The Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye has bemoaned the contradictory attitude of the Ghanaian which has become a bane to the country’s developmental efforts.
He stated that Ghanaians know the right things to be done in order to propel the country towards the path of development but do the contrary and still expects to see meaningful changes in society.
“I think we have been living a life of contradiction, we want to develop, yet we don’t want to go by the rules of development, we won’t unless we change our ways” he said.
The Speaker said this when an advocacy group, Punctuality Ghana Foundation paid a courtesy call on him in Parliament house in Accra.
The Speaker cautioned against what he described as the Ostrich behavior of some citizens emphasizing that if Ghanaians do not change their attitudes and continue in this current state of affairs of business as usual, the nation would not witness any meaningful development.
He asked all Ghanaians to ask themselves one critical question as to whether they really want the country to develop, and if indeed Ghana should develop, there is an urgent need for a paradigm shift towards a new way of doing things in the country.
“What we are doing now, we know we can’t develop, you know, he knows, she knows or can we” the Speaker queried.
According to the number three (3) gentleman of the land other countries have been able to develop as a result of discipline and a positive attitude to work.
He took a swipe at workers who constantly absent themselves from work in the name of funerals, those who linger about aimlessly during working hours and yet expects to be paid at the end of the month describing them as malingerers.
This negative attitude especially in the public sector he said has a negative effect on the country’s productivity.
The former two-term Member of Parliament for the Dome/Kwabenya constituency called for stiffer punishment to be meted out to wrong doers in society to ensure adherence to law and order.
“Let punishment flow to let people conform or perish’’ he said.
The Speaker also expressed worry over what he refer to as unnecessary covering up for people who are wrong doers in society saying “we love wrong doers” by always finding ways to intervene after they offended the law, a situation he noted, makes it difficult for the laws of the land to work.
“We cover up for people unnecessary, in fact we love wrong doers, because wrong doers often have people who will always cover for them’’ he said.
The speaker urged all stakeholders to help fixed what he described as ‘a systematic problem’, where everybody is prepared to obey rules to allow for development.
The founder of the Punctuality Ghana Foundation, Emmanuel Amarquaye said the campaign is in respond to President Akufo Addo’s call for citizens to be time conscious.
He expressed worry about the many hours spent in traffic just to go to work during rush hours and suggested the need to consider fixable working periods to enhance service delivery at all time.
The punctuality crusader stated his displeasure about the continues halt in government business as a result of transition from one government to the other with its negative impact on productivity.
He proposed a situation where it is possible for service providers such as the utilities companies to have flexible working hours in order to deliver a 24 hour service to the public without contesting for time in traffic.
“The utility companies do not necessary have contest with when going to work. They can go to work at 10am and close at 8pm’’ he suggested.
By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com
