GNAT – A Fly in Our Porridge

Ghana is at the crossroads of a very critical time of growth with an index much better than many countries equally ravaged by the pandemic.

The industrialization, digitalisation, education, and agriculture sectors have seen a boom unprecedented since the first republic. Liken it, if you will, to a boxing match where we, the “David” of this era, have come up against, “Goliath”, the pandemic. David has dazed Goliath, and Goliath has dazed David. If we continue along the trend that we are on with the pettiness of strikes and the rasps of vultures hovering around the battleground waiting for one of the boxers to succumb in order to claim their meal, then they will certainly have a feast. Let us say the Feast of the Vultures will not endure for long because the Ghana Association of Teachers have developed beaks sharp enough to rip justice and camouflage malevolence!

What is quite unfathomable is the fact that at the peak of the pandemic when schools were shut down, teachers were getting paid a full salary as they sat at home and picked their teeth after each heavy meal made possible by the incessant income that kept on coming courtesy president Akufo-Addo’s love for Ghanaians. They, also, enjoyed the icing on the cake by getting free water and electricity. Even in the United States of America, teachers did not get a full salary let alone free utilities. They received a rather meager compensation of 25% to keep them going. Here in Ghana, a third world country doing marvelously well under Nana Akufo-Addo, GNAT and its members rather got pampered. They received crash courses in online teaching because until then all they knew was to post scandalous videos and pictures like the “stool performing headmaster”!

Under the current circumstances, unforeseen and tsunamic, these teachers have the nerve to strike for better pay conditions when the nation is struggling to remain on her feet despite the debilitating pressure of covid-19 and the ravaging war in Ukraine. How insensitive and unpatriotic. Their strike smacks of inconspicuous treason if you ask me!

Some of the teachers cannot tell the difference between “sion”, “tion”, and “chen”. They mispronounce session as “sextion” and cannot understand that the word “spell” also refers to the effects of their witchcraft on society.

At this crucial time of BECE mock examinations across the country, their strike cannot be seen as a mere insurrection against a status quo. So many inferences may be read into their actions, but the most probable and widely understood indication is that they are acting out an agenda to frustrate President Akufo-Addo’s efforts at building a robust education sector and playing politics with the fiscal issues to suit the opposition. Otherwise, how would this timing be a “stand up for your rights campaign” when the rights of children and their future are now ransom in their hands. They seem to use the plight of Ghanaian children, especially the BECE students, and their worried parents as a trump card to bring to the negotiation table.

Shame on Gnat, the honey bee turned despicable fly that has dropped into our porridge. Guess what, we shall throw away this dirty fly, and still drink our porridge, irrespective!

I advise government to take them on at the courts and injunct their evil agenda so that it does not infect the pollination of our exponential growth, one that continues to grow despite the challenges and whatever IMF considerations there are at all!

By Fadi Dabbousi