NDC Cadres Blast TUC �

The United Cadres Front (UCF) of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described the entrenched position taken by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) as �political propaganda and populist venture� meant to promote instability in the country. This, they said, if not checked and handled well would destabilize the peace and security of the country. Addressing a press conference to protest against the move by the TUC to hit the streets today, the general secretary of UCF of the NDC, Efenam Felix Nyaku, said the utterances of the TUC general secretary are disturbing. �The UCF is very surprised that Kofi Asamoah did not include in his 8-point demand the need to immediately scrap the single spine salary regime that is draining over 70% of national revenue that could have been used to cushion the ailing economy and provide much-needed funds to support economic and social infrastructural development. ��The UCF of the NDC would like to make it categorically clear to Kofi Asamoah and his like that it is not only workers who are feeling the pinch of the situation, but every Ghanaian who understands that, it is not the making of government but a whole mirage of issues including the baggage of maladministration of the Kufuor regime that has led to a legacy of economic collapse. �Come to think of the fact that the Mahama Administration effectively took office after eight months of excruciating Supreme Court action, how much do you expect from a regime that has chosen to continue to correct the mess that was neither created by the Atta Mills Administration nor its own,� he wondered. The UCF said �most of our current economic woes took roots principally between 2006 and 2008 when the Kufour-led NPP Administration plunged the country into several problems in the name of rescuing us from economic down-turn after the HIPC Declaration. �The dilemma is the question that, how can a country that has gone HIPC in no time declare itself a lower middle income economy? Is it not likened to an athlete who, immediately after being discharged from an intensive care unit, would want to run a 100-metre race?� They asked rhetorically. They said if Ghanaians, especially, politicians do not realize that the salvation of the current economic down-turn is a collective national clarion call; �but continue to point fingers at government, it will take no political regime-including the one Kofi Asamoah espouses-but an unseen hand to rescue the situation.� He said, �We are all part of the problem, the executive, legislature, judiciary, the media, civil society, the religious, traditional rulers and the private sector. We must, therefore, all be part of the solution.� According to them, the pronouncements and actions of the TUC, being a part of organized labour in the country, have persistently become a matter that has the potential of destabilizing the peace and security of this country. �The choice of words by the leadership of the TUC can be termed treacherous, malicious, and in its totality, subversive. The right to fight for a course on behalf of members cannot be done at the expense of innocent lives and property of the general citizenry. If the TUC thinks they have a right to the national purse, they must also realize that each and every citizen has the same right to the national purse. The principle of equity has no bounds. �We want to use this occasion to appreciate the accommodation of the trying moments of every citizen of this country and particularly wish to appeal to the TUC to be circumspect in its utterances in the face of global and local economic down-turn. � He said, �We have to admit that we are not in the best of times just like any other country in the world. The current state of TUC confrontation and threats of mayhem may therefore not augur well for industrial peace. We believe serious interrogation of issues by dialogue (guided by laid down rules and regulations) could be much healthier for all of us; rather than threats of strike actions and press statements that are loaded with hatred and indescribable words.� �The sad thing is that, whilst some of us see it as a national issue for our collective attention and action, others see it as a failure on the part of government which has become a subject of ridicule and political meat for anti-state elements.� �Ghana is not an island onto itself in the general economic down-turn across the globe. The only way out is for all Ghanaians to be conscious of the fact that we are all part of the problem and therefore should be part of finding lasting solutions in our quest for restoring the image of our dear country,� the cadres further noted.