The challenges of our time look quite unsurmountable.

This piece of information will hit many Ghanaians like a thunderbolt. This is because while many of them think that public sector workers are better off today, a section of the workers think that they have been short-changed in the determination of the pay policy.

About two weeks ago, doctors partially withdrew their services and pharmacists threatened the withdrawal of their services in protest against the delay in the implementation of certain aspects of the new pay policy.

Since the government came up with the road map for the implementation of the SSPP, there has been agitation on the labour front. Industrial harmony has been disturbed by the pockets of industrial actions in the public sector.

In many public sector organisations, workers pretend to be working, even in this era of the SSPP. For sections of such workers, they report for work every day as a matter of routine and not because they have a contribution to make to nation building.

More often than not, Ghanaians point accusing fingers at their leaders for the difficulties that confront them in the discharge of their daily duties, without accepting blame for the problems that have engulfed us, although it must be admitted that our leaders ought to provide the needed leadership.

The Daily Graphic points out that until all Ghanaians put their hands to the wheel, the country will make very little progress. The so-called advanced countries achieved greatness through their own initiatives. We have said that this is not an occasion to preach autarky by which we close our doors to the outside world, so that we can rely on our own resources to rebuild.

We live in an inter-dependent world where we ought to tap into the resources of others in a win-win situation to develop. The practice by which we depend mostly on imported items, to the detriment of our own, does not inure to the benefit of anybody. At best we may be providing the conducive environment for foreigners to grow their economy. It is basically because of our inability to expand the local economy that we have not been able to generate more resources to cater for our needs.

We want all Ghanaians to be serious about the way forward because the situation is alarming. The President said in Parliament yesterday, “The rate of growth of the wage bill has reached a point where they are squeezing out critical investments in the budgetary allocation of goods and services and capital expenditure.”

But before the dust settles on the President’s speech, the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called for a meeting between the government and employers to determine a new national daily minimum wage for 2013.

It cited the high cost of living and hardships imposed on workers as a result of increases in fuel prices as the reason for the request.

To all intents and purposes, this year will be a difficult one. The government’s budget will be under severe constraint, while working people and others who depend on the government payroll will demand more, thereby stretching the capabilities of the state to provide for our needs.

This year should also be a period for sacrifices in order to sustain the health of the economy, as well as the peace and stability of the country.

The Daily Graphic hopes that the sacrifices will not be made by only ordinary people but all our leaders, including the President, whose emoluments are a charge on the taxpayer’s purse. That way, society’s burden will be shared by all.