Ghana’s total GDP is 17 billion Ghana cedis. Excluding weekends and the 12 statutory public holidays out of the 365 days, we are left with 252 working days in a year. This gives an approximate figure of 68 million Ghana cedis per working day.
In other words, Ghana loses GH¢68 million each official working day we gleefully, for one reason or the other, decide not to work. When you don’t work, you don’t earn money so in effect, you lose money. Each of our estimated 23 million citizens loses GH¢3 each non-working day, good enough money for a meal, considering the fact that there are some of our citizens who live on less than one cedi a day!
Ghana takes 12 pauses every year in public holidays. We simply stop – and rest, and stare. And these holidays are supported by law – Act 601, the Public Holidays Act of 2001. There are offences and penalties for contravening this law. One becomes “liable on the summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred penalty units or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding three months or to both.” Public-holiday observance is therefore a serious matter – it has a ‘compulsory-by-force’ clause.
What do people do on public holidays? Idle about, mostly. Overindulge in activities including alcoholism, over-eating, belching, over-sleeping and resting. Incrementally, indulgence in over-holidaying impacts on our attitudes, behaviours and national psyche, possibly resulting in the adoption of a culture of resting and laziness.
The rationale behind public holidays is to mark and remember something. An entire country does not need to take a pause just so that people would remember the significance of the day. For some of our public holidays, a commemoration should be adequate to memorialize the day while the country works.
Commemoration is a symbolism. It could include flag-raising ceremonies, media discourse and events. We can celebrate days which have true significance without piling up days just for people to hang around to perpetuate a culture of loafing about and of non-working. The national culture of public holidays is akin to the frighteningly growing dysfunctional culture of funerals. One death, and people stop and freeze – in grief, for as long as they can carry on.
Some reduction is called for in the vast public holiday landscape. Four public holidays which are so superfluous and are crying to be cut out to make room for national development are: Easter Monday, Boxing, Republic and Africa Day. Ghana loses GH¢272 million (68 million multiplied by 4 days) for those unnecessary holidays. This amounts to approximately GH¢12 per person.
Let’s touch on each of our public holidays.
New Year’s Day: The first day of the year should be a good day for reflections and planning – for a long look backwards and a bold look forward. It is worth GH¢68 million.
Independence Day: Pushing the colonialist away deserves a national and individual celebration and a resolve: “Never again!” Freedom! But the freedom must be applied appropriately or else the GH¢68 million cannot be justified.
Good Friday: Jesus died. On the cross. Nailed. In a brutal manner. If he should return now, people like you and I will crucify him – again. He might bring the cane into the public sphere of Government offices of the Castle, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and especially all churches – and whip lots of people for various offences. With that, we would be so upset that at the least opportunity, we would crucify him – again!
But this is a predominantly Christian country so we should celebrate Good Friday even at the cost of GH¢68 million.
Easter Monday: That is the day after the Sunday when Jesus the Christ pulled a fast one on the women (led by Mary), by resurrecting and leaving the tomb empty – the quintessential “well-dodge event!”
So why is the Monday after Easter observed as a public holiday? Just so Ghanaians who can afford it would attend picnics. The celebration of Easter Monday results in two shortened weeks, back-to-back – four days for the previous week and four days for the following. And the cost to Ghana is GH¢68 million, a whopping total of GH¢136 million in two weeks.
Eid-al Adha Festival (Hajj) and Eid-al Fitr (Ramadan): For national cohesion, fairness and the tolerance of religious and cultural diversity, the two Muslim public holidays must be maintained at a total cost of GH¢136 million. But, won’t one Muslim holiday be adequate? Must it be two? OK, drop the Hajj holiday and save Ghana GH¢68 million!
Workers Day (1st May): Everyone works so a day of pausing to review the sinking stinky realities of workers is welcome and is worth GH¢68 million (sort of).
Africa Day (25th May): This holiday always catches me unawares because it has refused to register on my consciousness. This past one, I accidentally found out on the prior Thursday that Monday was a public holiday. So I asked two well-educated friends what the holiday was for. To my surprise, they didn’t know it was Africa Day. Africa is distant in the consciousness of many of us. ECOWAS is closer to us and touches our lives. Africa has little credibility, making the OAU and now the AU a gathering of leaders, some of whom are nothing but crack tyrants and glorified thieves.
Republic Day (1st July): I’ve asked a number of ‘all-knowing’ people this simple question: “What is a Republic? It’s not well known that it disconnected us from the mighty apron strings of the Queen of England’s monarchy. It sealed the kiss for Independence. So after 52 years, why do we continue to place the country on a GH¢68 million pause in memory of a kiss and the ugly gold-laced apron strings?
If we celebrate Independence Day, why must we take another day off to celebrate the Republic? Doesn’t Independence Day adequately represent what we are as a nation without having the entire country take another day off for the Republic?
Farmers Day (1st Friday in December): Farmers are workers too so why not consolidate their day with Workers Day? We import lots of food. Global trends suggest that as countries develop, the percentage of individuals in farming drop correspondingly. US figures are as low as 5%. So in future, we might be celebrating a day for a few people.
Christmas Day (25th December): OK, Christ was born! Let’s celebrate. But there should be two Christmas holidays instead of the current four. Christmas and Good Friday are enough.
Boxing Day (26th December): What box? Are we supposed to distribute Christmas gifts on this day? This day must be cancelled as a public holiday. Superfluous!
But that’s not all. A thirteenth public holiday, Founder’s Day, might soon be added, to celebrate ex-President Kwame Nkrumah, now of blessed memory – the same man we vilified for days, weeks, months and years after his violent overthrow in 1966. Every visible memory of his was destroyed through vandalism and hateful vengeance. Now he has been ‘resurrected’ and we’re looking for his vandalised head and arm to attach to his ill-reputed statue that was left in sorrowful abandonment at the Museum in Accra.
What irony! Another GH¢68 million will be flushed down the drains in Nkrumah’s memory and to further slow us down on the rocky path of development and economic independence! This public holiday should replace the Republic Day or just forget it.
dorisdartey@yahoo.com; dorisdartey.blogspot.com
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