Mahama begs lecturers to call off strike

Ghana’s President, Mr. John Mahama has appealed to striking University Lecturers to call off their resuscitated indefinite strike as his government makes efforts to resolve their grievances.

The president made the appeal at the Flagstaff House in Accra when he met some university authorities from Ekiti of Nigeria.

The Ghanaian university lecturers are demanding full payment of their market premium arrears and allowances which have been outstanding since last year following their migration onto the single spine salary structure.

The government has released 25 million Ghana cedis for payment of the market premium arrears but the lecturers say they won’t budge until all their grievances are addressed.

President Mahama however says the lecturers should bear with the government as it addresses their grievances one at a time.

“I wish to take the opportunity to appeal to my own university teachers who, I’m told, have just commenced a strike on some issues that I believe have been resolved. I mean there were some arrears which I hear have been done but there’s now talk about book and research allowances which are still being negotiated by the Fair Wages Commission,” Mr. Mahama said.

The president said the strike risks worsening the admission problems which the universities are grappling with as far as absorbing the double stream of fresh prospective students is concerned.

“…I’ll just appeal to them to call off whatever strike and concentrate on getting us over this admission hurdle and continue to do the good work they have been doing,” Mr. Mahama begged.