Coalition Of Youth For Positive National Development (CYPOND) ?has registered its?disappointment at the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG) for the union?s overt show of no commitment and fortitude to the course of national development.
According to CYPOND, they feel sad to realize that a formidable bloc in our educational development like POTAG will resort to such an unpopular and uncompromising stand ostensibly to push government into heeding their demand for the restoration of the defunct book and research allowance which has been scrapped off and replaced by a more result oriented, formidable and all encompassing scheme named the National Research Fund.
“Ladies and gentlemen, for about four weeks running now, POTAG has resorted to a nationwide strike action as their perceived conduit to meeting their demand. Obviously, the repercussions of this academic time lost are onerous, mind rollicking and leaves us with a choice of asking very pertinent questions as to whether some of these unnecessary labour strives take cognizance of pledges that we ?individually as Ghanaians have made, pledging ourselves to the ?service of Ghana, with all our strength and with all our hearts? and even to hold in high esteem the heritage of sacrifice, good will, selflessness, patriotism and nationhood that was won for us through the blood and toil of our patriarchs who put aside their individual pleasures and interest for us to come thus far as a nation.”
This was put across at a press conference in Wa.?CYPOND said, it ?appreciates the value of persistent research as it aids in making new discoveries and broadens the horizon of knowledge that we have about both the physical and social world. We also agree that it is in the right place for government to aid lecturers, tutors, students and indeed, all players in the field of academia to enhance their knowledge through research.
“It is on this premise that we find it plausible that government has decided to institute the National Research Fund to replace the research and book allowance which was been accessed by a marginal number of the research population in Ghana. We think the national research fund will be a more prudent way of getting many more people supported to do more discoveries in academia through research. We also think this fund is more appropriate because it shall provide enough resources to support more research than the peanuts that book and research allowances used to be made of. We are therefore amazed that some players in academia are kicking against such a beautiful policy that obviously will benefit majority of Ghanaians.”
“Fellow Ghanaians, many times, we are quick at juxtaposing our Nation?s development challenges with the development successes chalked by the Nation?s such as Malaysia, Singapore, China and many other newly industrialized Nations that started their course of development from the same pedestal as our nation, yet have developed more than us. In these times we blame the bane to our under development on the scarcity of innovative and committed leaders, but CYPOND without mincing words finds the lacuna? in our under development to be deeply rooted in our greed, apathy, lack of commitment and our selfish attitude of always remaining self centered and inward looking,” they noted.
Malaysia and the other Asian Tigers, CYPOND averred, ?have appreciative development stories today because their citizens and all other stake holders that mattered in propelling their engine of development were ready to cooperate with their governments and made compromises when the need arose to get them sailing currently in where they are as much as development is concerned. “They demonstrated patriotism, hard work and good will towards the state. They made bitter sacrifices and have always unanimously priotised their national interest against any group interest.”
“Knowing that their strike is unwarranted, frivolous, vexatious and without any iota of merit, we are incensed to believing that some elements within POTAG may be surreptitiously engineering this agitation for their own whims and caprices but to the peril of polytechnic education, the entire nation and particularly the innocent students at the various polytechnics who are the direct sufferers of this act of irresponsibility.”
CYPOND think that as a nation, we have come to a stage that various labour unions, especially public sector employees appreciate that, the benefits that accrue from our collective toil as citizens of this country should be equitably distributed among all citizens and not just channeling into the payment of salaries and emoluments.
“It is nauseating to realize that, about 50% of our GDP goes down the drain as salaries and emoluments to public sector workers alone who unfortunately don?t even sum up to 10% of our total population in this country. Yet, wanton demands are being heaped on government to increase salaries and other fringe benefits without due consideration to the infrastructural deficit in the country.”
