PAY THEM NOW (FEB 19)

EVERY year, since 1974, a new crop of fresh school leavers from our tertiary institutions come out to serve their nation in various sectors of the national economy.
These people are national service personnel who fulfil a national obligation to render service to the state as a requirement before full employment.
Since the inception of the National Service Scheme by the Acheampong regime in 1974, the country has benefited from the services of national service personnel in almost every sphere of national life.
What makes the scheme very economical to the state is that the service personnel are paid allowances, not salaries, the rationale being that they must do work to ‘pay off’ part of what the state spent on them by way of their education.
Thus it is that every year fresh graduates from our universities (both public and private), polytechnics, the Ghana Institute of Journalism and the Institute of Professional Studies are posted by the National Service Secretariat to all corners of the country to engage in national service.
Some of these service personnel do get posted to remote areas where the basic necessities of life as they might have enjoyed them in school are lacking.
But, interestingly enough, the mere novelty of living on their own, some for the first time in their lives, provides majority of service personnel the motivation and enthusiasm to carry out their duties and assignments with youthful fervour and zeal, the unpalatable conditions notwithstanding.
Indeed, the zeal exhibited by some service personnel at their various places of engagement is commendable, though there may be a few who display apathy and lack of commitment to the cause.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that the least the state can do to maintain the enthusiasm among service personnel is to regularly pay them their allowances, so that they can meet their financial obligations to themselves and other people, such as landlords.
That is why the story in yesterday’s issue of the paper that service personnel have not been paid their January allowances is very unfortunate, to say the least.
As indicated, the allowances paid service personnel are not enough, and when these are delayed, the situation is worsened for the personnel.
Apart from the fact that they need to feed themselves wherever they are, the personnel also have to pay rent and meet other obligations, and the fact that most of them stay away from home makes the situation more challenging.
The delay in paying them their allowances may have many negative effects on the scheme itself and on the personnel as well. It may result in the dampening of their enthusiasm, leading to the adoption of a lukewarm attitude towards their duties.
If they are pushed to the wall, some may engage in very not-too-good activities, such as pilfering, prostitution, extortion, etc which can only go to tarnish the image of the scheme.
The DAILY GRAPHIC is of the belief that service personnel should be paid regularly if we are not to discourage our fresh school leavers from engaging in this otherwise laudable duty of offering service to the state at a cheaper cost.