<<Print>>The announced intervention of the National House of Chiefs in the government/doctors imbroglio is a welcome development. Relieving as it is, it should have nevertheless come long before now, but better late than never.
Had it come before now, those on the government side would have put on their much needed thinking caps and avoided poisoning the negotiating ambience – the source of the stalemate.
The last time we discussed this subject – not the intervention of the chiefs though – we lamented the ill-advice which led to the Cuban doctors’ option, an alternative which whopping cost became a source of public discussion.
Another irony in the Cuban option is the fact that over a dozen Ghanaian doctors who studied in that country and desirous of returning home are unable to do so because the Ghana government is yet to provide them with tickets for their homeward journey. Besides, their allowances remain outstanding, festooning the neck of government like a decoration.
Until now the wise men were not forthcoming with their good counsel, appearing to be sitting on the fence relishing or so the avoidable banter between the doctors and serial callers – the latter finding in the confusion a fertile ground to attract the attention of those who pay for their irritating cacophony on radio.
The belated decision of the chiefs reminds us about Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana. The man of God, virtually in the mould of our ancestors when confronted with a seeming intractable challenge, would scream as he did recently: “Wise men where are you?”
The countless sages of our country could have prevented the stalemate before the paid verbal assassins jumped into the fray to worsen the state of the disagreement.
Now the wise men are emerging and we hope that their female counterparts, the queen mothers, would follow suit.
This is what we have demanded all along. When there is confusion of the kind represented by the disagreement between the two parties, the need for level-headedness cannot be overemphasized, especially at the behest of our venerable chiefs.
Compromises must be made. In such matters this is what is required if we seek to find a permanent solution to disagreements of this magnitude.
It is our prayer that by the time the National House of Chiefs-driven negotiations get midway, we would begin to see signs of compromises and unalloyed sincerity on the part of the government which has so far been deficient in this direction.
Before the first engagement takes place it is our take that the custodians of our heritage would call for the cessation of airwave polemics between the doctors and reckless politicians and their assigns.
The continued activity of these persons would not inure to our common benefit.