Public holidays impeding productivity - Ace Ankomah
A legal Practitioner, Mr Ace Ankomah, has called for a drastic reduction of the number of public holidays in the country, explaining that the current system where almost every landmark day is observed as a public holiday was disingenuous to national development.
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Given that productivity is virtually grounded on every public holiday, Mr Ankomah said the more public holidays the country observed, the lesser productive it became, hence the need to reduce them to help spur up development.
Some we can merge and others too we can scrap or remove from our calendar. An example is the African Union day,” he said on the weekly motivational talk show, the Springboard on Joy FM.
He mentioned the Farmers Day and May Day as two public holidays that could be merged but still serve the same purpose as help celebrating farmers and workers to toll to build teh nation.
Mr Ankomah also explained that the AU Day and Founders Day could be observed but not neccessarily be made public holidays.
My ideal Ghana
An ideal society, they say is often based on sy landmark day is observedstems and structures in place to ensure society works to the benefit of the citizenry.
However, in our part of the world the systems and structures that are supposed to be laid to ensure that society functions smoothly and swiftly is still a mirage in the minds of many dreamers.
On the Springboard, the two experts noted that until the citizenry shaped the current condition in the country, “we are on the journey of nowhere”.
They appeared on the June 5 edition of the show and spoke on the “10 critical success factors of national development” as part of a series christined, “My Ideal Ghana series”.
New Ghanaian
“It is very important for the country to establish a public leadership training institute for all public leaders where nobody can go into public service without going through that training,”Dr Ansah said on the show, hosted by Rev Albert Ocran.
She opined that it would have been better for the country to be an industrial power house, not just for importing but manufacturing goods to the society.
“Education and literacy, in fact the key words for me is career choices and career planning,” she said.
Another factor she cited was a clean environment with lots of options for indoor and outdoor recreation. It is also critical for the country to have a rationalised road network, rail and road grids across the country.
Mr Ankomah, for his part, said “my number one is a new Ghanaian; someone who is moved from being a conformist to a transforming person.”
The legal practitioner explained that the baby who would be born tomorrow would have a job by 30 years, and would also be able to pay the school fees of their wards and during that period society will be well established through education that he or she would be able to pay for the kids to go to school.
“I also want small government. With this, I’m not saying the size of ministers must reduce but rather the powers of a huge government must be reduced to size and also shrink both the public and private service to size,” he said.
He said it was important for the government to be restricted to governance instead of giving it the freedom to compete with businesses in terms of borrowing and lending.
Ace believes the government was so huge that it did not leave room for private growth. For instance, because the government borrows at 26 per cent interest rate, private business are also charged the same or higher rates.
“We need to bring in a system of proportional representatives in Parliament, if you look at the proposals for the 1992 Constitution, the people who did the proposal suggested a half and half situation, where half Parliamentarian are elected directly and the other half are brought in through propositional representation,” he explained.
Shared ideas
Touching on the critical success factors of a national development, the legal practitioner again wished for a training institution to be established for public leaders.
Dr Ansah, on this score, cited the scraping of public holiday as one of the most important critical success factors to national development.
“For me, I teach but depending on which day it is on a particular week you might lose about three days out of a week, just because of a string of holidays. But elsewhere in the world holidays are when people open their shops and real business take place,” Dr Ansah, a lecturer at the Ashesi University, said.
She also espoused the new Ghanaian concept, describing it as the new mindset and once it started from the mindset everything else was sorted efficiently.
Public sector
Dr Ansah also stated that a public sector which was top performing hired the very best and paid them very well comparable to other sectors as a critical success factor for national development.
There should also be all-week round water supply as well as electricity and a toilet facilities,” she noted.
“The lecturer suggested that there should also be well resource hospitals in the country where politicians and the ordinary citizens could access medical services.”
According to her, there should also be a civil society that was vibrant that could be able to keep society on its toes.
“In my ideal Ghana, I will ensure corruption is banned totally to ensure that society function to the highest level,” she added.
Vibrant third party
Mr Ankomah said it was also important for the country to have a vibrant and viable third political party, saying the two parties, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), were evenly matched that they did not exceed 40 per cent during general elections, therefore a third party was needed.
He noted that the country need an idiot-prove-system of governance headed by men and women with spine.
He explained that the system was well-structured that if an idiot was appointed to head a position it would still work, because systems and structures were working.
“Can we become a little aggressive as a people, I think we are too deferring, laid back and we often respect titles too much. If we begin to demand a little bit more, things will begin to change,” he indicated.
Mr Ankomah said it was also crucial for the country to make law breaking very painful. — GB