NSS registration blues: Healing the wounds and erasing the scars

After going through thick and thin in the registration process, national service personnel have finally began the mandatory one-year service at user agencies across the country.

Like a woman in labour who brushes aside the pain of labour shortly after she has been delivered of her baby, the service persons may well be erasing memories of the painful ordeal they went through from their mind.

The dust may have settled but it is important to interrogate the registration process to ensure that the ills in the system are corrected to forestall future occurrence of the challenges.

Figures

Per the figures released by the management of the National Service Scheme (NSS) on July 8, this year, a total of 91, 871 prospective service persons are expected to undertake the national exercise.

The figure excludes Ghanaian students in foreign universities, as well as nursing students whose data was not readily available at the time of deployment.

Out of the total number, 76,908, representing 84 per cent of the personnel, were posted to the public sector, while 14,963, representing 16.30 per cent, were posted to private sector agencies.

In terms of the regional breakdown, Greater Accra topped the table of recipients with 29,647 service personnel, while the Ashanti Region followed with 17,020 personnel.

The Upper East and Upper West regions were at the bottom of the league table with 2,107 and 1,657 personnel respectively.

Some 2,160 prospective personnel were also deployed across the 216 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in the country to support the government's Planting for Food and Jobs agriculture programme.

Registration brouhaha

Even as the management of the scheme deserves commendation for doing a Yeoman's job in ensuring that all qualified citizens fulfil this constitutional mandate, it is equally important to peruse the deployment process to enhance it.

Over the years, as well as this year, the registration process has been plagued with some challenges that need to be addressed going forward.

The first day of the registration exercise this year began on a rather bustling note as thousands of the service persons thronged regional registration centres to carry out the exercise.

The exercise in the Greater Accra Region, in particular, was characterised by hustle and bustle as the registrants battled for space in the long queues that were formed on the premises of most of the registration centres.

The police personnel detailed to maintain law and order were given a run for their money as the registrants kept them on their feet.

There were allegations of brutality meted out to some prospective service persons by a military officer at the Ghana Military Police Club House 77 Centre at the El Wak Stadium, where registration was ongoing for the Ledzokuku Krowor and La Dade Kotopon Municipal assemblies.

A video that went viral on social media on Monday, July 24, 2017, the first day of the exercise, suggested that a military officer physically abused some prospective service persons who gathered at the military facility to register for their national service.

In the video, the military officer is spotted hitting some of the registrants with a stick in a bid to maintain order. One of them reportedly sustained injury as a result while others ran helter-skelter.
This singular act incurred the wrath of the public who chastised the military officers and the management of NSS for the brutality.

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Rejection

Even before the dust could settle on that unfortunate incident, there were reports that some user agencies were turning away prospective service persons.

One of the key reasons why the service persons were turned away is that the user agencies received more than the number of service persons they needed. Others were also rejected because the institutions held that their courses did not correspond with the services they offered.

While user agencies in the private sector were the most visible on the accused bench of institutions that rejected the prospective service persons on the above premises, some state agencies and institutions were also heavily represented.

Mention could be made of state agencies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, the Ghana Cocoa Board, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, (GNPC) and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) in that direction.

The question that immediately begged for answers when these rejections popped up was whether the management of the NSS did due diligence before posting the service persons to the user agencies.

“The issue is that most of the user agencies in the private sector made request for service persons based on their budget before the NSS personnel allowances were increased from GH¢350 to GH¢ 559.06.

This increase in the allowance has affected their budget, but they did not write back to the NSS to reduce the number they requested for.

“Also, some institutions made requests for specific service personnel either because they had sponsored them or have some engagements with them but these requests came late. Such institutions turn down some service personnel and want the scheme to post the personnel they requested to them,” the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the scheme, Mr Ambrose Entsiwah, said in an interview.

Way forward

Discussions on the traumatic experiences national service persons go through in the registration process over the years are fast becoming the norm.

It is about time some reforms are introduced by the management of the scheme to make the registration less cumbersome.

The long queues, jostles, hustle and bustles that characterise the registration can be avoided if online registration and other modern technologies are adopted to facilitate the process, save time, energy and cost.

The situation where prospective service persons travel long distances to regional offices of the scheme to commence the registration process ought to be looked at again. It should be possible to decentralise the entire registration process to the district offices of the scheme.

This calls for adequate resourcing of the scheme, especially in terms of the biometric devices, human resource and other logistics.The long-term benefits of these investment far outweighs the demerits.

The situation where prospective service persons are turned away by user agencies, especially as was the case this year, can be avoided as well. More diligence and updating of statistics as to the vacancies available at the user agencies are key conditions to minimising this tendency.

Some of the service persons were allegedly turned away by user agencies because their skill sets were parallel to the services they offer.The explanation that has been given by the NSS management to the effect that the exercise is meant to expose people to new paradigms is good.

Apart from the fact that it has the potential to bridge the human resource gap across sectors, it also narrows the gap between urban and rural areas. However, to every rule, there ought to be exceptions.

There are some institutions or entities that provide technical services and require specific skill sets. To prevent the situation where service persons are turned away, these dynamics should be given a second look.

Conclusion

It is important for the public to know that national service is supposed to be a period of rendering dedicated service to the country in the capacities that are deemed relevant by the scheme.

It is not a period to stay in one's comfort zone, neither is it a period to make money. Therefore, the clamour for specific user agencies that are perceived to be lucrative areas ought to be looked at.

Writer's email: ngnenbetimothy@gmail.com