National Service or National Sabotage?

Creative minds, careful planning and colossal sums of money are
expended daily throughout the world on the worthy task of encouraging
citizens to wholeheartedly give of their best, when it comes to skill,
talent and labour utilisation for respective national good and
development. This sense of the appreciation of one’s homeland
underpins all civic sermons and projects seeking to achieve national
goals through the avenue of national participation. Observe the
general operations of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP)
and you immediately discover an underlying, but not necessarily
written objective, which seeks to ingrain into the youth a kindred
spirit of patriotism and belief in the dignity of legitimate labour.
Yes, for not all labour is deserving of legitimate reward, even if
rendered in a purely man-Friday fashion. Ask either a staff or a
serving personnel (notice the forceful emphasis on doing) of the
National Service Scheme (NSS) and the prideful intimation of a
patriotic “service to the nation” would be the ready and predictable
cliché. The story reported last year of a fact-finding Bangladeshi
delegation compassing sea and land just because of our country’s
national service model is an encouraging attestation that the
pacesetting domain of excellence is not an “abrokyire” heritage.
It is needful to stress that whoever originated the idea of serving
the nation after a tertiary-level course did no disservice to his
generation. This practical concept, with its invaluable contribution
to nation building, has perpetuated to posterity a challenging but
rewarding opportunity of having firsthand experience with besetting
national problems. It has come with the consequent bestowal of a
privilege to be part of the rectification process through inventive
individual approach. Oh, I harbour a certain admiration for that
marine engineering graduate who responded to a national service call
to teach junior high school students in a specific village. Many would
have been quick to instantly reject or change this posting on the
basis of seeming hindrance to a promising career with a multi-national
oil company in the western region. This exemplary instance of
commitment to God and country should not be left to evaporate
unnoticed into thin air. It is time we learn to differentiate real
heroes from spurious ones, and benevolently render unto them their
dues.
To state that 50,069 newly-posted national service personnel had a
hectic time in the early part of October 2010 is to state the obvious
and the uninteresting. The online release of postings meant the
beginning of tedious registration formalities at the various regional
offices. That same old story of organised frustration was replayed.
Only that the students-turned-personnel were acquainted with the
status quo and thus, adequately prepared for the whole show. After
all, they went through similar and more stressful frustrations
(imagine frustration qualified) during maiden student registration in
the various tertiary institutions. Their only bother consisted in the
inability of the regional administration to reduce time-wasting
paperwork through the employment of a computer database system that
combines the twin blessings of effectiveness and efficiency. Their
pragmatic evaluation perceived the requirement of passport pictures as
not just an unnecessary step, but a duplication of records after
having previously uploaded them [passport pictures] to the NSS
database during the initial online registration. Monies charged for
the pictures and the outright and unexplained rejection of all other
pictures from places other than the regional offices greatly incensed
these tertiary institution graduates. Their extensive familiarisation
with all the nitty-gritty and subtleties of ‘institutionalised
extortion’ was brought to the fore in ensuing conversations.
Instructions as to registration procedures were carefully outlined in
the appointment letter to be printed and submitted at regional offices
within a stipulated deadline. To fall short of this implied the
forfeiture of allowance for the month of October. And that was
original thinking, on the part of the NSS office at its best. All
things being equal, the forfeiture of allowance for the month of
October was an effective inducement for quick registration and
reporting to places of posting. The long, survival-of-the-fittest sort
of queues at regional offices clearly demonstrated that not a few were
willing to “go dry” throughout November. It did not however suppose an
immediate assumption of duty on the part of personnel at service
posts. Brother, you can trust the fresh products of our tertiary
institutions with the meeting of deadlines especially when a crucial
something like “allawa” (allowance) is at stake. That’s not a joke,
bro. It’s a do-or-die affair!

We cannot, we dare not say, that the postings and procedures were
without problems. Umaru Amadu’s timely article, National Service or
National Suffering?, adequately captured the plight of newly-posted
personnel with commendable keenness and the humorous wit he employed
was appropriate for a season replete with whining, complaining and
weariness. He reiterated the reality of an unplanned, better still
unintentional, but systematic ‘punishment’ meted out to a people with
affirmed willingness to pay back ‘loans’ obtained from the government
of their beloved Ghana. Many travelled long distances to places of
postings only to be told that their services were either unneeded or
uncalled for. The open expression of individual dissatisfaction with
a system that seemed not to have taken programmes of study into
consideration was also highlighted. As you’d predict, a section of the
public passionately engaged in the ubiquitous blame game, expertly
lecturing on what should have been done which was not done. This
reminded us that the exacting area of specialisation that seeks to
creatively invent ways of thinking and doing is a field only few dare
to venture. A preponderance of the expertise around us majors on the
invention of snags – not solutions. Can you imagine?

