National Service or National Sabotage?

Creative minds, careful planning and colossal sums of money are

expended daily throughout the world on the worthy task of encouraging

citizens to wholeheartedly give of their best, when it comes to skill,

talent and labour utilisation for respective national good and

development. This sense of the appreciation of one’s homeland

underpins all civic sermons and projects seeking to achieve national

goals through the avenue of national participation. Observe the

general operations of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP)

and you immediately discover an underlying, but not necessarily

written objective, which seeks to ingrain into the youth a kindred

spirit of patriotism and belief in the dignity of legitimate labour.

Yes, for not all labour is deserving of legitimate reward, even if

rendered in a purely man-Friday fashion. Ask either a staff or a

serving personnel (notice the forceful emphasis on doing) of the

National Service Scheme (NSS) and the prideful intimation of a

patriotic “service to the nation” would be the ready and predictable

cliché. The story reported last year of a fact-finding Bangladeshi

delegation compassing sea and land just because of our country’s

national service model is an encouraging attestation that the

pacesetting domain of excellence is not an “abrokyire” heritage.

It is needful to stress that whoever originated the idea of serving

the nation after a tertiary-level course did no disservice to his

generation. This practical concept, with its invaluable contribution

to nation building, has perpetuated to posterity a challenging but

rewarding opportunity of having firsthand experience with besetting

national problems. It has come with the consequent bestowal of a

privilege to be part of the rectification process through inventive

individual approach. Oh, I harbour a certain admiration for that

marine engineering graduate who responded to a national service call

to teach junior high school students in a specific village. Many would

have been quick to instantly reject or change this posting on the

basis of seeming hindrance to a promising career with a multi-national

oil company in the western region. This exemplary instance of

commitment to God and country should not be left to evaporate

unnoticed into thin air. It is time we learn to differentiate real

heroes from spurious ones, and benevolently render unto them their

dues.

To state that 50,069 newly-posted national service personnel had a

hectic time in the early part of October 2010 is to state the obvious

and the uninteresting. The online release of postings meant the

beginning of tedious registration formalities at the various regional

offices. That same old story of organised frustration was replayed.

Only that the students-turned-personnel were acquainted with the

status quo and thus, adequately prepared for the whole show. After

all, they went through similar and more stressful frustrations

(imagine frustration qualified) during maiden student registration in

the various tertiary institutions. Their only bother consisted in the

inability of the regional administration to reduce time-wasting

paperwork through the employment of a computer database system that

combines the twin blessings of effectiveness and efficiency. Their

pragmatic evaluation perceived the requirement of passport pictures as

not just an unnecessary step, but a duplication of records after

having previously uploaded them [passport pictures] to the NSS

database during the initial online registration. Monies charged for

the pictures and the outright and unexplained rejection of all other

pictures from places other than the regional offices greatly incensed

these tertiary institution graduates. Their extensive familiarisation

with all the nitty-gritty and subtleties of ‘institutionalised

extortion’ was brought to the fore in ensuing conversations.

Instructions as to registration procedures were carefully outlined in

the appointment letter to be printed and submitted at regional offices

within a stipulated deadline. To fall short of this implied the

forfeiture of allowance for the month of October. And that was

original thinking, on the part of the NSS office at its best. All

things being equal, the forfeiture of allowance for the month of

October was an effective inducement for quick registration and

reporting to places of posting. The long, survival-of-the-fittest sort

of queues at regional offices clearly demonstrated that not a few were

willing to “go dry” throughout November. It did not however suppose an

immediate assumption of duty on the part of personnel at service

posts. Brother, you can trust the fresh products of our tertiary

institutions with the meeting of deadlines especially when a crucial

something like “allawa” (allowance) is at stake. That’s not a joke,

bro. It’s a do-or-die affair!

We cannot, we dare not say, that the postings and procedures were

without problems. Umaru Amadu’s timely article, National Service or

National Suffering?, adequately captured the plight of newly-posted

personnel with commendable keenness and the humorous wit he employed

was appropriate for a season replete with whining, complaining and

weariness. He reiterated the reality of an unplanned, better still

unintentional, but systematic ‘punishment’ meted out to a people with

affirmed willingness to pay back ‘loans’ obtained from the government

of their beloved Ghana. Many travelled long distances to places of

postings only to be told that their services were either unneeded or

uncalled for. The open expression of individual dissatisfaction with

a system that seemed not to have taken programmes of study into

consideration was also highlighted. As you’d predict, a section of the

public passionately engaged in the ubiquitous blame game, expertly

lecturing on what should have been done which was not done. This

reminded us that the exacting area of specialisation that seeks to

creatively invent ways of thinking and doing is a field only few dare

to venture. A preponderance of the expertise around us majors on the

invention of snags – not solutions. Can you imagine?

