President Nana Akufo-Addo says “Ghana needs all its trained manpower to be at work”, and, therefore, has assured unemployed nurses and midwives they will soon be employed by government.

He acknowledged that he was aware of the recent sit-ins at the Ministry of Health by a group of nurses and midwives who are yet to be placed, years after completing their training.

In his May Day speech Monday, the President indicated that “my government is your government and we are listening to your concerns. We are determined that, together, we will find sustainable solutions. Ghana needs all its trained manpower to be at work.”

He noted that in the run-up to the 2016 elections, “the subject of nurses and teachers featured a lot in the recent elections. There was the vexed question of their allowances. We promised to restore them and we have.”

Office of special prosecutor will be established

Touching on the issue of corruption, President Akufo-Addo reiterated his government’s commitment to using all available tools to fight the canker of corruption, “for we know how much it destroys our chances at progress and prosperity.”

To this end, he stressed, again, that “the Office of Special Prosecutor is going to be established so that the prosecution of corruption is taken out of political controversy, and thereby enhance the integrity of the rule of law.”

Ghana must turn over a new leaf

Under his tenure of office, President Akufo-Addo is urging Ghanaians to turn over a new leaf and a new page in the history of the nation.

“I want us to believe in our capacity to build a modern, developed, progressive nation, and free ourselves from the mindset of dependence, aid, charity and handouts.

We can, together, build a new Ghanaian civilization, where there is fair opportunity for all in education and health, where hard work, enterprise and creativity are rewarded, where there is an abundance of decent jobs with good pay, where there is a dignified retirement for the elderly, and where there is a social safety net for the vulnerable and disadvantaged,” he said.

The founders of Ghana, he noted, chose the Black Star as part of our national colours  because “they envisaged us as a shining example to the black peoples of the world of what a free, dedicated, enterprising Ghanaian people can do to build a society the equal of any, anywhere on the face of the planet. Let us be up and doing. Our destiny beckons.”