Half a loaf...

It is said that it is only the child of the witch who does not respect little acts of goodness, to wit, " bayifooba na n’ani nso akyedee nketewa".

When President John Dramani Mahama was campaigning during the general election, he promised to provide some stable income for assembly members having himself served as an assembly member in a rural district. 

True to the promise, an amount of GHc100 million has been provided under the 2025 budget for disbursement as payment to assembly members.

Whether the amount, which works to about GHc1000 monthly per assembly member, is enough or otherwise is a different matter.

If one is to take account of the fact that the daily minimum wage for public sector workers is less than GHc600, then what has been allocated to assembly members is relatively okay.

The monthly allowance for assembly members is anchored on the reality that, there are many of the district assemblies, where even the payment of sitting allowance has always almost been in arrears.

Some of them cannot or do not  provide snack, much less lunch. It is thus imperative that this allowance from Central Government must be  managed properly such that there will be no apprehensions that the payments could be in arrears.

Regular payments

If that is to happen, then it must be properly classified and paid  as part of the quarterly releases to the assemblies. Otherwise, if it is classified as an allowance, then it will not be paid regularly on monthly basis as the salaries of the staff of the assemblies.

There are some Commissions and departments whose members allowances, although technically salaries, remain in arrears for months, because the regular schedule of the Controller and Accountant General, has always been to pay pensions and salaries before other payments.

This is embedded in the fact that no individual should receive more than one regular monthly salary from the government. Most of such people are on the government payroll.

My personal interest and appreciation of the gesture stem from the fact that I was an elected member of the Afigya Sekyere District Assembly in 1994.

I resided in Accra  and attended meetings at Agona.

Under the rules, I was to be paid transport allowance, but never received any.

Whenever we attended meetings and sitting allowance was not ready, I had to give lift to the two women government appointees from the Boamang area and where it was paid, to give it to them for their transport fares.

Most of the times they borrowed money to pay for their transport for assembly meetings.

I do not remember whether I collected my end-of-service allowance because I travelled there a number of times only to hear that it was not ready and looking at how paltry it was, I resolved to let sleeping dogs lie.

It is thus good that the President having served in a district assembly and appreciating how members have to depend on themselves to serve their people has not turned his back towards the assembly members and acted to provide them with a certain relief.

Women’s bank

There is also this matter of the women's bank.

A bank is a term of art and therefore where a bank is promised but only a fund is established, those who criticise the move should not just be described as lacking understanding and appreciation.

Rather those who made the promise must be humble enough to explain  issues.

Whilst it is true that there is certainty about providing women with a source of support, that does not justify the promise of a bank.

People who speak for government must be tolerant and open enough to criticism, rather than develop an attitude which frowns upon criticism. 

It should not be as Achebe argues that those who manage "our affairs would silence our criticism by pretending they have facts not available to the rest of us.

And I know it is fatal to engage them on their own ground".

Indeed, we must encourage and welcome criticism no matter how destructive, knowing that criticism, if well understood and managed, can spark off the fires of inventions.

Orthodoxy whether of the right or of the left is the graveyard of creativity", as noted by Chinua Achebe.