Information indicates that government will from 2014 halt the payment of allowances to nursing trainees across the country. The allowance given to the trainees forms part of incentives to attract more health workers in the country. The withdrawal comes amidst agitations from teacher trainees who have also had their allowances withdrawn. Reference; http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=296298&comment=0#com;

source at the Ghana Registered Nurses Association, the mother union of nurses in Ghana, who confirmed this to Citi News, said the profession will be affected gravelly if government goes ahead with the decision. Predictably, in the same way the teaching profession is going to be affected.

How sad to observe that everything is turning into a disaster under Presidents John Mills and John Mahama. These NDC champions have nothing to offer Ghanaians apart from misery, poverty, mediocre and counterfeit administrations. With their infamous and despicable policies, with the cutting down of the teachers and nurses allowance, Ghana is clearly on the road beyond the repugnant stagnation phase. Ghana is rather being ushered into the phase of economic and developmental dissipation in a rather asymptotic manner by the inept NDC/Mahama administration.

It is very poignant and unbelievable because Ghana is in the hands of John Mahama who has been around the top echelons of NDC administrations since 1992. He has been a Member of Parliament for 16 years, a Deputy Minister, a Minister, a Vice President with responsibility for Government Economic Management team, and eventually the President within the period. The Vice President, Amissah Aidoo has been in the PNDC and NDC corridors of power since 1979, that is, 33 years as Deputy Secretary/Minister of Economics, Governor of the Bank of Ghana and now as Vice President also in charge of Ghana Economic Management team. At the same time Hon Seth Tekper has had stint as Deputy Finance Minister for 4 years before he was appointed as the incumbent Finance Minister.

With the solid background as indicated, it is a surprise that the triumvirate has been stinking, disappointing and embarrassingly inadequate. They were around when they supported late Professor Mills to start the implementation of SSSS by pushing the Military and Police into the heavens on the salary scale - to taunt and show the NPP that they cared for the Security, prior to the last Presidential elections. As other workers in the civil service were being migrated into the SSSS, it has now dawned on them that 70% of revenue is servicing salaries monthly and Ghana’s economy is clearly heading towards decimation. Shamelessly, they now want to put the blame on NPP that it was the latter which brought the whole idea of SSSS.

The question can conveniently be asked that; where were the minds of the triumvirate when SSSS implementation started? Did they not do projections in the 2011, 2012 and 2013 budgets? They have the experience. They have the youth. They have the sophisticated statistical and economical minds to do forecasts. It is clear that they failed woefully even with their so called experience and long service. Fifi Kwetey hate- filled tauntish blah, blah, blah could not help either.

Then out of the blue they hit on the mad idea that to reduce government expenditure of servicing salaries and allowances, the progressive and agelong allowances of teacher and health worker trainees should be withdrawn without reference to its obvious impact on Ghana overall growth that; the teaching and nursing professions will be affected gravelly in the long run. But President Mahama and his top administrators are insensitive. They don’t care. President Mahama is just playing lazy and not doing strategic and forward looking thinking. He is just wasting everybody’s time with his cluelessly languid mind and easy going posture.

The military whose real role in this democracy is bogus and useless are rather enjoying fat fat allowances and salaries. The military is just parading around with no primary specific role. They are still enjoying counterfeit honour. Their current foreign peacekeeping duties which have become a new order are just an afterthought just to let them feel important. Are we going to buy out the military loyalty with relatively unbearably excessive allowances and salaries? For how long can the nation sustain this?

Military sergeants and lieutenants take home more than Principal Doctors and nurses. And President Mahama still wants to withdraw completely the latter’s meagre allowances. The military;, the nurses; the teachers; --- who should be encouraged in our modern development? The military are being pampered. They are a fetish group. They are fakes and counterfeits in our present economic, political and developmental spectrum. I expect President Mahama to look at Ghana’s overall democratic future and deemphasize the large and wasteful military by cutting their number to just around 5,000 and rather emphasize on the police whose number must be doubled. Another pragmatic way is rather to reduce their allowances and salaries to balance the budget.

The other day, Dr. Richard Amoako Baah, Senior Lecturer and Head of the political science department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) observed that:- the quantum leap in the salaries of Police Officers is what triggered other labour unions to begin clamouring for their migration onto the single spine salary structure. Dr. Amoako Baah said since the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure, the salary of some high level public sector workers has “doubled” and in some cases, such as that of the Police and military, increased by as much 1000%. He advised a cut down in the military salary. President Mahama must leave the teachers and nurses alone.

John Yawose