Open letter to the president

Dear President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo,

On behalf of all National Service Personnel in Ghana, I humbly prostrate before your excellency to pay my inalienable allegiance and unalloyed homage to your incomparable grandiosity. I unequivocally acknowledge your figurative existence and monumental role in the administrative hemisphere of the state ever since you usurped your throne of leadership. “A nation which does not honour its heroes will not long endure” – Abraham Lincoln; You are such a hero. Your works are reckoned. May you live long Mr. President. May your days be prolonged.

Mr. President, National Service which is a one-year mandatory service to the state upon completion of Ghanaian definition of tertiary education, has being of more harm than good to my fellow service personnel across the country. That, inasmuch as this initiative avail us the opportunity to practically exhibit our academic cognizance in a virtual working environment coupled with knowledge refining, exposure to practical dexterity and additional skills acquisition, this same knife that feeds us with meat is now the weapon that cuts our very tongue; a trap that entangles our liberty and privileges as both Service Personnel and citizens. Not because of the unbearable stress which we are able to endure as optimistic and dedicated young individuals, but mainly due to inadequate payment of allowance to lull us into unquestionable silence.

In April 1st 2017, an increment of allowance for National Service Personnel emphatically the Subvented or government institutions was successfully effected under your administration from GH.¢350.00 to GH.¢559.04. Arguably, this has been one of your first and foremost achievements immediately you assumed office upon successful win at the polls in 7th December,2016. Even though we were not service personnel by then, we witnessed lot of jubilation and praise rained on you by the then personnel who were at the juncture of desperation. Such exhibition of humanitarianism is exemplary which revealed your passion, love and concern for the Service Personnel. But, Mr. President, ever since the aforementioned increment, it’s been almost three years now without any sign of additional increment in the said allowance. We all agree that since then, things have changed. Prices of goods and services have changed tremendously.

Transportation fare has been increased several times including the most recent increment of 10%. Price of foodstuffs and other fundamental goods and services patronized on daily basis by all Service Personnel has increased several times, such as: rent, water tariff and electricity bill. Mr. President, it is rather unfortunate that none of these changes had been factored in the allowance of personnel in the government sector; notwithstanding the fact that private organisations factor these changes and pay their respective service personnel accordingly, regardless of the cliché “National Service”. Mr. President, It was in the news a couple of months ago that plans are underway to increase salaries of civil servants effective next year, but nothing has been said about allowance of service personnel. It is against this backdrop that I plead for increment of allowance for my brothers and sisters.

Mr. President, I humbly write to appeal to your loving-kindness and ever flowing mercy which is attestable by all, to effect an increment in the contemporary allowance of National Service Personnel across the country. I write on behalf of all Service Personnel in Ghana as a patriotic citizen and a town crier, that you summon the administrative body of the Scheme to factor recent increment in prices of goods and Services in our allowance, and to consequently increase it proportionately. Lot of my brothers and sisters rendering their national service had over the past months and years initiated several moves and effort to call on your attention to the subject of discussion through articles, petitions, and confrontations but all efforts proved futile. I pray this will serve as a confirmation of their effort and an echo of their idiomatic language, and subsequently, serve as the final matchstick to lit the chandelier of change and bring joy to my fellow service personnel; in the midst of their pain and agitation over inadequate allowance. I trust so much in what you can do; your capabilities, your passion, your generosity.

Mr. President, about the way forward, I suggest you organise an open forum once a year where you will interact with leadership of all service personnel across the country to address and search for answers to all puzzles in their modus operandi, in their capacity as representatives and mouthpiece of all National Service Personnel. I profoundly believe such initiative will be in the right direction to unfold issues concerning the deplorable state of Service Personnel as well as witting recommendations for betterment of the Scheme. Such forum may eventually attain a consensus on actions and inactions that will improve life of Service Personnel in their discharge of duty, as they render their one-year mandatory service to the state. With that, the scheme could metamorphose into a world-class competitive platform with such additional aroma as international volunteerism initiative, to be partook in, by all, in a national communion.

Respectfully,

Richard Asumah Kwaku Tetteh

President,

National Service Personnel Association,

Kpone Katamanso District.

richardwright1@myself.com