Dream In Motion

BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY. So this is where it has gotten to? A simple bargain between two sides has degenerated into the battle of the year. If anybody thought the bout between Bokoum Banku and Ayittey Powers was the battle of the year, I guess he or she would be reconsidering that notion as Ghana, over the past few weeks has witnessed and still continues to witness a fierce battle between the two.

In the blue corner, girded with white overall, are the medical doctors, coming from the camp of the Ghana Medical Association and in the red corner is the formidable government of the nation. The buildup leading to this “fight” was a demand for conditions of services, now a popular Ghanaian lexicon, from the government, their employer. What started as a humble plea by doctors degenerated into an altercation with both sides refusing to compromise.

Doctors are demanding for the first time their conditions of services pertaining to their work, government on the other hand claims the demands by the doctors had not been earmarked in the 2015 budget, moreover it claims the demands as outrageous and unreasonable, publicizing these demands whilst negotiations were ongoing, an act adjudged by the bookmakers as despicable and a contravention of the rules governing negotiations. You needn’t to have been told by a seer about the cataclysm written all over this saga as it has germinated into the unimaginable, what I see and call” The Battle For Supremacy”. The two sides obviously want to show their indispensability and the power they wield. With both side’s intransigence and recalcitrance in arbitrating and letting sleeping dogs lie.

There’s this hesitation to swallow each one’s pride to come to terms to the other rather subscribing to the popular saying” I will show you where power lies”. This is evident in the decision made by the doctors a couple of days ago in an extraordinary meeting to extend the strike action to more two weeks, culminating in the government’s counter response of “No work no negotiation” and an importation of Cuban doctors as a quick alternative.

The most astonishing and hilarious side of this drama is us the audience who for reasons best known to us take sides. Of course each one is entitled to his or her opinion. But some people , obviously members of the ruling N.D.C party are blaming the doctors’ action as incited by their political detractors whilst others of the N.P.P sees it as an opportunity to appeal to the conscience of the Ghanaian as to a big mistake it was to have elected the ruling party into power. Have we forgotten so soon that” when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers” We are compounding the already volatile issue with partisan politics at our own peril.

There’s no doubt about the irreparable damage caused by this feud as many lives are lost and a colossal loss incurred by the nation. We cannot afford to add to our woes this wrangle between our doctors and the government. Come to think of Dumsor, it has barely been fixed than this issue took center stage. At least it has been given a breather. For an ordinary Ghanaian like me, I couldn’t do more than to appeal to the doctors and the government to settle this feud once and for all and hope for a better ending to this drama. Ghana deserves better.