Intelligence picked up by the Daily Post indicates that the driving force behind the many labour agitations and strikes that has plagued the country in recent times is the huge sums of money that the opposition NPP has doled out to people in the leadership of the various labour groups to get them lead labour agitations against the government and make President John Mahama look incompetent in the eyes of the public.
Last week saw teachers in the country ending days of strike actions undermining the country’s educational system as students were then just set to write their BECE examination. Even before the dust would settle on that strike action, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) also embarked on strike together with pharmacists, effectively crippling the various government hospitals across the country.
To worsen matters, the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and the Judiciary Service Workers have indicated their resolve to embark on strike action unless their demands are met by government.
As spelt out, the main aim of these strikes is to stir up sentiments against the Mahama administration and portray the president as incompetent and wicked. For instance, patients who go to hospital only to realize that doctors are on strike because government has not given them money they are demanding will naturally be angry with the government whether the demands of the doctors are justified or not.
An NPP source in the top echelon of the party confirmed to this paper that some in the leadership of the striking doctors, pharmacists and teachers have been given huge sums of money ranging from GHS 30,000 to GHS65,000 per person and tasked to ensure that they take an uncompromising stand when negotiating with government with the ultimate aim of ensuring the negotiation collapse and workers resorting to strike actions.
According to the insider, the plan has not been difficult to execute because the NPP, over the years, ensured that its supporters, members and sympathizers get elected into the leadership positions of the various identifiable labour group.
Per the plan, as soon as government manages to talk one labour group out of their strike action, another will embark on one with others waiting to have their turn. With these series of strikes, even the most ardent supporter of the President will be forced to come to the conclusion that he is not fit for the job.
Embittered at the rejection of Nana Akufo-Addo at the polls last December, members of his inner cabal, popularly called the Kyebi Mafia, according to the source are ready to sink millions of Ghana cedis into their invidious plan to make sure it succeeds so that ultimately, President Mahama will be removed from power by any means possible.
The latest edition of the Africanwatch magazine quotes a cousin of Nana Akufo-Addo, in an email to a friend in New York, U.S.A talked about activating the “back burner” strategy of getting the outside world to listen to their grievances.
He writes; “The truth is the country is not showing enough anger…isn’t it a serious indictment that we have not been able to mobilize thousands of people onto the streets? Are we not going to feed on the current anger?”
At the second of the William Ofori-Atta (Paa Willie) Institute for Integrity lectures at the British Council Hall on March 12, 2013, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Chairman of Databank Group, a cousin to Nana Akufo-Addo and a key member of the Kyebi Mafia virtually called for civil disobedience in the country regardless of its implication on national security and stability. Expressing dismay that the “the country is ominously quiet,” he lamented that Ghanaians do not want to “rock the boat” and virtually called for the kind of militancy that led to the violent overthrow of the SMC government in 1979.
With millions of Ghana cedis devoted to this “project” and with man’s insatiable needs and greed, it will take much more for the Mahama Administration to bring to an end the numerous labour agitations.