[ 2017-05-02 ]

Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah, Secretary General of TUC

TUC blames past governments for workers’ poor economic condition
The Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress
(TUC) Ghana, Dr Yaw Baah, has faulted successive
governments for doing little to better the
economic condition of Ghanaian workers.

According to him, the prevailing economic
circumstances in the country do not commensurate
with the long held status of the country as the
beacon of peace and democracy on the African
continent.

Addressing workers at the Independence Square in
Accra yesterday to mark this year’s ‘May
Day’ celebrations, Dr Baah said “the socio
economic challenges facing Ghana today is an
indicator of this failure.”

He said after seven successful national elections,
the stability ought to have translated into
conducive economic environment to propel citizens
from the quagmire of poverty.

“As a nation, we have done well in nurturing our
democracy to this point. We have kept ourselves
together as a nation. In spite of our challenges,
we are still the model of democracy in Africa but
the bitter truth is that, we have failed in
economic management.

“Joblessness among the youth remains the
greatest challenge facing Ghana in spite of our
enormous wealth. After 60 years of independence, a
significant number of Ghanaians cannot afford
houses and education for their children,” he
said.

In his view many Ghanaians were unable to afford
basic health care, either because of unavailable
facilities or financial reasons forcing them to
rely on orthodox medicine even when there is a
clear need to consult health care professionals.

To him, it was becoming a curse to grow old in
Ghana because the country is unable to take care
of its aged population and “our compatriots with
disabilities have to beg on the streets of Accra
and other cities to survive.”

Communities, Dr Baah said, feel insecure because
of armed robbery because they knew the law
enforcers will not respond to their emergency
calls on time partly because there is one police
officer to every 1,000 Ghanaians when the United
Nations’ standard ratio was one police officer
to 500 people.

Prisoners, in the view of the TUC boss, live in
conditions that are considered “unfit even for
animals; our roads are comparable to war zones
because many Ghanaians die on these roads
everyday.”

It was a shame for many Ghanaian children to go to
bed without food daily, Dr Baah said adding that
many of them were unable to celebrate their fifth
birthdays with many more forced into child labour
under hazardous conditions so as to fend for
themselves and their families.

The above ‘failures,’ he said should not be
the future of a very worthy country like Ghana
after 60 years, of independence. “Clearly, we
have mismanaged our economy.”

He said the country chose a certain path which had
led it to where it finds itself adding that
“this is not where Ghana should be given our
massive natural resources. Ghana has no reason to
be counted among poor countries.

“What happened to the billions of dollars we
receive from our gold, our diamonds, our
manganese, our timber, our cocoa in the last 60
years? What happened to the billions of dollars we
generate from taxes, what happened to the billions
of dollars we have received from donors? What
happened to the billions of dollars we receive
from external and domestic loans?”

Many Ghanaians, Dr Baah said have lost hope in the
future for they do not know what to expect in the
future but is never too late to develop.

“We now have the opportunity to chart another
path that will lead us away from poverty to a path
that will lead us to a great future full of hope
and prosperity for ourselves, our children and our
children’s children.”

To achieve these, he said organised labour was
counting on the President, Nana Addo Dankwa
Akufo-Addo to lead it into the future every
Ghanaian wished and hoped for.

Organised labour, he said was of the conviction
that President Akufo-Addo could lead “us out of
poverty and restore hope to all Ghanaians by
revatalising all sectors of the economy,” and
pledged the support of organised labour in that
respect.

Source - ghanaiantimes.com.gh

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