John And John 2012 T-Shirts ‘Mar’ Tamale Independence Parade

It has been a convention that the celebration of Ghana’s independence day unlike any other political activity, has been devoid of paraphernalia of political parties but patrons to the country’s 54th Independence Anniversary March yesterday at the Tamale Jubilee park were treated with display of assorted 2012 campaign T-shirts of President John Evans Atta Mills and His Vice, John Dramani Mahama.

Incidentally, the Vice President, John Mahama was the Special Guest of Honour for the occasion.

Hundreds of NDC youth wore the T-Shirts with the portraits of President Mills and His Vice with the inscription the “THE TEAM YOU CAN TRUST.” Many of the patrons who were at the parade expressed their dismay at the virtual politicization of the national event. “This is a day for mother Ghana so why should they bring their party shirts here. I do not even know whether they have opened their nominations. In fact, this is a sad day”

One of the NDC youth who was seen wearing one of the T’shirts, who only gave her name as Sakina, a student of the Tamale Workers College told The New Crusading GUIDE that the T-Shirts were distributed to them at a party meeting in Tamale ahead of the celebrations.

“They gave them to us only yesterday (Saturday) with the instruction that we should wear them for the parade”, she said.

Despite the earlier threat by some aggrieved teachers to boycott the event in protest against the discrepancies in connection with their migration onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), the event was massively patronized by students, the security forces and a cross section of the general public.

Vice President John Dramani Mahama who took the salute, reiterated the need for Ghanaians to put aside their differences and work together to sustain the nation’s tempo of progress and development.

“We need to put our differences behind us and work together to sustain our nation’s tempo of progress and development: we must remain united and devote our attention and energies on issues that will promote national cohesion and togetherness than those which divide us” he stressed.

Speaking on the anniversary theme, “Discipline and Hard Work: an Essential Pre-Requisite for National Development” the Vice President stressed the need for Ghanaian workers to develop new work ethics to commensurate the NDC administration’s Better Ghana Agenda.

He said government was committed to adopting pragmatic policies and programmes towards galvanizing available human and material resources to improve the socio-economic circumstances of all Ghanaians.

Meanwhile, President John Evans Mills, speaking at the colorful anniversary celebration in Accra, also called on teachers in the country to cease fire on their grievances on the implementation of the SSSS since efforts were being made to correct the anomalies.

According to him, “government will not renege on its responsibility of giving teachers their due for them to give you the solid foundation that will support the structures of your future growth and development”.

The President emphasized that he did appreciate the effort of teachers in the country and promised that his out fit would not let them down.