When the tables turn

It is becoming clearer after each change of government between the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party, that policies pursued by the one in office but decried by the other, become the new policy directions. Some of such policies are defensible because they  have merit whilst others are damnable, no matter the rationalisation.

There is also  the mistaken notion of government functionaries that the people must automatically  understand and appreciate such policies as intended for their good.

The concomitant is that anyone who questions, finds fault or discredits  such policies  are described dysfunctionally for not appreciating the essence of such policies amidst the dubious belief by party leaders,  functionaries and activists that such policy initiatives must be fanatically supported.

Unorthodox methods of arrest, described as rambo style, depending on whose ox is gored becomes legitimate or otherwise and when the tables turn, the reverse becomes the norm.

For instance,how can any Attorney General and Minister of Justice, worth their salt, call press conferences to denigrate public officials, pronounce judgement and conviction with certainty when no formal charges have been brought against them in any court.

Whilst such individuals are condemned and found guilty in the public domain, their accusers,  whose fiduciary duty is to the law state concurrently that investigations are ongoing or yet to be concluded against the same people they have so cruelly and disdainfully condemned.

Our people have now come to realise that any project initiated by a government which loses power would become a museum piece until the government which initiated it comes back into power.

The claim to the initiation of projects has even gone to the extent that if the new government attempts to salvage them they are accused of reaping where they never sowed and if abandoned  become a " political strength"  that when we left nothing was done to complete it.

Yet, in all public discourses and at any opportunity, reference is made as to which projects we initiated  but were abandoned whilst courting public favour for the redemption of such critical and needed projects,  policies and programmes.

During the 2016 general election, the NPP campaigned against what they called nuisance taxes and pledged to move the country from taxation  to production.

Therefore, when it took over it abolished a number of the taxes, but subsequently introduced new taxes, including the E-levy.

Indeed, in the period that the Electoral Commission was coerced against the introduction of the legislative Instrument for the Ghana Card to be the sole valid means for voter registration the NPP supported  the unconstitutional position of the NDC with the trade off of three new taxes.

The NDC likewise promised not to introduce any new  tax but to abolish a number of taxes, including the E-levy, during the campaign last year.

The party manifested the promise in its first budget. But just after three months, without any notice to the public, not waiting for a mid-year review, in less than 24 hours, we find an additional levy of GH¢1 on every litre of fuel.

Whilst the leadership and rank and file of the NDC are doing everything possible to explain and win the support of the public, the NPP has vowed to organise diffused dissent against the fuel levy just as the NDC did with the E-levy.

Last year, when organised labour demanded an end to galamsey but softened on their threat to embark on a demonstration many within the NPP applauded them for their sense of nationalism whilst many  in the NDC used unedifying epitaphs to express their disappointment about the failure of the leaders of organised labour to act, some even suggesting that they had been bribed.

Today, supporters of the NDC are happy that  the transport associations have abandoned their threat to lay down their tools against the fuel levy.

Strikes

Nurses and other health workers have gone on strikes now and then. Depending on who is in government or in the Minority, sympathy or disdain has been expressed.

Most often, the causes of the health workers have been justified or explained away by courting public support.

Indeed, in the last of such industrial action by the nurses and midwifes, the insightful statement made by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, that the government has the capacity to salvage a destroyed economy but lacked the resources to resurrect a dead person, was used to push the government to meet the just and legitimately negotiated conditions of the group.

Today, the tide has turned and the NDC is in power.

The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwifes Association is on strike and whilst the leadership of the NDC admits that the nurses demand better conditions of service, but without admitting whether they knew about the accrued rights, those in government insist on not doing  anything that could irreparably hurt the economy but caution that nothing must be done to derail negotiations.

But one thing I am clear about, the resort to bushfire arrangements,  calling on patriotic nurses and midwifes to abandon their leaders by resuming work  is a crude tactic of divide and rule, very corrosive  even to government. More important, the appeal to retired nurses to offer their  services  in facilities affected by the industrial action,  are desperate and dysfunctional.

Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, when confronted with teachers strike, resorted to such populist appeal and saw the consequence.

Government should be more sober and diligent in dealing with the problem. 

These half- hearted measures will not work. The volunteers, who are retired, would have to be compensated by mobilising the same resources said to be scarce.

Even if successful, it will only have a short-term impact for as  Chinua Achebe maintains in  ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH, " Experience and intelligence warn us that man's progress in freedom will be piecemeal,  slow and undramatic.

Revolution may be necessary for taking a society out of an intractable stretch of quagmire but it does not confer freedom and may indeed, hinder it".

As the Editor of the Daily Graphic, one of the battles I  fought was when nurses went on a nationwide strike.

Mr Kwamena Bartels was the Minister of Information.

When eventually the nurses decided to resume work,  he wanted the story as the lead on the Front Page of the Daily Graphic.

But as Editor, I did not consider that story to merit  the lead, although I agreed it deserved to be on the Front Page because of the impact of the strike and the relief that it was about to bring to our people.

My refusal to make it the Front Page lead, cost me my application for  appointment as the Managing Director of Graphic Communications Group Ltd.

I learnt about the decision to ditch me from a colleague,  Mr John Tagoe, who told me that my action was construed as a sign of arrogance and disloyalty.

Therefore, the matter of nurses strikes is my ntamkese, a taboo topic. 
I share the sentiments of Achebe that "It takes a lion to tame a leopard"  and also that " an animal whose name is famous does not always fill a hunter's basket".

How the government deals with the nurses and midwives may begin a new chapter in industrial relations  such that if the strike is illegal, we would have the courage to deny them their salary or wages for the period that the strike continues or we would eat our humble pie.