Dear Sir,
PETITION AND MATTERS ARISING PART 1
I deeply regret that it has to come to this. My regrets stems from the fact that since August, 2013 when I first wrote to you and you called me back I was full of admiration for you and the magnanimity you showed me. I thought you were that kind of leader who listens and we could work together to better serve mother Ghana. In that letter I warned you about some legal issues you might face if you don’t wait for all the parts of the Local Government System to come into being or fully mature. I was not taken serious because as usual of Ghanaian leaders “I am nobody to advise you”.
As I said to you before, I got to know you when I was undertaking a GIMPA certificate course in Tamale at the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS). Before I wrote you that letter, I heard a lot of unthinkable things about you. But your call and how you approached me gave me a different perspective about you. I respected you since even though I still kept hearing a lot of negative things about you.
What you must know about me is that people earn respect from me and I also strive to earn respect from people no matter their status in society. I have come to realise that in Ghana especially in the Public Services hypocrisy, sycophancy and fear has been equated to respect by many. I am not that type and you can inquire from all DCEs and DCDs I have worked with. I respect human beings for who they are and not what they are. Respect, I have learnt, is reciprocal.
Since this petition and the way you handled it, you have just proven your critics right. First of all, when you called me to acknowledge receipt of the letter your words were “I have received your love letter”. I was shocked to hear that and yet decided I will not tell any member of the group because they might get furious and react badly. All because I still had faith that you will look at our issues favourably.
Then came your response to my email when I tried to let you understand the enormity of the situation as early as possible and also appreciated the travel support you gave me, your response was “Mr Akurugu, There are channels of communication within the Service and you are please advised to respect the protocols. This applies to your so called representatives. Some threatening and angry voice there!
Then I was there when someone I never discussed my visit to you with but knew about the petition called and told me you were planning to transfer me to Accra which you discussed personally with me when I visited you in your office. I also got furious because that is your tactic in the service. I sent you a text and you did not take kindly to it. I have since apologised for that text because I was convinced by someone who has earned my respect that it was inappropriate.
But when you called, your outburst was also something else and that further convinced me that your critics were right. You called me a junior officer and a small boy and that I am being deceived and if I want I should bring it on and I should never contact you again. I respected that and never contacted you again but for you to say I am being deceived, I took that as an insult because you are telling me that at 40, I can’t think for myself. I am also yet to see any law that says a junior officer cannot talk about wrongs in a system or stand for his right.
Please, check the text again, I used “information” not “intelligence” as you sought to portray at your recent intimidating meeting. And that committee you talked about at our meeting, I would have disappointed you and the members of that committee.
Then we decided to follow our roadmap as agreed and petitioned the Local Government Service Council (LGSC) and copied you because you seemed not to care. I don’t know what it is that you decided to act as the council and act on their behalf. The opportunity for you had passed. The little I know is that when you are copied, it is only for your information and you needn’t take action as you did. That meeting you called on the 7th October, 2015 was really interesting in many aspects and I will go into some of the issues very soon.
That meeting was meant to intimidate me but I tell you today that you and your advisors have failed. You have really underestimated me and my resolve to get these issues fully addressed. I know by now you know that I have left the group. Please tell your informant to forward to you my speech at the maiden meeting of the leadership of the group in Kumasi which I posted and left the group. Please try and read it and maybe, you will get a sense of my resolve.
I mean every single word in that speech. Be informed that I did not leave the group because of your informant. You won’t believe it, but in the process of writing this open letter to you, the person was revealed to me. I was well aware of infiltrators and hypocrites like him. I just thought the group was slowing me down and giving you space to breath. Their type are really the real enemies of Ghana and he will soon be disappointed. Anyway, I like the way you picked and chose things to suit you at that meeting. Your intimidatory tactics was superb but as I told you, I cannot be intimidated when I believe I am doing the right thing.
