The Chief Scribe of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia says the admonishing by President Nana Akufo-Addo to Ghanaian workers would be like a preaching by a pastor if not backed by strong policies and systems to address them.
President Akufo-Addo in his speech said: “If we are going to make the changes we all want, then we have to start with a change in attitude to work. Government is ready to do its part and I am counting on you Secretary General to lead the campaign for a change in attitude to work and increase in productivity.”
“I have said it at another forum, but I think it bears repeating: we arrive at work late and then spend the first hour in prayer; we are clock watchers and leave in the middle of critical work, because it is the official closing time. Everything comes to a stop when it rains and we seem to expect the rest of the world also to stop,” the President said. He continued, “We have no respect for the hours set aside for work… we pray, we eat, we visit during working hours.
We spend hours chatting on the telephone when customers are waiting to be served, thereby increasing our labour costs. We take a week off for every funeral. And then we wonder why we are not competitive.”
“There is the petty stealing of paper, envelopes, tea, milk and other equipment. There is the reckless use of office vehicles. Employees show no inclination to protecting the things that are in the offices and factories and extreme reluctance to stand up for what we know to be right in our workplaces in general,” he added.
But commenting on the speech by Nana Addo on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm, Mr. Nketia indicated that, there is a difference between a pastoral job or a pastor preaching and a president of a republic.
A pastor preachers whereas a president rolls out policies to solve challenges of his country.
An admonition without policy is only an advice. It was good for him to make the admonition but beyond that, he should back it with policies to make workers productive.
According to him, we should have strong systems that will ensure productivity in our various institutions.
”Without the systems we cannot achieve our goals. It was good for him to admonish workers but beyond that, what next? If we don’t do what is necessary and keep on admonishing people, it will be like a pastor preaching and the preaching started in Nkrumah’s era yet we have not seen people change,” he added.
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