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30.11.2010 Feature Article

Combating Crime, keeping Criminals

Combating Crime, keeping Criminals
30.11.2010 LISTEN

For nearly five weeks teachers in the polytechnics withdrew their services from the classrooms to press home their demand for better service conditions.

That was at the beginning of a fresh academic year when parents had paid the full-term fees of their children (a precondition for admission), hostel fees paid, after a long search for what, under normal circumstances, should have been a basic facility in the polytechnics, and made other investments such as the procurement of cooking utensils, kitchen cabinets and the food items needed to prepare meals.

A friend told me (and it did not take me long to appreciate his point) that these days an admission to a tertiary institution for a child is like sending him or her on his/her first employment — you have to look for accommodation, buy a cooker and all other kitchen appliances and stock the cabinet with food items that will last at least for a month when the supply process begins again.


Parents did all these, after which the polytechnic teachers saw the iron red hot and decided to strike hardest. Of course, you cannot fault them for fighting for their survival.

Even pastors these days think first of their worldly salvation before the life hereafter, and politicians who were down on their knees pleading for votes so that they could straighten our national problems demand first their accommodation, vehicles and allowances.

So why not teachers and all other categories of workers?

In the case of the polytechnic teachers and the university teachers who also withdrew their services in solidarity with their bank accounts, in the final analysis, they will receive all their salaries, both the old and the new and the arrears accruing as a result of enhanced salaries.


What about parents? There will be no refund of fees as a result of the withdrawal of services by the teachers. For the food consumed during the period of the strike, it had nourished the students any way, so what is the fuss about?

The teachers will console the rest of us that no lives were lost during their strike, as would have been in the case of doctors, who also periodically embark on industrial actions to back their demand for better salaries and other service conditions.

During the period of the strike by the polytechnic teachers, just as in the case of the university teachers, there was very little in the form of condemnation of the action from the public and, conversely, any sympathy for the government.

The affected students felt it more prudent to side with their teachers in their just fight for better service conditions and threatened to embark on demonstrations to compel the government to listen to the striking teachers.


Those more inclined politically, either for expediency or opportunism, used the strike to go for the jugular by blaming the Mills administration for inaction, even though it was obvious that the actions of the university and polytechnic teachers could, in the main, be blamed on the leftovers of the previous administration whose feet-dragging on the issues brought them into the present.

It is not too difficult why people are hesitant to condemn strikes these days. Our politicians have set a standard which can only be matched by demands, no matter how outrageous or unrealistic some may seem.

First, they allow simple problems to fester before taking desperate measures. Second, and more seriously, their lifestyles can never be said to be true reflections of the situation on the ground.

Therefore, it is not easy convincing workers that there is very little in the national kitty when political office holders, their allies in the public service and business and those very close to them, with no defined job descriptions, are well catered for by the State and are far away from the word modesty.


As we gradually emerge from the side effects of the strike by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG), other formidable forces on the labour front have arrayed their arsenal for possible strike and have made their intentions very clear.

These include the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Ghana Medical Association (GMA).

The exploits of these two organisations, when it comes to the resoluteness with which they approach their demands and threats, are well known.

While UTAG, POTAG, the GMA and others win our unflinching solidarity in their strikes because theirs is a fight for a just cause, have we, for a moment, pondered over the conditions of our men and women in uniform who work under very perilous and strenuous conditions but have very little compensation in terms of remuneration and other service conditions?


On September 15, 2010, a group of warders at the Kumasi Central Prison demonstrated in front of the prison to press home their demand for better service conditions.

The following day, some of the aggrieved warders marched to OTEC 102 FM to challenge a radio presenter who was reported to have made derogatory remarks about the warders.

There were some physical contacts and these were rightly condemned as uncalled for, no matter the degree of provocation.

There were similar demonstrations by warders in other prison facilities. All those actions have been condemned, not because warders are among the best paid public servants in the country.


The reason is that by their service conditions, prison officers and others working for the other security organisations are not entitled to industrial actions, no matter how critical their situation is.

Already, there are unconfirmed reports that some senior officers are suffering punitive transfers as a fallout from those demonstrations.

There is an old Ibo proverb which says: “If you see a toad in the day time, it means something is after its life”. It will surely take something very critical to bring out warders from their prison walls to demonstrate in public.

But do we care? We are quick to pick the order book and read out the rules when prison officers and policemen, under circumstances beyond their control, come out publicly to demand what they consider their fair share of the national cake.


We are quick to declare that such acts on their part will undermine state security and are, in some jurisdictions, tantamount to mutiny. So should they be held hostage by the rules and suffer unnecessary agonising pain in silence?

What about those who, with impunity and some element of arrogance, can avoid working for as long as they wish because they want an improvement in their service conditions?

Should they be allowed to blackmail the nation, including those whose strikes are a clear contradiction of their own sworn oaths to serve humanity with selfless devotion, even at the peril of their lives?

The teachers will tell you that they can teach overtime to cover lost time. What about doctors?

After getting the fat salaries and the accruing arrears they relentlessly fought for, how do they compensate for the gruelling pain patients went through in the absence of health workers or those who, in the extreme of cases, lost their lives because those who swore an oath to heal them were busy chasing money and other worldly things?

Those who care may find out why prison officers are described as glorified prisoners. Sometimes only a thin line separates them from the prisoners under their charge. The conditions in which our policemen live and work are nothing to write home about.

But they are not to withdraw their services in protest because the country will descend into chaos and anarchy.

Why should others be allowed to collect their salaries and sit at home without working because they want more and end up collecting back-pay or salary arrears?


Why should people suffer pain or die miserably because one category of workers wants more money and better working conditions?

All categories of workers have the right to fight for higher wages and other service conditions that will enable them to lead dignified lives and take good care of their families.

But as we are carried away by an air of indispensability and adopt strikes as powerful weapons to demand our pound of flesh, let us ponder, in our sober moments, over an hour without the services of the police, the fire brigade or engineers and technicians of the Electricity Company of Ghana.

It will dawn on us that no matter how important we consider ourselves or our services, at the end of the day we are a team and our individual survival hinges perilously on others we may not factor at all in our scheme of things.


If we consider the hazards of controlling crime and keeping criminals out of circulation, we will appreciate how the contribution of others have made some of us feel safer and more secure to live our lives.

These are the men and women who cannot afford the luxury of staying away from their duty posts for even an hour so that the rest of us will be free.

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