Wait a minute, brother. It seems we are losing track of the way and

subject matter of our discourse. Now, let us leave all these

uninteresting nonessentials and start making meaningful comments about

that notorious word uppercased and bolded at the beginning of this

piece: sabotage. No dilly-dallying here, since the probability that

busy readers offered their precious attention because of that

particular word is very high. The Executive Director of the NSS and

his team of officials fall into this category. Am I close to the truth

sirs? These honourable officials entrusted with the administration of

the scheme cannot afford to be negligent after hints of purposeful

destruction have been given.

An experienced teacher once marvelled at the diligent devotion of a

particular year’s batch of service personnel. It is to be feared

however, that the “service to the nation” obligation is sometimes

rendered in so unpatriotic a manner that the perceived national profit

becomes elusive if not barely beneficial. Allow us to say that the

untoward attitude of some service personnel in the basic and senior

high schools far removed from the cities and big towns (and perhaps

the inquisitive pen and camera), is imperilling the nation’s

educational fortunes. Habits of regular absenteeism and

insubordination are now synonymous with some service personnel. This

unmistakable deprivation of that sense of accountability required in

the noble business of combating ignorance is nourished by the idea of

not being part of the regular workforce of the Ghana Education Service

(GES). Anyway, it could also be due to chronic cases of delusions of

grandeur, which comes willy-nilly to many a university graduate

serving in small towns and villages under the NSS. Imagine these same

personnel serving in establishments like the ministries, financial

institutions, telecommunication firms, to name just a few, and your

guess of unreserved dedication is as good as ours. Here, the prospect

of retainment leaves no room for anything short of punctilious

commitment.

The rumour persists that some personnel connive with headteachers in

staying away from places of posting for reasons of attending to more

profitable ventures. This, if true, appallingly pictures the extent of

latent corruption and its potential impact on a nation already

grappling with corruption at various levels. It is something of an

irony that those who deliberately remain elusive as to ‘job’ delivery

are quick to enjoy an allowance hardly enjoyed by a toiling

professional somewhere. A headteacher’s hesitation in signing the

allowance clearance form of some personnel resulted in the forging of

his signature. Oh King Solomon, we see realistic wisdom in your keen

observation – “there is a sore evil under the sun.”

The active involvement of some personnel in that regrettable episode

of “children doing babies rather than homework” is fast blurring the

dignifying distinction between sound teacher-student relationships.

Gullible school girls have become targets of licentious desires that

know no inhibition in the blind pursuit of gratification. Sensual

manipulation has thus replaced student mentorship and those who should

be protected are being preyed upon by predators of high

sophistication. An experienced educator vouchsafed to someone’s

hearing the surprising case of a personnel known for entertaining a

‘guest’ in his room during contact hours; the very time he was

supposed to aid in the education of school children. Another is said

to have walked out of a class because of personal reasons of not being

in a teaching mood. Nothing of a hint here about adherence to rules.

This is a sad and shameful case of salvagers metamorphosing into

saboteurs. Revelations as these are wholly necessary, whether they are

isolated cases of sorts or of a day in, day out kind of regularity.

Their curtailment is equally important, so as not to result in the

making of many books.

Lectures on the kind of measures to be taken should be the

preoccupation of corporate Ghana. Its discussion deserves the

contribution of all and sundry. The NSS should as a matter of urgency,

thoroughly reconsider its organisational efforts at quality

supervision. The GES has no option but to closely work with the NSS if

maximum productivity is to be achieved in the schools. The bitter

truth is that the schools are lacking, seriously lacking. The

investigative pen and camera can coordinate the non-partisan

discussion of problems faced and problems caused by some service

personnel. Rectification of confronting problems should pave the way

for a gracious restoration of the professionalism expected of national

service in the classroom.

To the serving personnel, we say that your unaffected determination in

bequeathing an enduring legacy of selfless service will open hitherto

closed opportunities and doors for you. “Believest thou this? I know

that thou believest!” But let the sabotaging personnel heed the

biblical admonition that it is “more blessed to give than to receive”

(Acts 20:35), and be encouraged to heartily serve, “as unto the Lord,

and not unto men” (Colossians 3:23-25). You are a candidate for

different kinds of ground-breaking changes in your place of service.

The soft-spoken professor and national father has assured his many

brothers and sisters that 2011 is an action-packed year. We also

declare this year as a year of uncommon commitment to Mr. Kuagbenu’s

brand of the “service to the nation” agenda.

Sir, methinks I see many a penitent service personnel ruing the days

of disservice – even declaring in unison – “We are seceding from

sabotage!” Accordingly, all 2010/2011 national service personnel

should ever be mindful of the marked difference of a salvaging

national service in a year of action. Brother, this is the right time

to commence the desirable action of national service; of mending what

has been marred through national sabotage in some schools. Yes, this

is the opportune time!

Gideon Amoako Sarpong