Let me at this stage tell you that I am bringing it on and fully engaged now. A little advice before I proceed. I have told you before, the hypocrisy and sycophancy in the public sector is too much. When you occupy such positions be very careful and ready to listen. Your advice about me being careful goes equally for you. I am but I don’t think you are. When the day comes and I play you voices, you will be shocked to the born. And again, you keep repeating this encounter you had with one lady council of state member. Please stop it, it adds nothing to you.
It only goes to show your arrogance which people have complained about and I am also now seeing it. You could have been more polite in refusing to do whatever she asked you to do. I am sure in the near future; you will like to contest for a political position. Take my advice; it will help you one day.
I am sure you have been told that I have nothing to lose. To be honest with you, those people are right. I am fed up with the way the system is operating and I have resolved to stop complaining and do something for mother Ghana. You are just caught in that web. Watch out for my news conference soon.
I have come to the conclusion that we public servants are the cause of the ills in the country today not because we are the architects of the ills but keep quiet when the wrongs are being done by appointees like you. It was an honour done you by his Excellency President John Mahama and I don’t think you are serving him well at all. And another thing, it just happened that you bear the same surname as the President, stop using that to intimidate people.
For me, even if you are the president’s brother as people has misconstrued it to be, I careless. I am sure you remember my quote to you when I first wrote to you. I will repeat it here and add another one I found recently. Martin Luther King Jnr: ‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter’ and Lord Denning: “Silence is not an option when things are ill done”. As I said somewhere before, I am inspired by that quote of Martin Luther King Junior not because I want to be a hero like him (I cannot because I am not a good orator), but I just want to live. Also in my first letter to you, I told you I was almost ready to leave the service because of your actions but the quote inspired me to stay and do something rather. I am sure you did not understand it that way. So your talk about me losing a job and not finding one because it is difficult to get jobs was so laughable to me. Let me ask, is that what you used to get one of us to your side?
As I said earlier, I like the way you decided to pick and choose and your dismissive posture at that meeting. First of all, let me draw your attention to the fact that no transitional issues or reforms can infringe on the right of people or be contrary to the law. Sometimes, you make me get the impression that you do not really have a full grasp of the issues we are raising. Let me again state that your explanations that day in that intimidating meeting only worsened the case for you as far as I am concern and the next time we are to talk about them, it will be in an environment where no one can intimidate the other and we will debate the issues thoroughly. I have already petitioned CHRAJ on some of the administrative injustices in the service that you are superintending and I am sure at the appropriate time we will meet there. I will not hide anything from you, I will also go to the Supreme Court to seek for interpretation as to whether the Council has the right to vary my condition of service as you claim. Sometimes I just wonder how gullible you think I am. How can you use Community Development and Social Welfare grades/ranks to explain away the increase in promotion years? Aaaaba! If our leaders behave so dishonestly, how can we move forward as a nation? What is the difference between the 2010 scheme of service and the one I am convinced you unilaterally revised? The difference is just that you removed the RCD and DCD from the Administrative class and increased the years of promotion from 3 to 4 years. Am I lying? And even if you are reducing other peoples number of ranks from 7 to 5, how does increase in number of years for promotion come in? Come on! I am smarter than that. Anytime, I listen to what you said at that meeting I weep for Ghana. Oooh, don’t be surprised. I recorded every conversation I had with you and everything I say you said here is according to that record. Don’t attempt denying anything. Doctored tapes are now in vogue but please don’t go there because I will pay for it to be authenticated even if it means selling my properties.
Vacancies and ability to pay as explanation for varying my conditions of service and making me worst off compared to my colleagues in similar organs of state? Laughable! This is one of the ills of our society today. We always go for the easiest way out especially when it has to do with the downtrodden because nobody is there to talk for them. This must change. I am not oblivious of the Economic situation we find ourselves today as a country. I am well aware and if that is what informed this decision to change the promotion years come clean and I will advise you appropriately and stop hiding behind the excuses you are given. The excuses make me further lose respect for you. I will explain this further when we meet at the law court and I will go to Supreme Court to seek interpretation on some aspects of it.
