GHANA MAY DAY CELEBRATIONS: A Day Of Sober Reflection, No Judment And Blame Game

I must congratulate the teaming labour front for the cardinal role they have played in our development process as a nation. In our worst scenario Ghana is not same everyday even in the face of all challenges. It is a historical fact the role the labour front played to the realization and attainment of independence. We must say ayekoo to them, but Oliver can best ask for more.

On this day as we celebrate May Day one of the symbolic days in our calendar, this time round marching and expressing misgivings about condition of service must also necessitate a call for a genuine sober reflection on the challenges and way forward. It is so because labour front is the pivot on which our development revolves on.

I want this sober reflection to eschew judgment and blame game but rather responsibility and accountability. To start with, can we quantify in percentage our individual productivity and correlate with teams or departments productivity versus desired results?

All the challenges Ghana is going through are self inflicted and it's because you/we or team failed to live up to expectation. And this cut across the labour front being private or civil or public.

Let's take only this week for example as a test, were you/we late to work or closed early than the normal time? If one person did so, it means others did too, because it is one of the bad common practices and feature in the labour front. Punctuality, productivity and the people are engine of growth.

Though we are to report 8am-5pm, we go late and close early. It is an obvious fact that after 3pm most activities halt in many offices especially that of the public and civil services. So can we assume the impact of the 2 hours both in development and economic terms? Does this happen in best practices and economies? If those of us without western work experience does not know what about those who have such experience?

The second situation worthy of attention is, even those who obliged to the 8am-5pm regulation, what is the rate of work done within this stipulated time frame? Do we postulate the economic sense when deadlines are nor met and how trickling it engulfs the whole nation into retrogression? In mathematical reality and critical analysis, do we meet deadlines, do we beat deadlines, do we get value for our money with productivity levels?

Can we honestly and in humility say that, our salaries and wages are indeed a true reflection of our productivity? In other scenario, are business owners sure their hardworking workers are well remunerated?

Let juxtapose these two scenarios and see the pain we have collectively as a working front inflicted on Ama Ghana. This is responsibility test no hard feelings...

Which form of corruption ( pilfering, usage of office phone for personal calls, over invoicing, lateness, fake sick leaves, fuel usage, power usage etc) takes place mostly without at least the knowledge of one colleague? We have accepted the cliche "scratch my back, I scratch your back" and "obiara didi n'adwuma ho". What is the percentage rate of this evil and it corresponding challenges to growth and development of Ghana ?

We individually failed to be responsible with our duties for which we collectively pay for it consequences as a nation. We fume so much when the nurse at the hospital does not act swiftly to our emergency, forgetting probably some few hours ago, you failed to process someone's document at the office though you knew the urgency of attention it deserved. And this same nurse too, will throw tantrums if his/her salary delays because someone also failed to treat the processing as important. This scenario is a perfect reality in our working cycle.

You chose to be late to the meeting because you are the boss, but fumes when the employees is late, forgetting that life is a cycle and productivity is a team work.

On this day can we individually pledge and recommit to live our working lives according to the ethics and dictates of the guiding principles of our work? Can we motivate ourselves with one thing, if Ghana can be built it starts from my honest and patriotic effort ? Before we embark on any demonstration or strike actions, can we do self-check and ask have I given my ultimate best and feel short-changed?

Before, any civil society group incite or support any labour unrest, can they do an honesty retrospection of productivity levels of our labour front before ? No challenge in our development is the work of an alien in our labour front. Because of our dishonesty and vulnerability, politicians use us for their selfish bid. When we individually put Ghana first as our motivation for our duties, we will build a dream Ghana. Before we think of what is not working, let's think of how we contributed to it. I believe we can, yes we can build Ama Ghana.

Ayekoo to our workers again. Long live Ama Ghana

Scofray Nana Yaw Yeboah
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