A statement issued by the KNUST Students’ Parliament House (KSPH) called for the cancellation of the GH¢40 upfront payment by National Service Personnel prior to registration. Below is the full statement issued by KSPH.
The KSPH supports fully the need for National Service in Ghana and understands that it is a constitutional mandate under the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.
We further appreciate the formation of the National Service Personnel’s Association (NASPA). We understand that without the NSS certificate, one cannot occupy any public office or engage in any job in the country. However we find it a little disturbing the recent development on the NSS scheme, the various media reportage sends shivers down our spines as students and potential service personnel’s.
Service persons all over the country are faced with the same challenges and it reoccurs year after year. Issues of accommodation, wrong postings, mismatch of program of study and jobs allocated to personnel’s, delay in payment of allowances amongst others.
These are issues we find quite disturbing and rather unfortunate that student would have to suffer and endure in order to serve their country. Our fervent conviction on the scheme is it being an avenue where the National Service Authority does not care about the various challenges that plight the service person.
Aside the above challenges, this new directive is harsh and very insensitive to students and Ghanaians at large, the course being that potential service persons are to pay an amount of GH¢40 before they can register and obtain a pin code to fulfill a constitutional mandate.
This upfront payment we consider as an indirect move of extortion and an avenue to further deepen the corruption associated with the NSS. This GH¢40 we are told GH¢10 is for an identity card, another GH¢10 is for NASPA dues and the GH¢20 is for Souvenirs. We ask therefore;
- What happens to those who cannot get the GH¢40 to register for their pin code to fulfill their constitutional mandate?
- Why should the service person pay for an Identity card to serve his own country, can’t this ID be provided by the government or the NSA?
- What is the essence of the souvenirs, if it is that necessary can’t they be provided to the service personnel but rather he would have to pay for them?
- What is NASPA doing about this development of upfront payment?
We would not want to believe NASPA is unaware of this development and the challenges service persons face, neither would we want to think they have a hand in this whole saga. They are supposed to represent service personnel’s as such; this upfront payment should and must not be entertained.
It would be very unfair that a graduate would be found guilty of not performing a constitutional mandate because he/she could not afford GH¢40 for registration. In as much as some might regard this GH¢40 as chicken feed, the reality is that this amount is huge sum money for some people in this country especially now in the face of the current economic condition.
We seriously cannot comprehend why services persons cannot be provided Identity cards for free just like any and most government workers but rather they would have to pay for that. More so, what is the use of the Identity card since it’s not used for any transaction during the service persons period of service to the nation?
We have no issues with the dues to run NASPA but should we pay for souvenirs as well. What souvenirs are we looking at – the shirts or what?
We are very much concerned about this whole payment issues because if care is not taken, a time would come when potential service persons would be requested to pay as much as GH¢200 before they can perform their constitutional mandate. In 2009 the cost was GH¢10 but today we are paying GH¢40, who knows tomorrow.
We request that potential service persons should not be made to pay this GH¢40 before registration as this move is tantamount to one paying before allowed to vote in any constitutionally mandated election rather this money can be deducted from the allowance which is paid service persons. Also instead of the souvenirs; the money can be used to facilitate communication to the Service person.
We call on NASPA, the National Service Secretariat, the Ministry of Education, and all related stakeholders including the media to come to the aid of potential and current service persons, the challenges faced by service persons are enormous and there seems to be no solution coming, the least we expected is this measure and we request that this move is reconsidered. We believe in the emancipation of students through dialogue and the philosophy of non-violence but if dialogue fails students cannot be blamed for our further actions.
Thank You.
