NDC lacks governing skills - Sekou Nkrumah
The controversial son of Ghana's first President, Dr. Sekou Nkrumah, has stated that the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) lacks the organisational ability to accelerate Ghana’s development.
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He said in recent years, the party had proved that it had the campaign machinery to effectively win elections but performed abysmally when it came to governance.
Dr. Nkrumah was commenting on the government’s inability to address the wage distortions affecting doctors following their migration onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
The striking doctors were attending to emergency and inpatient cases but had, at the time of the interview, suspended all outpatient services and threatened to withdraw services across the board if the government did not provide a lasting solution to their grievances.
They have since put their strike on hold following a promising ruling by the National Labour Commission (NLC) that ordered the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to hammer out a plan with doctors to pay them the money they are owed.
The strike brought about many inconveniences, particularly for patients who were turned away from government health facilities.
On Asempa FM’s ‘Ekosii Sen’ programme on Tuesday, Dr Nkrumah said he was not surprised at the government’s inability to solve the problem.
He insisted that a solution to the wage problem was long overdue, adding that the government should proactively seek to resolve those kinds of disputes.
He also called on President John Mahama to intervene, describing the matter as a sensitive one that could lead to loss of lives.
Dr. Nkrumah stated that there was no justification for the government’s failure to address the issue, especially since doctors had been agitating for the past four years.
He blamed the government for the strike and urged it to quickly find an amicable solution to the looming crisis.
The Managing Editor of the Al-Hajj newspaper, Alhaji Bature Iddrisu, disagreed with Dr Nkrumah’s assertions, arguing that the doctors’ decision to go on strike was unreasonable and insensitive, given that the current administration had not been in power for three months.
The NDC sympathiser explained that since President Mahama was yet to assemble his Cabinet, the strike was unwarranted and unnecessary.
“Would the doctors have gone on strike if Nana Akufo-Addo had won the elections?” he quizzed.
He claimed that the doctors were doing the nation a great disservice and called on them to end the strike.
