OPEN LETTER TO ALL SERVICE PERSONNEL FROM IDDI MUHAYU-DEEN’S DESK

OPEN LETTER TO ALL SERVICE PERSONNEL FROM IDDI MUHAYU-DEEN’S DESK

Dear Service Personnel,

To begin with, I wish to commend you for the invaluable service you are rendering to our nation. Indeed, your contribution to the socioeconomic development of this country cannot be overemphasized and that’s why Ghana salutes you all the time; particularly because you give out your all for the nation under some difficult circumstances. And the reward you get in return, is less than a peanut. This, I see as a travesty of justice because even the Bible says, “the labour deserves his wage” and of course, this must be reasonable and in commensurate terms.

I’m aware that for the past two years, national service allowance hasn’t seen any increment in spite of the rising cost of living and the time value of money. GHc350 as monthly service allowance was an insult to service personnel two years ago and it is more than an insult today. There is therefore every justification why this allowance has to be increased as soon as practicable. It is against this backdrop that sometime last year when I was also doing my national service, together with some colleagues of mine, we led a spirited campaign to mount incessant pressure on the Mahama government to increase the service allowance to be in tandem with the exigencies of time.

However, we were told by the NDC government that the nation could not afford to pay the 20% we were requesting for because the national kitty was essentially empty and so, they never paid; not even 1% till their exit. Shockingly, two weeks before they left office after Ghanaians REJECTED them at the polls, the NDC made a surprise U’turn by announcing some 60% rise in service allowance, which is far beyond the 20% the service personnel themselves were requesting for. The effective date for the implementation according to them, was 1^st January 2017, by which time, they knew very well that they wouldn’t be in power.   

If you wanted to know whether this so called 60% increment announced by the NDC was genuine one or 419, all you had to do was to go through the 2017 supplementary budget that they themselves (ie. the NDC) presented to Parliament covering the first 3 months of 2017. You would realize that this astronomical increment in service allowance, was NOT captured anywhere in the budget. How can you announce that Service Personnel be paid some increases from January, yet in your own budget for January, February and March, you haven’t budgeted for the said increases?

Clearly, if the NDC had won the 2016 elections, they wouldn’t have announced the said increment in service allowance, else, they would have captured same in their supplementary budget for 2017. Remember, when they (ie the NDC government) genuinely wanted to pay public sector workers a 12.5% pay rise from January, they captured that in the 2017 supplementary budget. Why is it that, in the case of the 60% rise in service allowance, they didn’t capture it in the budget?  If this 60% thing is not 419, I wonder what else it is.

And instead of you (Service Personnel) to be angry with the erstwhile NDC government for deceiving you, you are rather ‘misdirecting’ your anger at the current President, H.E Nana Addo because the 60% 419 increment has not reflected in your January allowance. How were you even expecting the Nana Addo government to pay the increment when it had not been budgeted for? Are you unaware that it is illegal for government to spend money on something that has not been budgeted for? This is very elementary and I expect you to know.  

Back in your previous tertiary institutions, I’m sure if you were told that your SRC President had spent some monies which were not budgeted and approved by your SRC general assembly, I’m sure you would have been the first person to call for his head. Yet, you are expecting the President of Ghana to flout the laws of our country and go scot-free? I’m afraid, H.E Nana Addo, the consummate lawyer wouldn’t do that because he is a law abiding citizen and I expect you too, to be.

I understand some of you are planning to organize demonstration against the Nana Addo government in the coming days because the President has refused to flout the nation’s laws in order to pay you the money that hasn’t been budgeted for. By being called upon to be citizens not spectators, we are invariably being told to be responsible citizens. And if I may ask, is this what responsible citizens should be doing to their nation? I certainly cannot ‘think far’.

Of course, I’m not naïve to be unaware of the fact that, some of the people pushing this agenda are closely associated with the NDC. Indeed, I know them personally and can attest to the fact that, quite a lot of them are former and current TEIN executives (NDC tertiary wing). Read political motives into their ‘reprehensible conduct’ and you would be damn right. Their mission essentially, is to make the Nana Addo government unpopular but they will surely not succeed Insha Allah.

My brother and sisters in national service, you have to trust your government. There is every indication that the NPP government would definitely increase your allowance from the paltry GHc350 to something dignifying. And this, would be aptly captured in the government’s first budget to be read in March. To be candid with you, the 60% increment is quiet unrealistic because the national kitty can’t support that. Even Organized Labour won’t allow that to happen and this is evidenced in their unwavering opposition when this announcement was first made by the outgoing NDC government.

Somethings are just impossible. Even the madly rich Donald Trump of USA wouldn’t just get up one day and increase salaries by over 60%. How much more poor Ghana! Let’s live in the world of reality and stop these utopian tendencies. In the history of Ghana, salaries have never been increased by such astronomical percentage at once and so, you should be moderate in your expectations. If salaries have never gone up by 60%, then surely, there is no way ordinary allowances would witness such increment and that is a fact. You should also remember that national service is supposed to be a sacrificial endeavor rather than a ‘pay job’.

You should take solace in the fact that this government has by far, shown an unprecedented commitment to establishing a GRADUATE DESTINATION MARKET to arrest the quagmire of graduate unemployment which is the number one concern of all service personnel and not really the so called GHc599 ‘alawa’. After national service, you can then go into full time employment and get paid sufficiently. NUGS led the advocacy for the establishment of the National Service Scheme with the view to instilling in the nation’s youth and graduates, some sense of nationalism and patriotism. Let’s not depart from these enviable ideals for the love of God and our beautiful country.

Assalamu alaikum

Iddi Muhayu-Deen

Immediate Past Service

Former NUGS Secretary