President of Policy Think Tank IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, has questioned the relevance of observing the AU Day as a statutory holiday in Ghana, especially when it falls on a weekend and rolled over into the following week.
His reservations follow the declaration of Monday, May 27, 2013 as a statutory holiday in Ghana as a carry-over compensation for this year’s AU Day which fell on a weekend, Saturday, May 25 and thus rendered superfluous.
Mr. Cudjoe told XYZ News that the AU Day “is not a holiday in most African countries”, adding that: “Ghana has too many holidays already and we could have used this day positively”.
He said: “I really do not understand why we needed this holiday; why we actually instituted it; It will interest you to know that just next door Nigeria is not observing the Day [as a holiday] so it looks as if we are observing a non-event”.
Mr. Cudjoe has suggested that the Government of Ghana, in the light of this, takes a critical review of all the statutory holidays in Ghana to get rid of those holidays, which in his view, are not necessary so as to safeguard productivity.
He noted: “In the interest of productivity, we probably need to have a re-look at this holiday and a few other holidays that may not necessarily yield anything”.
“…This AU Day fell on a weekend, so be it. We shouldn’t extend it to a full working day and then waste it,” Mr. Cudjoe added.