for the governing party in the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections.

A statement co-authored by Isaac Kojo Yeboah and Perpetual Agbenyo, President and Secretary, respectively, for the Concerned Service Personnel Association, said: “This move raises a lot of eyebrows considering the fact that the December polls [are] just staring at us. Beyond that, we find the offer a political gimmick, for the very fact that it was this same government, which cancelled Voluntary Extension, which offered personnel another one year of paid service. We outrightly reject this offer. It is not one that has any positive bearing on our future as young graduates.”

The statement added: “We find another six months of service as a waste of time and energies. In National Service, personnel are only paid allowances, there is no salary, neither are there any conditions of service carved out. There is no social security (pensions), neither can personnel even secure a small soft loan for any meaningful project. The GHS350 allowance per month, out of which we pay our rents, skyrocketing electricity, and water tariffs and medical bills, only puts us in hunger, thirst, pain, and agonies we cannot describe.

“We are compelled to ask what happens to service personnel after the six months’ extension period. Do we join the Unemployed Graduates Association, continue to depend on families for our daily upkeep, or, in the worst situation, engage in immoral acts to survive? The worst part is the difficulty or rather impossibility of securing capital to start up little ventures on our own.

“We want to believe and hope that this is not a scheme to canvass votes, of course our integrity would not be trampled upon and posterity will never forgive us all.

“We pray the high office of the president that we passionately reject this offer, and call on him to rather create jobs and/or an enabling environment that can put us on a pedestal to create meaningful wealth for ourselves, families and future.”