Again at that intimidating meeting, you pretended as if you don’t know that there is confusion, acrimony and tension in the service. You can play the ostrich as long as you want but let me tell you, truth always stands tall and good will always overcome evil. If there is no confusion, why will Planning Officers petition you and Administrative Officers also petition you as you alluded when I met you in your office and even admitted meeting the Planning Officers as you met as that day? Why will you open Central Administration Department up to all units went ahead to shortlist candidates and called them for interview and later decide to quash all that and restrict it to Administrative officers only? I mean, let gets serious here! As I told you, since we started this struggle, I have received calls and it will shock you to hear the frustrations and anger people in the service hold against you as a person. You can continue to pretend. My fear is that the one who appointed you may end up suffering unjustly for it.
Oh less I forget, you kept talking about us following protocols. May be you were not listening to me when I came to your office on your orders. I and my colleagues have lost confidence in our senior colleagues because they are the reason why we are where we are today. And again, we are a group outside the formal structures of the Local Government Service and I don’t know the kind of protocols we could have followed. I will be grateful if you assist me understand that because unlike you, I learn from everyone no matter his/her status in society. We should forward it through the 216 DCDs who will then forward it through the 10 RCDs and the 10 RCDs will forward it to you or what? Is that what CLOGSAG or LGWU does when they have issues with you? Come on!
Let me go back to the reasons why I in particular have lost confidence in our senior colleagues and why I believe they are the course of our problems if you didn’t hear me then. When the opportunity came for them to do something, they decided to form Association of Coordinating Directors (ASCOD) and left us in the wilderness. They were the people we were looking up to and they disappointed us. You even alluded to that when I met you by saying that they come to you asking for all manner of favours from you and agreed with me that they don’t have our interest at heart.
I don’t blame them though and I am sure some of them if not all have regretted that decision by now. I have spoken to some and they have confessed this to me. I was happy to hear from you that you met Planning officers in that same room and Assistant Development Planning Officers to Chief Development Planning officers were represented. That is how our senior colleagues should have nurtured us.
I don’t hold anything against our senior colleagues and I know what they think about what we are currently doing for the service and I also know what led them to that decision all too well. I nearly got there but thank God, my eyes are wide opened now and I refuse it in Jesus name. Let me tell you an experience since we started this struggle. Normally when you start something like this in Ghana, you get all manner of calls from people admonishing you to stop or you will regret.
I can tell you on authority that with the exception of one RCD who told one of our colleagues to leave the group because “A small fish cannot catch a big fish”, all calls I have had rather encouraged me. I was so disappointed to hear that statement from a Regional Coordinating Director (RCD) and if I get the opportunity I will go to that RCD to ask him to explain because a fish in the context in which he used it can be likened to many things and if you understand what I mean you should also be interested.
I am beginning to get the impression that you are trying to incite other classes against us because of the way you pick and choose and twist what is contained in the petition. Please I want to assure all that I am not in this for administrative class alone. It is for everybody in the Local Government Service and Ghana as a whole. Nobody should be deceived, I am advocating for fairness and if I get an opportunity I will explain to you in detail what I am proposing and the Head of Service is not listening. I have even tried to let us meet so we can discuss these issues as a service but the Head of Service would not listen. He thrives on divide and rule.
Oh yes, let me add this. I saw you make copies of my idea for a conference in the service to all your lieutenants at the meeting and I thought you were going to bring it up as part of your intimidatory tactics. I would have disappointed you. If you remember in my meeting with you, I started talking about decisions by evidence and you retorted by saying “Am I saying you don’t take decision based on evidence” and I stopped. That was where I was going but I realised you were not interested and I didn’t continue. Even some of my colleagues did not understand it and misconstrued my intentions and so I will not blame you for thinking I was doing it for my selfish interest. It would have been a great opportunity for us to solve these issues amicably and you would have been the winner in the long run. I think what you must also realise is that knowledge does not reside in one man’s head no matter your academic credentials.
