Accra, 02 November, 2019 / 2:10 am (ACI Africa).
Against the backdrop of a strike involving members of Ghana’s Technical Universities Teachers Association (TUTAG) and Technical Universities Administrators Association of Ghana (TUAAG) that has paralyzed programs in institutions of higher learning in the West African country, a Church leader has urged professionals who have downed their tools and Ghanaians in general to “work for the common good through self-sacrifice.”
While recognizing the possible legitimacy of the demands of the striking professionals, Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Cape Coast in Ghana wondered whether “it has ever occurred to anyone of those on strike to ask who really suffers the brunt in the long run.”
“Thinking for the common good should be seen as the best decision that will bring positive and beneficial results,” Archbishop Palmer-Buckle said and added, “It is the students who, when the lecturers have been satisfied someway, will be given packed lectures in very few weeks and in some way expected to pass their exams.”
He was addressing participants who were part of the second edition of “Faith in the Public Sphere series” Tuesday, October 29 in Accra, Ghana, an event organized by the Arrupe Jesuit Institute of Accra in collaboration with the Catholic Professional Guild.
Speaking to a wider context beyond the striking TUTAG and TUAAG members, the immediate former Archbishop of Accra observed, “In Ghana, it is not unusual that even doctors and nurses and other healthcare workers go on strike to press home demands for better conditions of service, salaries, allowances.”
