Diaries Of An Oguaa Fisherman: Don’t Forget To Revive The Dead After The Strike

Since the leaked proposal of the Medical doctors went viral, there have been mixed reactions from both the young and the old. It has got everyone including my colleague fishermen here at Oguaa talking. While many believe the demands of the Medical doctors are outrageous and vicious, others believe the demands are just right when placed side-by-side with what the politicians are enjoying in the country.

These shades of opinions aside, many a Ghanaian is feeling the heat as a result of the ‘doing and undoing’ of both the Medical doctors and Government. While many will earn complications as a result of this strike, others will lose their lives; lives that are irrecoverable and irretrievable when the strikes are over.

So how did we get where we are? That is the question lingering on the minds of many people as the ‘two elephants’ battle on the turf craving for supremacy.

From a pedestrian point of view, government believes such demands will be unsustainable and will further cripple the economy that is already limping on one leg. Government fears that kowtowing to the demands of the Medical doctors will open the floodgates for other workers to demand similar conditions of service.

One of the key demands in the proposal that has proven too strong for the public to ignore is the 80- 100 gallons of fuel the doctors are demanding. My first reaction to this item was, ‘what would they be doing with these numbers of gallons of fuel if they were so approved by the government?’ (I doubt it would be approved). Abraham Amaliba puts it bluntly, ‘are they going to operate a filling station with that kind of demand?’

Well, I am not sure they want to operate filling stations anyway, but the demands are such that they put those who even support their course of actions off. What were they thinking about? Who were they competing with? If it is the politicians they are competing with, they better forget it because the politicians in this country are the only breed of humans who get what they want.

And I believe such competitions will snuff out the life of the many people who pay the taxes in the country and expect to be given the needed treatment at the health facility available to them.

Inasmuch as the doctors should be catered for very well, I think going on strike and holding the ‘scrotum’ of government while negotiating is very wrong (Even though, I know strike is the language the Ghanaian politician understands).

I have been brooding over why the doctors failed to stick to the old conditions of service that government was unfulfilling? Why did they upgrade ‘the baby conditions of service into elephant conditions of service’ that has scared even the fishermen and the fishmongers in the ancient capital of Oguaa?

In this country called Ghana, there are many workers who have conditions of service but these conditions of service remain in books and on the shelves. I dread that in the weeks to come, more of these strikes will ‘sprout’ like how a rose flower cranes it neck to receive a massage from the sun.

Take the GES for instance; under the conditions of service, Headmasters, Assistant Headmasters, Senior Housemasters, Housemasters, Principals, Vice principals, Head teachers, Assistant head teachers, frontline, AD’s and Guidance and Counseling Officers in 2^nd Cycle institutions are supposed to be provided with free residential accommodation. The conditions of service state that where there is no residential accommodation, the service shall be responsible for the rents of the officer concerned.

It further states that employees who are not occupying Service quarters shall be entitled to a housing allowance of 35% of the basic monthly salary.

Ask all teachers whether or not they do enjoy these things enshrined in the collective Agreement between the Ghana Education Service and the Teacher Unions in the Education service as far back as 2009?

The system in Ghana is just bad and riddled with an administrative system so bureaucratic, so mundane such that it does not respond to any urgency or transformation to solve problems. Once the problem arises, a knee-jerk reaction is adopted and everyone goes to bed only to wake up with the same issue begging for solutions.

What prevented government from addressing this issue when the doctors confronted them as far back as last year? What were they waiting for? Why do we allow things to deteriorate in this country before an action is sought? I am of a firm conviction that the leaked proposal has delved such a hefty blow to the Medical doctors like how the wind does to the anus of a hen. The leakage appears to have done its job very well but two questions beg for answers? Why should the proposals be leaked? Are these the best practices that are adopted during negotiations? Well, I guess your answers might be right!

Have you ever wondered why there is money to honour the ‘whims and caprices’ of politicians but when it comes to the satisfaction of other workers, there is no money? Yes, such is the system! The politicians will always have their way and that is why a lot of people are abandoning their God-given professions and entering into politics because that is the only place one gets what he/she wants.

The only time the National labour commission in this country speaks is when people go on strike but when workers are not treated well, they watch with alacrity until the ‘unthinkable’ happens.

Even though, government hasn’t handled the matter very well, I pray the doctors return to work as a matter of urgency and return to the negotiation table. If not, I challenge them to resign en bloc as they have warned. Or alternatively, government should consider terminating the appointments of ALL Doctors on strike and issue promissory notes to pay all arrears over a period, which the Doctors can discount at the banks as suggested by Kofi Bentil of Imani, Ghana.

It is really very sad when after the strikes, those who died as a result can’t be brought back to life; those who suffered complications might be perpetually maimed and those who incurred loses do so at their own cost. God save us and save all the fishermen from Oguaa!

The writer, Richard Kwadwo Nyarko, is a broadcast journalist with JOY 99.7. Email: [email protected] . Twitter: @quajo2009. Like my Facebook page: Richard Kwadwo Nyarko