“Scrap AU Day holiday”? I beg Your Pardon!

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• BRAVEBOY 12 years ago

  Don't worry. We know all those who have been bought to destroy us. By they sayings, ye shall know them.

  Don't worry. We know all those who have been bought to destroy us. By they sayings, ye shall know them.

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• KK 12 years ago

  1. It's true that Ghana has too many statutory holidays. We must cut them down. I agree with the present writer that the ones we should cut down should be the numerous foreign religious days, NOT one that celebrates an Africa ...
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  1. It's true that Ghana has too many statutory holidays. We must cut them down. I agree with the present writer that the ones we should cut down should be the numerous foreign religious days, NOT one that celebrates an African day. Like it or not, our people have become followers of foreign religions so we can't do away with them all. What we can do is to observe ONE Christian holiday and ONE Muslim holiday. For the Christian holiday it should be Christmas alone and nothing else. The Muslims should be allowed to choose one. There is no need for a holiday for traditional religions because they are too numerous and tiny and do not have the same "outward unity" as Islam and Christianity.
  
  2. But the most important consideration should be the abolition of the roll overs. If a statutory holiday falls on a weekend, we should absolutely not declare one weekday free. This will affect the AU day also, no problem. If Ghanaians want a long weeken including a holiday, they must substitute another day for it. Thus if the AU day falls on a Thursday, they can choose to work on that Thursday and be free on Friday rather. That should be allowed. But if the AU day falls on Saturday they should not take Friday or Monday off.

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• Ato 12 years ago

  First of all I must congratulate Kwame Botchwey-Asamoah (Dr) for an excellent eye-opening piece.
  
  It is rare, refreshing, inspiring and has even become almost shocking to hear or read of an African with a Ph.D appendage to ...
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  First of all I must congratulate Kwame Botchwey-Asamoah (Dr) for an excellent eye-opening piece.
  
  It is rare, refreshing, inspiring and has even become almost shocking to hear or read of an African with a Ph.D appendage to his/her name, expressing such intelligent views about life in general and of our much abused Africa in particular.
  
  It is unfortunate that at the moment we (Ghana) do not have an appropriate forum or platform on which the views expressed above can be seriously debated and if possible, considered for adoption in Ghana. Forget about the blood-sucking Parliament of Ghana and the current Govt. Even the palpably reactionary NPP Party can be more seriously considered in this regard than the self-acclaimed Social Democratic Party of the NDC (lol).
  
  I also congratulate Kwame Botchwey-Asamoah for having the guts to present his compelling and persuasive views on religious holidays in Ghana. I doff my hat for you, Opanin. Many Ghanaians of such advanced thinking would not have the courage to express these views for fear of stirring the hornets nest and stimulating the wrath of the hard-hearted religious barons who have continued to exploit ignorance and illiteracy to the best of their advantage and material greed.
  
  As for IMANI the least said about them the better. They fall within the same category as the religious barons except that they in addition seem to have some ulterior aims and interests that do not comply with the peculiar and independent advancement of Africans and the African continent.
  
  Even though I personally do not think that there are too many public holidays in the annual calendar of Ghana, I agree that as a country and a people that desperately need to exorcise ourselves from the negative fallout of colonial and imperialist cultures and domination, the quality and substance of events that are held out as notable days of public recognition in Ghana and indeed throughout Africa, should be carefully scrutinized and reviewed to suit our peculiar history, traditions and culture. Those countries whose religions and cultures we naively celebrate, would not under any circumstance consider celebrating any of our own - and this is spite of the fact that their advancement and wealth is built on our brothers and sisters who were taken and used as slaves as well as the indefinite amount of mineral resources that were freely pilfered from our lands for many centuries.
  
  I do not think that 15 or so public holidays in a whole year amounts to any serious infraction on productivity in a country where efficiency and positive output are considered as suspicious comportment by fellow workers.
  
  What rather worries me is the number of days we go to work late throughout the year and either do virtually nothing when we get there or, we actively pillage, ransack or loot the state by our nefarious activities at our various work-places. Then also, there are the notorious sick-leaves, funerals and unexplained absence from work which I can swear would in totality probably account for at least a third of the entire number of working days in a year. This is where we must as a people, look at in the bid to increase productivity and enhance the fortunes of the economy.
  
  Finally we must also look at the question of productivity in whose interest? If we continue to operate a neo-colonial economy where foreigners or so-called investors take away the lions share of whatever productivity is achieved, what are we really complaining about when we are talking about the issue of low productivity? What, in all these decades and centuries have we got from our gold, from our cocoa, from our bauxite, from our diamonds and recently from our oil which I hear we only get about 12.5 percent of total revenue.
  
  Who are we really working for and in whose interest should we continue to be productive for?

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• Sexioney 12 years ago

  what a brilliant scholar with a brilliant piece.we need more of such deep thinkers to move Africa forward.congrats Dr.Kwame Botwe-Asamoah.

  what a brilliant scholar with a brilliant piece.we need more of such deep thinkers to move Africa forward.congrats Dr.Kwame Botwe-Asamoah.

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• Kwaku Dua 12 years ago

  Yes, we need such scholars to make us think about how to move Ghana forward. All the religious holidays must be limited two one each. The Farmers holiday is useless and senseless and must be abolished. Instead of the holiday, ...
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  Yes, we need such scholars to make us think about how to move Ghana forward. All the religious holidays must be limited two one each. The Farmers holiday is useless and senseless and must be abolished. Instead of the holiday, children of all real farmers must be given special admission to endowed SSS and public universities. Thanks, Dr. Botwe-Asamoah for such a brilliant article. I also salute President Kufuor for keeping Nkrumah's dream alive in Ghana.

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• Okomfo,London 12 years ago

  What is AU? It's just a joke so AU Day needs not be on the calendar as a public holiday.

  What is AU? It's just a joke so AU Day needs not be on the calendar as a public holiday.

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• Whatever 12 years ago

  So we should ignore them. IMANI is obviously working for other continents and not the African continent

  So we should ignore them. IMANI is obviously working for other continents and not the African continent

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• Conventional Youth. 12 years ago

  Hmmmm

  Hmmmm

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• Harrison 9 years ago

  Good work done on this research

  Good work done on this research

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