Corporate Ghana Must Ensure Compliance With National Service Act

The Chronicle has learnt with joy that about 100 people working with various institutions in the country, but who have not discharged the mandatory national service required of them, have trooped to the National Service Secretariat (NSS) to enrol onto the scheme to avoid being sanctioned.

The move follows the deployment of a team from the NSS to all institutions in the country to enforce requirements under Section 7 of the NSS Act (Act 426, 1980) that enjoins all Ghanaians above 18 years to do national service before they gain employment.

Let us not forget that there are exemptions in instances where graduates are above 40 years old, and who go through the requisite process to be duly exempted.

The Chronicle finds it difficult to understand why young Ghanaians, who acquire education to be gainfully employed, would shun National Service, which is mandatory before employment.

We are at a loss as to whether our graduates do not understand that National Service, apart from it being a national pride, is also an act of patriotism.

We are informed that in some jurisdictions, National Service is so revered that no graduate dreams of missing it for any reason.

And the reason is not far-fetched, as it is through national service that most potential public officers get to know the countryside, while majority of service personnel learn at firsthand the nitty-gritty of their chosen careers.

In the light of the above, The Chronicle was glad when the NSS deployed a team to all institutions in the country to enforce the requirement.

As a nation, we keep trumpeting patriotism, but if our young graduates who have been educated to take up leadership positions do not see the need to serve their nation, then we may as well be beating drums, yet we are not ready to dance to the tune.

The Chronicle would like to also stress that the appropriate authorities must fashion out measures to ensure that young Ghanaians willingly accept national service as part of national life, especially if they wish to gain employment in the public sector.

To us, at The Chronicle, a body like the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), should been to be actively inculcating in the youth the need for them to avoid missing national service.

Again, we would urge the NSS to liaise with the appropriate institutions to make the service scheme more attractive.

We sincerely believe that national service should be the wish of every well-meaning graduate in the country, and, in as much as we do not encourage graduates to avoid the scheme, we equally call on the NSS to be innovative in making the scheme very attractive.

Corporate Ghana must also assist in ensuring that the scheme is respected by employing only those who have done their national service.

The Chronicle would like to finally suggest that compliance and enforcement of Section 7 of the NSS Act (Act426, 1980) should not be left to the NSS alone, it must be a shared responsibility of Corporate Ghana.