What was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration by nurses to press home their demand for unpaid salary was turned into an arena of who can throw invectives at the Minister of Health, Mintah Akandoh, the most.
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Let me state that, on a normal occasion, Nurses ought not to have worked a month without salary. The work they do is delicate and life-saving so if nurses are owed salaries for months, it is unacceptable, to say the least. The problem of unpaid salaries was not caused by the Mahama government. But as we all know, government is a continuum, and when you takeover the reigns of governance, you inherit both assets and liabilities.
I am not seeking to hold brief for Mintah Akandoh but he took over a ministry that was saddled with a lot of challenges. Given the mess the Akufo Addo/Bawumia government caused, it was expected there would be labour unrest in the first year of the Mahama government.
When the nurses unpaid salaries issue came up, Mintah Akandoh did not say his government did not cause it so he won’t do anything about it. The Minister’s own account indicated that he had taken steps to table this before the Finance Ministry for financial clearance to pay the nurses. Suffice to add that, some of the nurses had already been paid before the protest. It was just a matter of time and all of them would have been sorted.
When the Minister stepped forward to meet the protesting nurses, the best some of them did was to insult him. In the face of the insult, Akandoh maintained his composure and gently addressed them. One of the nurses who took Akandoh to the cleaners, made a job-dropping revelation that set the NDC apart from the NPP.
According to the lady, when she confronted her MP, Bantama’s Aseno Boakye, at the time the NPP was in government, over their unpaid salary, he told her in the face that she should tell her colleagues that if because of the unpaid salary they would vote against NPP, then they should go ahead. This is the highest form of arrogance of power!
Hon Akandoh could have also hit them hard by saying they should go to those who created the mess for payment but he did none of that. He rather pleaded and assured them of his commitment to see to it that they are all paid. May be, Akandoh was too nice with the nurses and stakeholders in the health sector. Since he takeover that Ministry, it has been one disrespect to another without any retaliation from him.
May God continue to grant him that composure to contain all the unwarranted attacks from people he is doing everything possible to make them comfortable!
By: Amose Blessing Amorse, Greater Accra NDC Youth Organizer
