Please NAGRAT, We Beg

There is no gainsay in the adage that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. It is also true that familiarity breads contempt. No matter how justifiable one's actions may be, if all appeals of reasonable counsel fall to the dogs, society begins to distance itself from someone it had hitherto, sympathised with.

It is on the above premise that I wish to call on the striking NAGRAT and some of thier counterparts from GNAT who have joined them to humbly and grudgingly pick up their tools and call off the strike action.

I beleive as a matter of fact, that is not as if the striking teachers are not been sensitive to the plight of students, especially those in their final year, some of whom are the teachers' own children. They are only asking for something that they rightfully deserve. After all, who says any public service worker in Ghana today is satisfied with his conditions of source?

The recent announcement by the government through the Ministers of Education, Finance, Public Sector Reforms, Manpower and Employment, that for now no adhoc measures will be taken, with promises of an entirely new comprehensive public sector salary reforms structure begining next January, I beleive, should be heeded to by our loyal and faithful teachers. Does the government think 2007 will never come? Or are Ghanaians saying that development should be sacrificed at the expense of increasing 53.1% of the budget that goes to emolumnets and salaries? With all these cries for development projects, should we again cut down on the 7% left for development given the fact that 30% of national revenue is asigned by law to the GETFund, the Road Fund, District Assemblies Common Fund, and others? Oh! NAGRAT, bear with us and re-consider your stance.

Perhaps even more compelling and heart-warming impetus for NAGRAT to call off the strike action is the surprise appearance of the President at the press conference to personally make a passionate appeal to them to reconsider their decision as thier concerns are being addressed.

Our custom, social values and norms say that one does not walk-over an elderly person or authority. Although comparisons are essential, let us please move forward from using the health service as a yardstick for agitations. Let us take it that the government erred by taking such an adhoc and knee-jerk approach attitude when the health sector problem arose. Must it continue to do same? Will all others not follow suit? Let us bear with government as it finds a lasting solution to this canker of poor, non-equitable and uneven salary disparities among people of similar rank and qualification who in thier quest to serve in different areas of equal benefit to the nation find themselves in their present fields.

Although this salary rationalisation policy drive by the Government is long overdue, let us please accede to their appeals, let us please forgive the few who through their ulterances, actions and inactions have offended us and used the laid down and appropriate proceedures for redress to achieve our objectives. Let us conform to the Labour Law and stop always resorting to illegal strike actions.

I will however, urge Government not to make this promise of a solution by January 2007, not a mere rhetoric. We need action this time around. Let me also appeal to politicians on the opposite side of the divide not to make cheap politics of this very important national issue and to rather join in finding a lasting solution to this age-old cancerous and monsterous proble. After all, those at the receiving end, the students, who are for the first time writing the WASSCE, our future are not of NPP parentage only. We are all affected.

Once again, I say to NAGRAT, please we beg, go back to the classroom!!!

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