The news of the introduction of an insurance and welfare scheme for all service personnel intended to take effect with the current crop of people has been greeted with mixed feeling.
Whereas some personnel have welcomed the policy describing it as good and laudable others see it as a means of extorting money from the already meagre amount received as allowance.
There are others who have also expressed pessimism about the practicality of the initiative and its tendency to succeed.
However, waging into the ensuing debate a former President of the National Service Personnel Association of the Accra Metro, Stallone Nyarko, has expressed optimism about the initiative.
he revealed that, "by the end of my tenure as Accra Metro NASPA President, it will be that, per official records, three(3) personnel had painfully joined their maker during their service period"
He explained that this and other welfare-related issues confronting the service personnel makes him support the initiative and urge that all others accept and commend the initiative
NSS Insurance and Welfare package: Good initiative which must be saved from poisonous intellectual dishonesty
The launch of an insurance and welfare package for National Service Personnel across the country has been met with varied reactions from the Public.
I have listened to a number of views on the matter but I am forced to react to certain comments made by the Former Executive Director of the National Service Scheme, Dr. Michael Kpesah Whyte on the matter.
The former NSS boss and NDC Parliamentary aspirant for the Shai Osuduku constituency in an attempt to bastardize the welfare initiative made some factually inaccurate and logically flawed arguments which are unexpected of someone of his pedigree.
Dr. Whyte posits that, throughout his 2-year stay as the Executive Director of NSS, ‘only’ three National Service Personnel were confirmed dead and thus makes any insurance package in that regard, a ‘daylight of robbery’.
I was elected President of the National Service Personnel Association, Accra Metro in February 2016, Dr, Kpessah Whyte was Executive Director at the time. The first official assignment handed me on assuming office was to attend the funeral of a Personnel who had died in the course of his service.
By the end of my tenure as Accra Metro NASPA President, it will be that, per official records, three(3) personnel had painfully joined their maker during their service period.
Accra Metro is the largest among 16 administrative districts of the National Service Scheme in the Greater Accra region. If Accra Metro alone had officially recorded 3 deaths in 8 months, it could never have been that there were three deaths for just the Greater Accra region talk of the whole Country during my tenure as President.
The claims by the former NSS boss were false and it leaves you wondering why someone who not long ago occupied the highest office in the scheme would make such claims. It feeds into a seeming grand scheme to bastardize this all-important initiative and that is where I implore that we all hasten slowly.
I understand the apprehension and pessimism that greets such initiatives in our country today. It comes from our horrid experiences with similar initiatives in the past.
Often these initiatives have proven to be a means for people to make money. However, the fact that there are people involved in all manner of wrong deeds does not stop right-thinking people from thinking right and bringing innovations for the collective good of society.
Anybody who has been involved with the nitty-gritty of the National Service Scheme would agree with me that this initiative is long overdue. During my campaign for the Accra Metro Post in 2015, I had as one of my campaign policies, the introduction of the ‘allawa commission’.
This idea stemmed from my interactions with many personnel who had problems getting their allowances in the early months of their service. Most of them were as a result of wrong information or mistakes they had made while filling the necessary forms for allowances.
A sizeable number of them inquired from me, if the Service Personnel Association NASPA could introduce a scheme that will get soft loans for helpless Personnel who had challenges accessing their allowance. On winning elections and assuming office, this policy was one of the things I set out to implement. The reality pointed to the fact that, we needed way more than just the current welfare system in place to be able to execute this policy.
I was elated when I read that the current insurance and welfare policy had a component that will allow personnel to access soft loans.
It shows a growing consciousness of stakeholders to how critical a thriving welfare system is to the National Service Scheme. However, as indicated earlier, our past experiences with initiatives of this nature has left a number us paranoid over them.
It is imperative that the leadership of NASPA who are initiating this program continue with the conscious education of their membership and the general public on the real fact of this matter.
In a polluted political atmosphere like ours, we risk losing public support for this initiative on the altar of vile propaganda and misinformation.
The National Service Scheme who are facilitators must also make sure that the policy is executed to the latter as has been outlined. They must help ensure that insurance claims due personnel are paid promptly and prevent any possible means of shortchanging personnel with the introduction of this policy.
Thank you.
Stallone Nyarko
NASPA Former President, Accra Metro.
National Service Scheme Acting Director Ussif Mustapha