Wait a minute, brother. It seems we are losing track of the way and
subject matter of our discourse. Now, let us leave all these
uninteresting nonessentials and start making meaningful comments about
that notorious word uppercased and bolded at the beginning of this
piece: sabotage. No dilly-dallying here, since the probability that
busy readers offered their precious attention because of that
particular word is very high. The Executive Director of the NSS and
his team of officials fall into this category. Am I close to the truth
sirs? These honourable officials entrusted with the administration of
the scheme cannot afford to be negligent after hints of purposeful
destruction have been given.
An experienced teacher once marvelled at the diligent devotion of a
particular year’s batch of service personnel. It is to be feared
however, that the “service to the nation” obligation is sometimes
rendered in so unpatriotic a manner that the perceived national profit
becomes elusive if not barely beneficial. Allow us to say that the
untoward attitude of some service personnel in the basic and senior
high schools far removed from the cities and big towns (and perhaps
the inquisitive pen and camera), is imperilling the nation’s
educational fortunes. Habits of regular absenteeism and
insubordination are now synonymous with some service personnel. This
unmistakable deprivation of that sense of accountability required in
the noble business of combating ignorance is nourished by the idea of
not being part of the regular workforce of the Ghana Education Service
(GES). Anyway, it could also be due to chronic cases of delusions of
grandeur, which comes willy-nilly to many a university graduate
serving in small towns and villages under the NSS. Imagine these same
personnel serving in establishments like the ministries, financial
institutions, telecommunication firms, to name just a few, and your
guess of unreserved dedication is as good as ours. Here, the prospect
of retainment leaves no room for anything short of punctilious
commitment.
The rumour persists that some personnel connive with headteachers in
staying away from places of posting for reasons of attending to more
profitable ventures. This, if true, appallingly pictures the extent of
latent corruption and its potential impact on a nation already
grappling with corruption at various levels. It is something of an
irony that those who deliberately remain elusive as to ‘job’ delivery
are quick to enjoy an allowance hardly enjoyed by a toiling
professional somewhere. A headteacher’s hesitation in signing the
allowance clearance form of some personnel resulted in the forging of
his signature. Oh King Solomon, we see realistic wisdom in your keen
observation – “there is a sore evil under the sun.”

The active involvement of some personnel in that regrettable episode
of “children doing babies rather than homework” is fast blurring the
dignifying distinction between sound teacher-student relationships.
Gullible school girls have become targets of licentious desires that
know no inhibition in the blind pursuit of gratification. Sensual
manipulation has thus replaced student mentorship and those who should
be protected are being preyed upon by predators of high
sophistication. An experienced educator vouchsafed to someone’s
hearing the surprising case of a personnel known for entertaining a
‘guest’ in his room during contact hours; the very time he was
supposed to aid in the education of school children. Another is said
to have walked out of a class because of personal reasons of not being
in a teaching mood. Nothing of a hint here about adherence to rules.
This is a sad and shameful case of salvagers metamorphosing into
saboteurs. Revelations as these are wholly necessary, whether they are
isolated cases of sorts or of a day in, day out kind of regularity.
Their curtailment is equally important, so as not to result in the
making of many books.

Lectures on the kind of measures to be taken should be the
preoccupation of corporate Ghana. Its discussion deserves the
contribution of all and sundry. The NSS should as a matter of urgency,
thoroughly reconsider its organisational efforts at quality
supervision. The GES has no option but to closely work with the NSS if
maximum productivity is to be achieved in the schools. The bitter
truth is that the schools are lacking, seriously lacking. The
investigative pen and camera can coordinate the non-partisan
discussion of problems faced and problems caused by some service
personnel. Rectification of confronting problems should pave the way
for a gracious restoration of the professionalism expected of national
service in the classroom.
To the serving personnel, we say that your unaffected determination in
bequeathing an enduring legacy of selfless service will open hitherto
closed opportunities and doors for you. “Believest thou this? I know
that thou believest!” But let the sabotaging personnel heed the
biblical admonition that it is “more blessed to give than to receive”
(Acts 20:35), and be encouraged to heartily serve, “as unto the Lord,
and not unto men” (Colossians 3:23-25). You are a candidate for
different kinds of ground-breaking changes in your place of service.
The soft-spoken professor and national father has assured his many
brothers and sisters that 2011 is an action-packed year. We also
declare this year as a year of uncommon commitment to Mr. Kuagbenu’s
brand of the “service to the nation” agenda.

Sir, methinks I see many a penitent service personnel ruing the days
of disservice – even declaring in unison – “We are seceding from
sabotage!” Accordingly, all 2010/2011 national service personnel
should ever be mindful of the marked difference of a salvaging
national service in a year of action. Brother, this is the right time
to commence the desirable action of national service; of mending what
has been marred through national sabotage in some schools. Yes, this
is the opportune time!




Gideon Amoako Sarpong