Let me restate some points I made somewhere and to you in my personal letter which I was happy you read or is it that your informant told you about it? I only look back when I am convinced I am doing the wrong thing and will easily eat the humble pie in such circumstances. I have rejected the popular saying which goes like “if you can’t beat them, join them” when I joined this struggle. I rather prefer if you cannot beat them, leave them and continue the struggle in your own small way. I have also rejected another common saying in the public service that says “You alone cannot change the system, just be patient, your time will come”. I rather prefer try and fail and at least one day someone would remember you tried, just that you did not succeed. When I believe in a cause, I will stand for it no matter the consequences unless I am convinced otherwise. My wife, friends in Tamale, school mates in St. John Bosco’s Teacher Training College and my Co-Teachers then in Bolgatanga Senior High School are my living testimonies.
To my colleagues in the Local Government Service and the public service in general, I know the resolve of some of you to work for Ghana but the system will not just allow you and yet you are continuously blamed for everything in the public sector. Today in the public services, politicians and government appointees don’t trust the public servant and rightly so but they should not also delude themselves too because public servants don’t also trust them.
This must change if Ghana is to make any progress. The power is in the public servant to change this and I am calling on all of you to stand up with me to change it. There is nothing to fear. Fear as you might have read about, is a “False Experience Appearing Real”. Ghana must work again and I want to use this opportunity to seek permission from Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom to borrow this phrase from him for my project to see Ghana work again. Ghana is seriously sick and must be treated.
I have continuously heard before and during this struggle from senior public servants talk about not being able to talk because they are occupying senior management positions. I want to tell you today that, that is a myth. A myth that is holding public servants and Ghana to ransom. I have rejected that myth and employ you to do same. Please refer to the quotes by Martin Luther King Jnr and Lord Denning above and put your thinking caps on. And if there is any law or rule backing this myth, I solemnly affirm to pursue an agenda to get it changed (Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, thank you for teaching me this thing about our oaths the other day. I must say that I was further humbled by your humility. I must say Ghana is blessed to have you).
For the current struggle, I have spoken to many senior colleagues and you are secretly in support of this struggle either by your words of encouragement or posture, this is the time. Some of you openly expressed your anger and wanted to join but I personally admonished you to stay away. The time is now. Come out and let’s save the Local Government Service which some of you have admitted is dying. I think by now I have proven to you that there is nothing to fear anymore.
I am sure some people would say this guy is crazy. Yes, maybe! Because I think the sickness of Ghana today needs some crazy men and women like me to cure. I was listening to Professor Patrick Lumumba of Kenya the other day and he says the tragedy of Africa is that we celebrate thieves and vilify good men and women. This is apt and I am well aware of this. The recent history of Ghana is replete with such examples and if God gives me long life I will celebrate some of them in another write up. And why is Hon. Afenyo Markins being the only one vilified? I thought in Ghana both the giver and the taker of bribes are culpable? Anyway, let me not go there for now. Let me add to the Kenyan Professor by saying that the real tragedy of Ghana’s public Servants is that 100% of us will believe a cause is just and yet not even 1% will stand for it for one fear or another. I stand to correct that. I might fail but that will not deter me.
Please let me warn that NDC and NPP politics which is killing this country is out of this and I will react appropriately if I see signs of it being turned that way.
Let me end by apologizing to any reader who feels disappointed about this piece especially with my choice of words. I must admit that I am frustrated and angry with the system and could not hold it but let it all out. The insult I recently had from the American Embassy is as a result of this system and I am sure many of you have been insulted like that before. (Please do well to read my open letter to them if you haven’t already read it @ http://www.modernghana.com/news/648319/1/open-letter-to-us-embassy.html). I am also convinced beyond reasonable doubt that I lost my mother some time ago because of this rotten system and currently an uncle is lying in the morgue because of this same system and many others are suffering similarly.
I rest my case for now. I shall be back soon.
Sincerely,
Charles Ayuune Akurugu
Assistant Director, Kumbungu District
