Can Ghana afford additional public holiday?

“If anything is certain, it is that change is certain, the world we are planning for today will not exist in this form tomorrow” Philip Crosby.

Not too long ago, His Excellency, President John Evans Atta Mills delivered his maiden sectional address to members of the parliament of Ghana. In the president's address one of the issues that reverberated the air waves and dominated public discourse was the proposed celebration of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's birthday as a public holiday.

As was expected in a largely diverse and free society the proposal generated mixed and varying shade of opinions. While some warmly welcomed the news, others lampooned it for various reasons. When it appeared that the wound of discussions on the proposal had fully been healed, His Excellency the Vice President Mr. John Dramani Mahama scratched the scar of the matter again by hinting that government was in a process of preparing a bill on the proposal for parliamentary approval. The matter resurrected again and it is now seated at the right hand side of the seat of government waiting to be sent to parliament for deliberations and possibly its passage.

It is worthy to note that a nation that does not honour its heroes is not worth dying for. With this in mind I honestly think that the idea is brilliant, however, the multi-million Cedi question that needs a Pesewa answer is 'Can Ghana Afford Additional Public Holiday?'

Can the shape of the world today afford us the luxury of an additional holiday? A nation that imports everything from tooth pick to tooth roll afford the comfort of cooling off in another holiday? Our GDP is too small that a company in Europe or North America could have its quarterly profit far exceeding our GDP. Whereas our contemporaries in Asia and North Africa are making lives better for its citizens it appears that we are crawling in our development agenda as if we are competing with a tortoise or snail to win the crown of slowness.

The revenue in millions of Cedis (Gh¢) lost in every holiday to the state's kitty for the improvement of the lot of many Ghanaians, the vulnerable, the poor, those at the far outskirts of quality lives and those who are economically marginalized presents to us the question: “Can Ghana afford the luxury of Additional Public Holiday?”

Already there has been unified concern about the numerous public holidays that have littered our calendar provided by the Public Holidays Act, 2001 (ACT 601). Corporate institutions over the years have had to grapple with the evils of absenteeism, lateness, and needless excuses from work, loitering and malingering from the sapping hands and energies of employees and not to talk about the time we take off from work to attend funerals, one week and forty day celebrations of the dead. The tragic results of these avoidable conscious attitudes of employees have led to low productivity and its immediate neighbor of poverty. Many at times these same employees fail to recognize the consequence of these attitudes, only to summersault the next moment to engage in needless agitation for upward adjustment in salaries, better conditions of service and ostentatious end of service benefits. The problem is further compounded when government legitimizes these lazes with an act of parliament. This is the bane of our economy, the bane of our development and the bane of our national character. Considering the urgency of our development the question that needs to be asked and answered honestly is 'Can Ghana Afford Additional Public Holiday?'

The economic quagmire the many holidays have ushered the nation into prompted the government of President Kufuor to scrap off June fourth as public holiday. Management of many corporate institutions lauded this convivial step taken by the government to pull down the titanic mountains that have long stood against efforts to maximize productivity. While the economy had begun to mount up with wings to fly upon the exit of June fourth from the holidays calendar, the Public Holidays Amendment Act of 2002 (ACT 626) arrived with its amputating machete of 25th May as Africa Union Day celebration was inserted. As the economy is yet to recover, it is about to be dealt with another shocking missile of additional holiday of fruitlessness. In a global economic decline, one needs to ask again 'Can Ghana Afford Additional Holiday?'

Let me indicate again, that I am not opposed to citing a day to honour the founding fathers of this country, of whose toils we live and stand today. It has taken Ghana too many years to honour the toil and sweats of the architects of this nation. Even, America can designate the third Monday of every January as a public holiday to reminisce the birth of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, a black civil rights activist whose pain and struggle Barack Obama stands today as president of the United States. Indeed, the proposed celebration of the heroes of our nation will offer many Ghanaians the opportunity to reflect on the good works, dedication and selfless service they rendered to the nation. In my considered opinion, the statement of founders' day will go to emphasize the belief that no good work will go unrewarded and thereby will serve as a motivation and inspiration to present generation and generations unborn to give their best to the development of this dear nation. As we seek to celebrate our heroes, the present living conditions of many Ghanaians and our development can not be obscured. In view of the ghastly conditions that beset the various sectors of our economy and lives of many Ghanaians, 'Can Ghana Afford Additional Public Holiday?

Elsewhere whereas people are working sixteen hours a day and seven days a week to make life better for themselves, future generations and their nation, in Ghana we are debating on holidaying. Generally, the attitude of many Ghanaians towards work is very poor particularly, employees in the public sector and the civil service. In the ministries, departments and agencies, employees paid with the Ghanaian taxpayer's money report to work late and leave very early. When they get to work, they sit idle, converse on the telephones and some even work lotto and bingo numbers. Alas! Some even trade their own private businesses at the work places. Break times which is supposed to last for thirty or sixty minutes sometimes last for three hours. Fridays and Mondays are the worst days to visit the MMDA's. On Fridays, people leave the office as early as 11:00 am to prepare for funerals and other personal engagements. On Mondays, businesses grinds to a halt because employees are yet to report from the weekend funerals and other engagements thereby reducing to three the effective working days in a week. These same Ghanaians with little or no working orientation are able to adapt swiftly to the working culture of the developed world when they travel. Yes! It is unarguably true that Ghanaians are very hard working at any part of the globe except in our own country though there are few exceptions. Let me however, state and pay tribute to the few Ghanaians who are working hard here to make the nation a better place. Our attitudes must change. With such appalled working attitudes, 'Can Ghana Afford Additional Holiday?'

THE WAY FORWARD
In our attempts to set aside a day to honour the founders of our dear nation we can do so without necessarily adding to the numerous public holidays thus impeding the expansion of the economy. It can be done by merging some of the holidays on our national calendar. As the nation celebrates and recognizes the invaluable contributions of her farmers and other work force it will be prudent to combine Farmer's Day and May Day and celebrate it as Labour Day. Indeed farmers and workers constitute the labour force of the country for there is no much difference between an orthodox and Pentecostal Christian, they both worship the same God and on the same Sunday. Without belittling the enormous contributions of farmers one cannot gloss over the certainty of change and that one day teachers, doctors, lawyers, artisans, market women, parliamentarians etc. would also demand that a day be set aside as a public holiday to separately celebrate their contributions to the development of the nation. After all how many farmers observe the day? One cannot be oblivious of the fact that farmers day celebration have added to the numerous idle days young people engage in all sorts of deprave practices on the beaches and in our streets. I think something more beneficial such us improving the health facilities in our farming communities, subsidies on farm inputs, providing farmers with the right information on how to improve farm yields and many more development oriented activities can be undertaken to reward farmers rather than holidaying, if we truly recognize and cherish our farmers.

Again, Republic Day celebration can also be merged with the proposed Founder's Day. This is the change we need to develop our country. Though there are some holidays such as Good Friday, Easter Monday, Eid al Fitr (Ramadan), Eid al Adha (Hajj), Boxing Day and Christmas Day that could not be merged or touched due to the likely religious sentiments it can provoke but such holidays should not be deferred to working days for celebration and holidaying when they fall on weekends. A nation such as Ghana that lags behind in everything one cannot imagine setting apart a day to rest as Africa Day celebration. As a nation, we need to rise up from our development coma and move in the direction of dawn and not to stay in the dusk. WHY! “Can Ghana Afford Additional Holiday?

Credit: Michael A.K Ellimah
The writer is the Leader and Spokesperson for
Movement of Social Change and Development-MOSCAD
Email: [email protected]