On behalf of the Minority and the good people of this country, I wish to extend our profound appreciation to the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) for allowing the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health the honour, as their representatives, to bargain for the suspension of the strike action pending the gesture of good faith from the government.
On this stand-off between GRNMA and the government, it was the thinking of the Minority not to take a partisan position until such a time that the rights of our hard-working nurses had been totally disregarded by the government.
In this instance, we decided to present an urgent statement on the floor, coming under Order 93(i).
This Order allows for all issues of urgent national importance to be admitted by the Speaker.
Nonetheless, and for fear of the unknown, our friends on the other side of the House thought we were going to stoke up the highly volatile situation by attacking the government and supporting the strike.
This was not our call. Indeed, the joint statement written by the Second Deputy Chief Whip, Jerry Ahmed, and me, as I read, was nothing more than asking the government to be sensitive to the rights of the GRNMA, while at the same time asking the GRNMA to be merciful to Ghanaians as they seek their rights.
Ultimately, the Minority’s posture — and for that matter, the NPP’s parliamentary party posturing — respectfully prevailed on the day the Health Committee met the stakeholders.
In attendance were the Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh and his team, Deputy Minister of Finance, Thomas Ampem Darko and his team, the Fair Wages Commission CEO, Dr. George Smith-Graham, representatives, and the powerful team of the GRNMA.
Thank God, the Minority’s position became the common position of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health.
To all those who thought we were going to be an insensitive Minority by playing politics at first hand with this very delicate situation — arguably, you have been disappointed!
The statement I read, which also became another issue for admission in the House on that fateful Wednesday, June 11, 2025, speaks for itself.
Be it as it may, the Minority at the Committee sitting made it clear that if, in two weeks — that is, the 26th June meeting — the government does not reciprocate the gesture of goodwill in line with the proposals the Committee put forward, then the caucus will have no choice but to go all out with the GRNMA until their concerns are fully addressed.
Folks, we couldn’t have started off by being very political on this sensitive issue. In 2020, when the GRNMA went on a two-week strike, the NDC took advantage of it. We did not.
Nevertheless, if we are prevailed upon to do so come the 26th of June meeting, we will live up to expectations. Blessings to you!