Public Holidays

I woke up not feeling too well because my projected plan for today, Monday the 7^th of January, 2013 has backfired and I needed to go out to hustle. I found myself bickering with and cussing the ministry of Interior for not declaring today and also being Monday, a public holiday.

One would have expected that a national event of this magnitude should be given the prominence it deserved but it never turned out so. I had to backtrack to find out if the previous ones were declared as such but I could not find anything in my medulla oblongata and I was not ready to consult our modern oracle; Google. Thus I had to resort to the fact that, the 7^th of January, 2013, the day the fourth President of the fourth republic of our dear nation, Ghana, was sworn into office was not a public holiday and business activities were as brisk as before.

I know many people felt bad about the fact that, they will have to wade through the traffic jams that characterizes Monday mornings and a typical national event day such as the swearing-in of the President-elect, John Dramani Mahama, but they had no choice than to do the usual; wake up and join the bandwagon who are poised to the nation building mantra or agenda.

I was grumbling through my meditation until it dawned on me why I was feeling so down about the Ministry’s inability to declare such a day as a holiday and I know most people felt the same way too.

We’ve had issues with public holiday’s in Ghana to the extent that, it is convenient to say the average Ghanaian is lazy, as if he arrogates the holidays to himself. The Ghanaian like any other responsible citizen only carries out the instructions as directed by the institutions that have been mandated to oversee when we should take a break from our monotonous routine, mostly to observe an important landmark in the history of the nation and now I guess the complaining is sinking in with the powers that be and so they are making their presence felt.

The Ghanaian is not lazy as depicted by their religious observance of the Public holidays. Ghanaians are hard working folks who can be found in any part of the world where the sun shines. A Ghanaian will not take his over-time for child’s play since it fetches him more income than the prime nine-to-five and would even trip to the work side on weekends at the detriment of his alternative social lifestyles or meetings, so whoever thinks otherwise should revise their notes.

The Ghanaian only craves for public holidays because they feel cheated out and it is only one of the ways and days they can sit back at home or dedicate some time to their chores and personal stuffs. The leaders of the land takes the average Ghanaian for granted, makes him work without pay or where their rights are respected, they get exploited by being under-remunerated.

Ghana is where it is as a result of leadership problems and not as a result of the numerous holidays the Ghanaian enjoys. We need leaders with drives in all facets of the building process and a need for accomplishment but not necessarily being over-zealous. Good supervision can help curb down the employer’s time and resources the employee uses to browse the internet all day and time spent on make-ups can be reduced to a very insignificant time and our production and development can accelerate at an astronomical rate.

With all these factors in check, the average Ghanaian can sit at home and watch the first Gentleman of the nation sworn-in, thus giving the day and event a national dimension rather than packing the Independence Square with a selected number of people and ninety percent of party foot-soldiers and the rest, unemployed, while the other section of Ghanaians buried in their work and catching glimpses on TV and hearing commentary from the various Radio stations as if they are not Ghanaians or have nothing to do with the President’s inauguration.

I plead with the powers that be to enforce measures that can enhance productivity so that the ministry of Interior can declare such days as holidays because another twenty-four hours of cozying in bed will not harm mother Ghana and yes, little children want to play.