One of Ghana’s many opposition parties, the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP), has challenged the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to set its priorities right, by pressuring government to stabilize the Ghanaian cedi, instead of annual demands for pay increases.
In a statement released on the occasion of the May Day celebration, Kofi Asamoah–Siaw, secretary to the PPP said: “The labor front is troubled with many agitations over salary adjustments and untoward hardships that are certainly not the making of the Ghanaian worker; but due to bad governance and its attendant draconian economic policies. The effects of these policies have dire consequences on Ghanaian workers most of whom are parents.”
Kofi Asamoah–Siaw later spoke to Citi FM and said constant TUC demands for daily minimum wage increases will always be unproductive in an environment of high inflation, corruption and widespread mismanagement of the nation’s abundant natural resources.
“Instead of asking for minimum wage, they [TUC] should be asking for an end to corruption and people not managing our economies well, to the extent that our cedi is devaluing every single day,” Mr. Asamoah–Siaw said. “These are the things we want the TUC to consider when celebrating May Day.”
The PPP National Secretary added, “Many great inventions had been [achieved] out of anger; not the type of anger that calls for disorder and disturbances, but an anger that should set you seething for absolute change and transformation on the political front.”
Kofi Asamoah-Siaw congratulated all Ghanaian workers on the occasion of the May Day, saying “we celebrate and admire your resilience; we say Ayekoo to you gallant workers of Ghana.”
Every year, 1st May is celebrated in many countries, including Ghana, as an international day honouring workers.
On Thursday, thousands of Ghanaian workers gathered at the Independence Square in Accra, to mark the 2014 National May Day under the theme “Ghana’s economy: A concern for all.”
Speaking at the function, Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress, Kofi Asamoah asked President John Dramani Mahama to put a lot more effort in fixing the West Africa nation’s economy rather than just rely on International Monetary Fund polices and a neo-liberal market regime as the anchor of Ghana’s economic governance.
He said the Mahama government has returned to what he called the “comfort zone” of IMF policies.
Addressing the same ceremony, President Mahama said the national economy is recovering and that a great future awaits citizens.
“This year is a turn-around year for Ghana and I am positive that the Ghanaian economy will show strong signs of recovery by the end of this fiscal year,” he said.
The President said measures introduced by his government to arrest the nation’s economic decline have so far produced positive results. “I assure you my countrymen and women that these measures are achieving the desired effect and the economy is gradually responding,” he said.
“We are committed to plugging loopholes in our revenue systems and will carry out the reforms in our revenue administration to ensure sustainable economic growth,” he added. “In the next few will initiate a massive payroll audit with the view to eliminating the pervasive ghost names and ensuring that these ghosts die a permanent death and resurrect no more.”
Afiba Anyanzua Anyanzu/citifmonline.com